Bits Bucket for February 26, 2016
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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The beleaguered Central States Pension Fund has fired back against attacks on its painful rescue plan, saying there’s no time for a “do-over” if Washington rejects it.
Central States, under a controversial 2014 law, has proposed cutting thousands of retirees’ monthly pension checks because the fund is going broke. Many of the cuts would be by half or more, starting in July, and affect many pensioners in their 70s.
Trustees of the pension fund that covers mainly Teamsters union members and retirees said it needs $11 billion in new funding to make good on current and future benefits. Short of a bailout of that size from Congress, or going through with the proposed rescue plan, the fund will collapse, they said.
“If members of Congress are serious about helping Central States participants, then they must pass legislation that provides some or all of this funding,” said a letter from trustees Arthur H. Bunte Jr. and Charles A. Whobrey.
Their letter was dated Feb. 18 and was sent to U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow. The trustees sent an identical letter to U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell and John Conyers.
The trustees aimed the letters at them for opposing the rescue plan without offering another solution. Moreover, “there is no time for a ‘do-over’ if the rescue plan is rejected,” the letters said.
“This is because each month the plan is delayed will result in larger benefit reductions until the point is reached where the fund can no longer be salvaged,” they wrote.
Thomas Nyhan, executive director of the pension fund, provided the letters and an emailed statement. His statement said Congress needs to support the rescue plan or pass legislation to provide the additional funding the pension plan needs.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article62243962.html#storylink=cpy
like Ive been saying they have severely underestimated the number of people who quit smoking and are living far longer than the actuaries planned, coupled with never changing the age of early retirement with full pay.
Wiki up Allen Dorfman and you will learn that …
“Allen Dorfman (January 6, 1923, Detroit, Michigan – January 20, 1983 Lincolnwood, Illinois) was an insurance agency owner, and a consultant to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Central States Pension Fund. He was a close associate of longtime IBT President Jimmy Hoffa and associated with the Chicago Outfit. Dorfman was convicted on several felony counts, and was murdered in 1983.”
More …
“Dorfman and Hoffa ran for several years a large-scale program of unsecured loans from Teamsters’ pension funds to major figures in organized crime. This prosecution resulted in his conviction, and Allen Dorfman was sentenced to one year in federal prison. He was again investigated in 1973 on similar charges, related to payoffs given to have the Teamsters represent agricultural workers in California, in place of the United Farm Workers Union.
“In February 1974, Dorfman was indicted for fraud involving $1.4 million in loans made by the Teamster’s pension fund to Gaylur Products/American Pail Company, a plastics manufacturing company in Deming, New Mexico. Indicted along with Dorfman were Joseph Lombardo (aka “Joey the Clown”), Anthony Spilotro (aka “The Ant”), Irwin Weiner, and several others. Between 1959 and 1969 the Central States Pension Fund Plan the loans had gone unpaid. But in 1971, Irwin Weiner a prominent bailbondsman, organized crime associate and friend of Jack Ruby had purchased stock in the company and received another $1.4 million loan from the fund with a mere $7,000 deposit. The government’s case collapsed after their main witness, Daniel Seifert, was murdered in September 1974 and the defendants were either acquitted or dropped from the indictment. (Lombardo was convicted of Seifert’s murder in 2007 as a result of Operation Family Secrets.)”
Union members voted straight D on the orders of their crooked union bosses, and now they’re reaping what they sowed when they voted for corrupt governance and crony capitalism.
Union members voted straight D
On the contrary, they were the quintessential Reagan Democrats. That’s part of the reason American liberals were so uninterested in protecting the working class from international and immigrant competition. They felt like the Reagan Democrat working class had made their bed, now they have to lie in it.
IIRC, the Teamsters endorsed Reagan
Apparently to get back at Carter for deregulating trucking and ending their monopoly profits in many areas.
“Many of the cuts would be by half or more…”
Cathy Lee couldn’t “get by” on this chit.
