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Trump 28: He's a "stable genius" with a "big & powerful button"


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Yes, he is, bigly: "Trump is trying to Make America White Again"

Spoiler

President Trump’s immigration proposal reveals what he has been after all along: an end to family-based immigration and the “lottery visa,” which would mean fewer Latino, African and Muslim newcomers. And perhaps more Norwegians, if any want to come.

Yes, Trump is trying to Make America White Again. You’re probably not surprised.

The broad amnesty that the White House offers to 1.8 million undocumented people brought here when they were children is just a diversion. The $25 billion Trump wants for his “border wall system” — really more of an intermittent fence — is mostly a sop to his base. Much more important in the long run is the fundamental shift Trump wants to make in the nation’s system of legal immigration.

The administration seeks to drastically curtail the ability of immigrants to sponsor family members for entry into the country. This can only be seen as an attempt to halt the “browning” of America.

Under current law, U.S. citizens — including immigrants who are naturalized — can petition to obtain entry for their spouses, parents, siblings and sons and daughters of any age. Immigrants who are not citizens but hold green cards — meaning they are permanent residents — can sponsor spouses and minor or adult children for entry.

Trump proposes a sweeping change: Both citizens and green-card holders would be able to sponsor only spouses and minor children. As far as parents, siblings and adult children are concerned: Hasta la vista.

It is, of course, ironic that Republicans, who yammer so much about family values, would even entertain a proposal that is so deeply anti-family. But the party nominated and elected a thrice-married man who bragged about his habit of sexual harassment and allegedly paid hush money to a porn star for her silence about a tryst, so I guess that horse has long since left the barn.

The idea of limiting family-based sponsorship — championed by administration officials such as presidential adviser Stephen Miller and his former boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions — is broadly supported by GOP immigration hard-liners. Since it is difficult to argue against bringing close relatives together, proponents use the clinical-sounding term “chain migration,” as if we were talking about links of metal rather than flesh-and-blood human beings.

Trump also wants to eliminate the diversity visa program, which allocates 50,000 visas each year to countries that otherwise send few immigrants to the United States. Applicants are selected by lottery but then are carefully vetted. White House claims that individuals are admitted “at random” in a program “riddled with fraud and abuse” are lies.

What is true is that the diversity lottery has primarily benefited migrants from African nations, which Trump has called “shithole countries.”

The net result of Trump’s plan — the whole purpose, apparently — would be to welcome fewer people of color into the United States. In an Oval Office meeting, Trump reportedly demanded to know why there couldn’t be more immigrants from countries such as Norway. Surely it is not just a coincidence that Norway is one of the whitest countries in the world.

It should also be noted that while Trump’s proposal would provide a 10- to-12-year path to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who came into the country as children, it says nothing at all about the other 9 million or so here without documents. Presumably they would remain in the shadows.

There’s a simple question here: Do you believe in America or not?

Throughout its history, the country has accepted waves of mostly low-skilled immigrants — German, Irish, Italian, Eastern European, now Latino. There are highly skilled immigrants, too; African newcomers, for example, are better-educated than the U.S. population as a whole, and an estimated 63 percent of people holding “computer and mathematical” jobs in Silicon Valley are foreign-born. But most immigrants over the years have arrived bearing not much more than grit, ambition and a dream.

Does an influx of workers with entry-level skills tend to depress wages? That’s the wrong question. Instead, we should be asking why the federal minimum wage is so low as to be almost irrelevant.

And we should recognize that immigration gives the United States a tremendous competitive advantage. In other advanced countries, populations are aging rapidly. Immigration provides a steady stream of younger workers whose brain and brawn keep programs such as Medicare and Social Security viable.

The only coherent — if despicable — arguments for Trump’s plan are racial and cultural. The way they used to put it in the Jim Crow days was succinct: White is right.

I'm so sick of the thinly-veiled racism coming from the Repugs.

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1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

WTAF?

20180130_twit1.PNG

I just heard this on HLN. OMG. Do this fools not realize that he is a constant money-grubbing leech? He would sell his children if he thought he could get away with it.

Is this on a re-election website? What will these fools actually get? Your name rolls by for three seconds? You're desperately waiting to see your own name? Then there it is and what? You go to bed telling yourself that you gave this moron $35 and then your name flashed in front of people who don't know you? I wonder if they will figure out that they spent the evening waiting to see the public proof that they are idiots before they fall asleep.

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Wait -- Trump cheats at golf??

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/01/30/he-cheats-like-hell-lpga-pro-calls-out-trump-for-his-questionable-golf-game/23348013/

Quote

People have long been suspect of President Trump's self-proclaimed prowess on the golf course, and a recent interview with LPGA pro Suzann Pettersen added more fuel to those suspicions.

While speaking with the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, the 15-time LPGA Tour winner Pettersen went into detail of Trump's tendency to fudge the numbers on the golf course, as well as describing his errant drives and their curious habit of always ending up on the fairway.

"He cheats like hell," Pettersen said. "So I don't quite know how he is in business. They say that if you cheat at golf, you cheat at business. I'm pretty sure he pays his caddie well, since no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it's in the middle of the fairway when we get there."

Pettersen also mentioned Trump's reliance on "gimmes" in order to avoid missing a decisive putt.

"Yes, yes, that happens all the time. He always says he is the world's best putter. But in all the times I've played him, he's never come close to breaking 80," Pettersen said. "But what's strange is that every time I talk to him he says he just golfed a 69, or that he set a new course record or won a club championship some place."

Still, Pettersen has a fondness for Trump, with their relationship being developed on the golf course for many years before the reality show star made a run at the presidency.

"I've got to know Trump so well that I don't take everything he says literally. Yeah, you'll never meet another person who loves himself as much as he does, but I have also met him on another level altogether, before he was president. I know how much he cares."

 

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22 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Another Trump apologist. I just don't understand it. When are we going to meet this great guy that everyone who spends time with him says he is? Why do I feel like the thing that makes everyone think he's so great is $$$$$?

I mean, this woman actually says that he cheats so he can win but he's still a great guy. No, that's not what a great guy does.

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5 hours ago, JMarie said:

Why not?  Fucker cheats at everything else in his rather useless life.  Taxes, marriages, business deals, etc etc. 

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Whiny McWhinypants is whining about the media again: "Trump needles 'monster' Chuck Todd at off-the-record anchors' lunch"

Spoiler

Hours before his first formal State of the Union address, President Donald Trump gathered top news anchors at the White House and vented his spleen.

The president took a needling tone with Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” telling the group that Todd’s the nicest guy in the world until he gets on the show and then becomes “a monster.”

He had a more pointed exchange with NBC News anchor Lester Holt regarding a May 2017 interview in which the president said he considered the “Russia thing” when deciding to fire former FBI director James Comey. The president accused Holt of editing the interview to remove Trump comments the president claimed were almost “Shakespearean,” according to attendees. Holt responded that the entire interview ran online.

Trump, who starred in NBC’s “The Apprentice,” also commented during the lunch about how much money he made for the network and suggested the company’s brass, rather than the specific journalists, were to blame for coverage he doesn’t like.

The comments came at Tuesday’s traditional off-the-record lunch with top news anchors to preview the State of the Union address. While Trump spoke at length about issues like immigration, he also—as he often does—seemed to welcome the opportunity to express grievances.

The president’s gripes with NBC’s coverage come as the network is hosting Sunday’s Super Bowl. Trump has not committed to doing an interview with NBC, potentially breaking a recent tradition in which the president sits down with the host network prior to the game.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to comment. An NBC News spokesperson also declined to comment.

Trump didn’t scold the the anchors on Tuesday as he did in a Trump Tower meeting shortly after the 2016 election, according to attendees. The president was more blunt and boastful than angry in issuing other media critiques, such as claiming 95 percent of his coverage is bad and saying the networks have profited greatly because of his election. Trump was also said to be gracious with anchors during the hour-long lunch, like when he congratulated Jeff Glor on recently becoming anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”

During a private anchor lunch before last year’s speech to a joint session of Congress – an event that stands in for the State of the Union address in a president’s first year in office – Trump also expressed frustration with the news media. He told journalists at the time that he stopped watching some networks because they were treating him unfairly.

There were roughly two dozen people at this year’s lunch, including journalists George Stephanopoulos and David Muir (ABC News), Norah O’Donnell (CBS), Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum (Fox News), Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Roland Martin (TV One), José Díaz-Balart (Telemundo), Steve Scully (C-SPAN), Judy Woodruff and Yamiche Alcindor (PBS). Both Sanders and communications director Hope Hicks were among the administration attendees, with Vice President Mike Pence and chief of staff John Kelly stopping by.

Todd and Woodruff were said to be two of Trump’s most persistent questioners on Tuesday afternoon and the exchanges throughout were largely tied to issues likely to come up that night, such as DACA, the Obama-era program protecting some undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Some journalists veered into other topics, with Martin pressing Trump on housing segregation and voter suppression.

The back-and-forths throughout were off the record, but Trump did go on the record at times and the White House later released some remarks.

“I want to see our country united,” Trump said, adding that he wants “to bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness” stretching back through past administrations.

Trump also spoke about his experience in business and how it differs from being president, noting that “millions of people” are affected by immigration policy. “So having a business background and a successful business background is great,” he added, “but oftentimes you do things that you would never do in business because you have to also govern with heart.”

The TT described his comments as "Shakespearean" and that he governs "with heart"? I wonder what drugs he's taking to put himself into la-la-land.

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8 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

I just heard this on HLN. OMG. Do this fools not realize that he is a constant money-grubbing leech? He would sell his children if he thought he could get away with it.

Is this on a re-election website? What will these fools actually get? Your name rolls by for three seconds? You're desperately waiting to see your own name? Then there it is and what? You go to bed telling yourself that you gave this moron $35 and then your name flashed in front of people who don't know you? I wonder if they will figure out that they spent the evening waiting to see the public proof that they are idiots before they fall asleep.

Can I say my name is Miss Russian Collusion?  Or Pussy Grabber? Or Stormy Daniels? Or Hillary Best? 

Ura Liar?

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Yeah, this headline sums it up: "What to expect from Trump’s State of the Union: Hollow words from a morally bankrupt man"

Spoiler

Nope, I’m not going to play along. I’m not going to pretend that President Trump’s first State of the Union address on Tuesday is going to be some pivot point for his presidency and the nation. He is neither capable of nor interested in performing such magic. But that’s not stopping his administration from trying to convince us otherwise.

A senior administration official involved in crafting the annual rhetorical rite told The Post’s Karen Tumulty and Philip Rucker that it would be “a speech that resonates with our American values and unites us with patriotism.” Said with a straight face, no doubt. What my colleagues reported in the next paragraph renders Trump’s Tuesday task impossible.

With its bumper-sticker-ready theme of “building a safe, strong and proud America,” the address is expected to resemble the vision of a “renewal of the American spirit” that Trump offered in his well-received speech to a joint session of Congress last February. It also will come on the heels of the pragmatic, upbeat speech he delivered Friday to a skeptical audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Trump very well may read every well-crafted word that scrolls on the teleprompter like a novice ice skater clings to the rink’s wall. And he’ll expect us all to applaud if he doesn’t go splat on national television. But Trump will deserve none of the plaudits. The expected words of unity will ring as hollow as the morally bankrupt man uttering them. For the reprehensible things Trump has said between last February and last Friday will make a mockery of whatever he says on Tuesday.

This is the man who goes after African Americans with zeal. Last September, Trump was braying about the peaceful protest of Colin Kaepernick and other National Football League players who took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality. At a rally in Alabama on Sept. 22, Trump said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say,’Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

Last October, Trump (and his chief of staff) fought with Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) over her criticism of the president’s botched condolence call to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in action in Niger. Trump labeled her “wacky” after she went public. “The president enjoys picking fights with people of color. That is a fact, I mean he’s proven it,” she told me during an interview on my podcast “Cape Up” in December. “And fights about the least of things.”

Just Sunday, Trump went after Jay-Z because of critical comments the music mogul made about the president’s assertions about his role in low unemployment among African Americans. When asked by CNN’s Van Jones if Trump could “say terrible things but put money in our pockets,” Jay-Z replied, “It’s not about the money at the end of the day. Money doesn’t equate to happiness.” He added, “You treat people like human beings. That’s the main point.”

And let’s not forget the outright slurs. Last November, during a ceremony to honor World War II Navajo code talkers, not only did Trump invoke his pejorative put-down of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as “Pocahontas,” he did so under the gaze of President Andrew Jackson, the slave-owning seventh president of the United States whose Indian Removal Act led to the “trail of tears and death.” Last month, the New York Times reported that at a June meeting, Trump said people from Haiti “all have AIDS.” That was the same meeting Trump said immigrants from Nigeria would never “go back to their huts” after coming to this country. And none of us will ever forget the president of the United States reportedly asking earlier this month, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Each of these examples on its own is a stunning insult to who we are as Americans. But they pale in comparison to Trump’s reprehensible reaction to the white-supremacist hate unleashed on Charlottesville last August. “I think there’s blame on both sides,” Trump said, before he declared “you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

With every utterance during his petulant news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the Queens-born builder stripped the presidency of its moral authority. Of its power to unite the nation in a time of grief.

His troubling lack of empathy renders him constitutionally incapable of fulfilling the most humane requirements of his job. And everything Trump has done since Charlottesville has cemented my conviction that he is temperamentally unfit to be the leader of this still great nation.

Trump has overwhelmed our senses with a near-daily deluge of offense. His tweets and pronouncements have become a tornado of gnawing self-pity and hyper self-aggrandizement that roils racial tensions and pleases his base. As long as Trump continues to cater to that hard-core fraction of the American people, there is absolutely nothing he could say Tuesday night that would be believable or could erase the past.

 

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This is an interesting article: "How ‘chain migration’ brought us the Trump White House"

I can't quote because it's important to see the graphics, but the article discusses the immigrant ancestors of Dumpy, Pencey, Miller, and others. Basically, none of them would be here if this administration's push to end migration by siblings had been in place 100+ years ago.

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2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The TT described his comments as "Shakespearean" and that he governs "with heart"? I wonder what drugs he's taking to put himself into la-la-land.

Narcissism is a helluva drug.

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Should someone tell him that democracy was invented in the Roman Era?

Also, this speech is painful. Can we just line up and give him hand jobs instead?

Our god? WHOSE FUCKING GOD? There is no American god. That's the whole fucking point!

I need another glass of wine. 

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Yeah I did not watch that orange fuck bloviating away tonight.  I had school stuff to do this evening.  I suppose tomorrow the local newspaper where I live will be spouting off about how great and Presidential he was.  And they are going to get a nasty letter to the editor if they do. 

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I'm 11 minutes in (although I fast forwarded him applauding his own entrance), I might have to tap out already. 

He didn't create millions of jobs, btw. UGH. 

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I'm 11 minutes in (although I fast forwarded him applauding his own entrance), I might have to tap out already. 
He didn't create millions of jobs, btw. UGH. 


I wonder how many alcohol poisoning cases there were this evening from people playing drinking games based on the amount of bs the Orange Fornicate spewed?
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5 hours ago, Destiny said:

Our god? WHOSE FUCKING GOD? There is no American god.

Oh you know the American god, it's small, rectangular and green, decorated with dead presidents portraits. Pretty sure he and the GOP worship that one.

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Well, that was inevitable. He can't utter a single sentence without lying at least once.

Fact-checking site crashes during Trump State of the Union

Quote

PolitiFact’s website went down briefly during President Trump’s first State of the Union address.

The fact-checking website tweeted at 9:49 p.m., about halfway through Trump’s speech, that the website had crashed.

“Welp ... our website just crashed,” PolitiFact tweeted. “Thanks for reading ?!!? We'll keep things up here on Twitter while we see what happened.”

The crash lasted about five minutes, according to a second tweet from the website’s account.

PolitiFact fact-checked the president’s speech, writing that “several of his points were factually flawed.” They rated many of his claims about tax cuts as “mostly false” or “false.”

The organization had fact-checked nearly 500 of Trump’s statements before the State of the Union, rating 21 percent as “mostly false,” 33 percent as “false” and 15 percent as “pants on fire.”

And while we're on the subject, here's a link to PolitiFact's ongoing summary article.

Fact-checking Donald Trump's 2018 State of the Union speech

Quote

President Donald Trump offered a rosy assessment of American life in his first State of the Union address — but several of his points were factually flawed.

"This is our new American moment," Trump said. "There has never been a better time to start living the American Dream."

The economy took center stage in Trump’s speech, with mixed accuracy. Trump touted record lows for unemployment levels, middle class relief from the passage of a $1.5 trillion tax cut, and loyalty to his campaign promise to cut red tape. He also exaggerated victories on immigration and ISIS.

Trump’s statements cycled through every Truth-O-Meter rating, except for Pants on Fire. We tallied two False, three Mostly False, one Half True, three Mostly True, and one True statements.

Here’s our rundown of the president’s address, along with notes on his claims' overall accuracy and additional context. (This story will be updated as we do more fact-checking.)

"Just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history."

It is False that the tax-cut package passed in December is the largest cut ever, as Trump has repeatedly claimed.

In inflation-adjusted dollars, the recent tax bill is the fourth-largest since 1940. And as a percentage of GDP, it ranks seventh.

[picture]

"After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages."

We rated Trump’s claim Mostly False. By the most common measure, wages did go up for the first three quarters of Trump’s presidency, but they fell in the fourth, wiping out all the gains on his watch and then some.

His assertion also ignores that wages — by two different measurements — began their climb during the final years of Obama’s presidency.

[picture]

"Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses."

The tax bill does benefit Americans with modest incomes initially, but the wealthy take a disproportionate share.

Every income group will pay less in taxes in 2019. But the benefits of the tax bill would flow disproportionately to wealthier taxpayers.

As some tax breaks expire, lower- or middle-income taxpayers stand to see their gains from the bill evaporate. In all but the top income group, many more taxpayers will see a cut in 2018 than will see one in 2027.

"Since we passed tax cuts, over 3 million workers have gotten tax cut bonuses — many of them thousands and thousands of dollars."

We rated that claim Mostly True. Americans for Tax Reform, a group that supported the tax reform bill, found that at least 3 million Americans are receiving bonuses that the companies said were related to passage of the tax bill, based on company press releases and news reports.

However, bonuses are a short-term response to the tax bill, which is less important than potential long-term changes, such as whether corporations will build new factories or purchase more machinery.

Economists and labor experts say it will take years to fully assess the economic impact of the tax bill. In this tight labor market, it’s possible that some businesses were already planning to give out bonuses or other financial incentives to retain workers.

"We have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in the history of our country."

Trump has a point here, but it's not the whole story. Trump’s use of the Congressional Review Act to roll back regulations did set a record in his first year. Trump had signed 15 Congressional Review Act measures compared with one previously. But experts have told us that other presidents signed laws that cut more rules than Trump.

Examples include the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, and the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, as well as President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan’s deregulation of such previously heavily regulated industries as air travel, trucking, banking and telecommunications.

"We built the Empire State Building in just one year – isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?"

We rated Trump’s claim Half True. The Empire State Building was constructed in one year and 45 days, a little longer than Trump said. He's off base when he said that permitting takes 10 years. Recent government studies say the permit approval time ranges from 4.6 to 6.6 years. The only study we found that claims a 10-year approval is common comes from an anti-regulation group, which raises questions about its reliability.

"The third pillar ends the visa lottery — a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of American people."

We rated Trump’s claim False. While lottery applicants are randomly selected, they must meet education and work experience requirements. They must also be vetted by the United States government before being allowed to come to the United States.

[picture]

"African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history."

The black unemployment rate is indeed at record lows, and the Hispanic unemployment rate reached the lowest levels in history during Trump’s tenure.

That’s a continuation of an earlier trend. Under former President Barack Obama, the unemployment rate for both groups fell by more than half.

However, economists are skeptical about the ability of presidents to take either credit or blame for conditions on their watch, because many other factors play into economic results.

"In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield — including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi, who we captured, who we had, who we released."

We rated this statement Mostly False. Trump overstated the number of prisoners released from Guantanamo, who were confirmed to have re-engaged in some type of terrorist activity. That number is 122, not "hundreds and hundreds."

He is also not entirely right that al-Baghdadi was "released" by the United States. The ISIS leader was handed over to the Iraqis in 2004. The Iraqis released him some time later.

A legal contract between the United States and Iraq guaranteed that the United States would give up custody of virtually every detainee; it was signed during the Bush administration. It would have required an extraordinary effort to have held on to Baghdadi.

"One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated very close to 100 percent of the territory just recently held by these killers in Iraq and Syria."

We rated Trump’s claim Mostly True.

According to data from IHS Markit, a private defense and security research firm, the area controlled by the Islamic State shrunk by 93 percent since January 2015. That’s pretty close to 100 percent.

But Trump’s words link the most recent gains too closely to actions taken during his time in office. The area controlled by the Islamic State shrunk by 89 percent during his tenure. The success also built upon strategy and attacks launched under Obama.

"Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan."

Moving isn’t the right word here. We rated Trump’s earlier claim that "Chrysler is leaving Mexico and moving back to Michigan" Half True.

Chrysler does plan to spend $1 billion to shift production of Ram trucks from Saltillo, Mexico, to Warren, Mich. in 2020. But the Mexican plant will start making another kind of vehicle, and the company expects no change in the number of workers there.

"We have ended the war on American Energy and we have ended the war on beautiful clean coal. We are now, very proudly, an exporter of energy to the world."

We rated this claim Mostly False. The United States remains a net energy importer, a situation that’s not expected to change until midway through the next decade.

When it comes to individual energy sources, the U.S. status as a net exporter of coal and refined petroleum products predates Trump.

"Small business confidence is at an all-time high."

This is True. The National Federation of Independent Business’s small business optimism index for 2017 beat out the previous record, set in 2004.

"We slashed the business tax rate from 35 percent all the way down to 21 percent, so American companies can compete and win against anyone in the world. These changes alone are estimated to increase average family income by more than $4,000."

The $4,000 number requires a lot of explanation. As we’ve noted before, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers looked at other developed countries that have lowered their corporate tax rate. The council's paper concluded that average household income from wages would increase by between $4,000 and $9,000 as a result of a corporate tax cut, and by between $3,000 and $7,000 for the median household

We heard skepticism, however, from several economists whose work is cited in the council’s paper. For instance, Dhammika Dharmapala, a tax specialist at the University of Chicago Law School, told PolitiFact that the $4,000 figure "is well outside that suggested by the scholarly consensus."

Among the concerns cited were that companies may not leave as much of the benefits for their workers as the study assumes; that it would take years to harvest gains of that size; that its gains may flow disproportionately to richer Americans; and that the $4,000 figure doesn’t account for tax increases in the bill that could eat into that gain.

"Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the U.S. Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."

We rated a similar claim about the Senate's position on the embassy as Mostly True. The Senate reaffirmed the Jerusalem Embassy Act by a unanimous vote six months ago.

However, it’s worth noting that the 2017 Senate resolution also reaffirmed that "the permanent status of Jerusalem remains a matter to be decided between the parties through final status negotiations towards a two-state solution" -- a position that Trump rhetorically backed in his speech, but that some believe could be endangered by his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy.

 

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You guys, wow. Did anyone see Joe Kennedy's response to the SOTU? If you haven't, you really need to. I'm not an American, as most of you know, but it brought a tear to my eye when I saw it.

Here's a link to the Full Transcript and Video: Joe Kennedy Delivers Democratic Response to the State of the Union

Quote

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is a privilege to join you tonight.

We are here in Fall River, Massachusetts — a proud American city, built by immigrants.

From textiles to robots, this is a place that knows how to make great things.

The students with us this evening in the autoshop at Diman Regional Technical School carry on that rich legacy.

Like many American hometowns, Fall River has faced its share of storms. But people here are tough. They fight for each other. They pull for their city.

It is a fitting place to gather as our nation reflects on the state of our union.

This is a difficult task. Many have spent the past year anxious, angry, afraid. We all feel the fault lines of a fractured country. We hear the voices of Americans who feel forgotten and forsaken.

We see an economy that makes stocks soar, investor portfolios bulge and corporate profits climb but fails to give workers their fair share of the reward.

A government that struggles to keep itself open.

Russia knee-deep in our democracy.

An all-out war on environmental protection.

A Justice Department rolling back civil rights by the day.

Hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets.

Bullets tearing through our classrooms, concerts, and congregations. Targeting our safest, sacred places.

And that nagging, sinking feeling, no matter your political beliefs: this is not right. This is not who we are.

It would be easy to dismiss the past year as chaos. Partisanship. Politics.

But it’s far bigger than that. This administration isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us — they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection.

For them, dignity isn’t something you’re born with but something you measure.

By your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size.

Not to mention, the gender of your spouse. The country of your birth. The color of your skin. The God of your prayers.

Their record is a rebuke of our highest American ideal: the belief that we are all worthy, we are all equal and we all count. In the eyes of our law and our leaders, our God and our government.

That is the American promise.

But today that promise is being broken. By an administration that callously appraises our worthiness and decides who makes the cut and who can be bargained away.

They are turning American life into a zero-sum game.

Where, in order for one to win, another must lose.

Where we can guarantee America’s safety if we slash our safety net.

We can extend health care to Mississippi if we gut it in Massachusetts.

We can cut taxes for corporations today if we raise them for families tomorrow.

We can take care of sick kids if we sacrifice Dreamers.

We are bombarded with one false choice after another:

Coal miners or single moms. Rural communities or inner cities. The coast or the heartland.

As if the mechanic in Pittsburgh and the teacher in Tulsa and the day care worker in Birmingham are somehow bitter rivals, rather than mutual casualties of a system forcefully rigged for those at the top.

As if the parent who lies awake terrified that their transgender son will be beaten and bullied at school is any more or less legitimate than the parent whose heart is shattered by a daughter in the grips of opioid addiction.

So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: we choose both. We fight for both. Because the strongest, richest, greatest nation in the world shouldn’t leave any one behind.

We choose a better deal for all who call this country home.

We choose the living wage, paid leave and affordable child care your family needs to survive.

We choose pensions that are solvent, trade pacts that are fair, roads and bridges that won’t rust away, and good education you can afford.

We choose a health care system that offers mercy, whether you suffer from cancer or depression or addiction.

We choose an economy strong enough to boast record stock prices and brave enough to admit that top C.E.O.s making 300 times the average worker is not right.

We choose Fall River.

We choose the thousands of American communities whose roads aren’t paved with power or privilege, but with honest effort, good faith, and the resolve to build something better for their kids.

That is our story. It began the day our Founding Fathers and Mothers set sail for a New World, fleeing oppression and intolerance.

It continued with every word of our Independence — the audacity to declare that all men are created equal. An imperfect promise for a nation struggling to become a more perfect union.

It grew with every suffragette’s step, every Freedom Riders voice, every weary soul we welcomed to our shores.

And to all the “Dreamers” watching tonight, let me be clear: Ustedes son parte de nuestra historia. Vamos a luchar por ustedes y no nos vamos alejar.

You are a part of our story. We will fight for you. We will not walk away.

America, we carry that story on our shoulders.

You swarmed Washington last year to ensure no parent has to worry if they can afford to save their child’s life.

You proudly marched together last weekend — thousands deep — in the streets of Las Vegas and Philadelphia and Nashville.

You sat high atop your mom’s shoulders and held a sign that read: “Build a wall and my generation will tear it down.”

You bravely say, me too. You steadfastly say, black lives matter.

You wade through floodwaters, battle hurricanes, and brave wildfires and mudslides to save a stranger.

You fight your own, quiet battles every single day.

You drag your weary bodies to that extra shift so your families won’t feel the sting of scarcity.

You leave loved ones at home to defend our country overseas, or patrol our neighborhoods overnight.

You serve. You rescue. You help. You heal.

That — more than any law or leader, any debate or disagreement — that is what drives us toward progress.

Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.

Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep.

That is the measure of our character. That’s who we are.

Out of many. One.

Ladies and gentlemen, have faith: The state of our union is hopeful, resilient, enduring.

Thank you, God bless you and your families, and God bless the United States of America.

Please, make this man your president in 2020.

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Quote from the SOTU:

"Tonight I call upon Congress to produces a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs."

That's incredibly easy to do. Just repeal that tax-cut for the rich bill.

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I couldn't bear to watch Dumpy last night, but I did watch Joe Kennedy's rebuttal, which was wonderful. I hope he keeps moving up in the political arena.

Here's Dana Milbank's take on the SOTU: "A uniquely depressing State of the Union"

Quote

He couldn’t help himself.

The White House took pains to say President Trump’s State of the Union address would be “unifying” and contain a “bipartisan” tone. Excerpts released before the speech repeated the word “together” three times.

But Trump was still in the first minute of his speech — 72 words from the start — when he belted out his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Republicans roared. It was the first of several cultural wedges Trump would drive through the chamber over the next hour — pitting immigrants against “Americans,” trumpeting his support for the Second Amendment but no other, and reviving racially charged disputes he ignited over the past year.

It was a campaign event — literally. Presidents since George Washington have fulfilled the constitutional obligation to report to Congress on the state of the union, but Trump was the first to turn the State of the Union into a telethon. His campaign offered to display supporters’ names on the Official Donald J. Trump for President livestream of the address — if they contributed $35 or more.

To be sure, the speech was not the rarest of red meat Trump has served. He stuck to his script, which followed the usual conventions of celebrating heroes in the gallery and praising the military and veterans. He gave a touching tribute to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), wounded in the congressional baseball shooting, then pivoted to “call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve.” And he closed with a nod to Freedom standing tall over the Capitol. (Republicans reacted to this with a baritone chant of “USA! USA!”)

In between, though, Trump offered every manner of barb, in a performance that stirred the very enmity he professed a wish to overcome. “We repealed the core of the disastrous Obamacare,” he boasted, generating glares from Democrats but perhaps the biggest roar of the night on the GOP side.

When he said “we proudly stand for the national anthem” — a reference to black NFL players who have protested by taking a knee — there was a lusty roar from the GOP side and wan looks from Democrats. Trump applauded the cheering Republicans.

He provoked Democratic groans by announcing that he is naming judges who “interpret the Constitution as written,” ignited another provocation by saying he “ended the war on beautiful clean coal,” and produced loud protest from the opposition party when he said immigrants pouring through “open borders” have “caused the loss of many innocent lives.”

Trump, after passing a tax cut that skewed wealth more toward the rich, reclaimed his populist campaign themes, invoking “the people” half a dozen times — and positioning them against immigrants.

He drew Democrats’ heckling by alleging that “a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives.” Trump, in the context of immigrant violence, even tried to make off with the “dreamer” label applied to young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. He said his duty is to “defend Americans, to protect their safety. . . . Because Americans are dreamers too.” By implication: The “dreamers” are not American.

I’ve been in the House chamber for many such addresses over the past couple of decades. There were highs (President George W. Bush’s speeches after the 9/11 attacks) and lows (South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s “you lie!” moment). This was the most depressing, for it displayed a hopelessly divided government and people— and a president deepening the rift.

Trump’s motorcade from the White House passed protest signs proclaiming “Not My President” and “Liar.” Many Democrats boycotted the speech, and those who were in the hall were bedecked in various symbols of protest: black garb, African sashes, red pins, butterfly stickers, or purple ribbons. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) was so heavily festooned with protest paraphernalia that she looked like an Eagle Scout. Many Democrats remained seated when Trump entered the chamber, and one lawmaker on the center aisle — Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) — turned his back on the president.

More disturbing was the willingness of Republicans in the chamber to cheer for Trump even when he voiced ideas they opposed. When Trump proclaimed that “the era of economic surrender is totally over” and said he was scrapping “unfair trade deals,” the previously free-trading Republicans applauded.

They applauded, as well, when Trump did his usual inconsistencies and rearranging of facts. Trump proclaimed that “we are now an exporter of energy to the world” (we were an exporter for years and are still not a net exporter), that “unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low” (Trump, before taking office, had said the unemployment figures he now cites were phony), and that “the stock market has smashed one record after another” (he alleged before taking office that the record-setting market was a “bubble” and “artificial”).

Republican lawmakers, clearly, have bound themselves tightly to Trump — and Trump, just as clearly, has no wish to heal the wounds he has caused. He ended his address just as he began. In the final minute, 73 words from the end, the campaign theme returned: “It is the people,” he said, “who are Making America Great Again.”

 

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5 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

20180131_twit1.PNG

 Such a pity that this photoshopped version actually makes him look better than the real thing. But no matter, he's still a douche.

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