“If members of Congress are serious about helping Central States participants, then they must pass legislation that provides some or all of this funding,” said a letter from trustees Arthur H. Bunte Jr. and Charles A. Whobrey.
Good luck with that.
His statement said Congress needs to support the rescue plan or pass legislation to provide the additional funding the pension plan needs.
Isn’t there already a federal agency for dealing with failed pensions? The PBGC, right? There’s no reason to provide either a “rescue” or direct funding, given that we have a long-standing solution already in place.
The story linked above goes on to say that the PBGC has its own financial problems and could not take this on, and that even if it did the retirees would still see big benefit cuts.
FWIW I retired myself 3 years ago and opted to cash out my pension partly because I feared something like this happening to my own pension fund AND thanks to the lunacy of quantitative easing the cashout figure was waaay higher than it would have been had interest rates been normal…no regrets on that decision (yet
A widow testified she has lost her husband and now stands to lose $4,000/MONTH!!
Two states, Illinois and South Carolina, passed laws last year mandating state divestment from companies that boycott Israel, according to a list maintained by Americans for Peace Now. Another 11 states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia — are considering similar laws. Kansas and Pennsylvania are debating legislation that would defund universities that participate in an Israel boycott. And another six states are considering or have adopted nonbinding resolutions condemning Israel boycotts.
Read more: Anti-BDS laws gain momentum across U.S. but critics claim that some go too far | The Jewish Standard http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/anti-bds-laws-gain-momentum-across-u-s-but-critics-claim-that-some-go-too-far/#ixzz41H2Eowwb
What specifically does Israel have that benefits American taxpayers?
Why target Israel? What does any recipient of US foreign aid have that benefits American taxpayers?
Humanitarian/Development Aid VS Military Aid
Asda has staged a U-turn on its controversial decision to remove donation points for food banks and other charities from all of its UK stores.
On 17 February, the supermarket giant said that the donation points were to be removed immediately without any explanation.
The decision was widely criticised with The Trussell Trust, which co-ordinates Britain’s national network of food banks, claiming food banks would face donation cuts of up to a third.
Food collection points disappeared in Hampshire, Lancashire, Norwich and Newcastle.
A number of MPs voiced concern about the policy change and 88,000 people signed a petition backed by 38 degrees.
Backtracking after public criticism, Asda, which is owned by US giant Walmart, has now confirmed that unmanned collection points will be reinstated to supermarkets.
A spokesperson from Asda told The Independent the initial decision to remove unmanned food banks and have in-store community reps allowed the firm to invest an extra £2 million in good causes.
The spokesperson added: “As a retailer who is committed to supporting our local communities we never intended to stop food banks or similar local charities collecting in our stores.
“We made some changes to our community programme around unmanned collections in the belief that this would benefit the many local good causes who collect in our stores.
“On this occasion our customers and colleagues have told us they understand our intentions, but prefer us to continue to give charities more options to maximise donations. We are therefore reinstating unmanned collection points.
“Asda plays an important role in the communities we serve and we look forward to continuing to support many more local charities and good causes.”
In the immediate aftermath of the initial annoucement, Tesco announced it would be setting up 100 new collection points in its stores.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asda-does-u-turn-over-controversial-ban-of-permanent-food-bank-collection-points-a6897001.html
Note Asda are Walmasrts UK arm.
Asda has more than 525 UK stores and is owned by the US retailer Walmart. In response to its initial policy change, 88,000 people signed a petition hosted by the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees and a number of MPs raised concerns. While this ad hoc campaign took shape, Asda’s rival Tesco announced it was installing 100 new collection points in its stores…………………………
Asda, which recently announced its worst quarterly sales figures to date, denied that the change had anything to do with an ongoing programme of cost-cutting and said it was channelling an additional £2m in charitable funding through the national Asda Foundation.
The stories you need to read, in one handy email
Read more
Its initial statements about the policy change said the chain was as open as ever to charitable collections, but it thought it was essential that “volunteers are on hand to talk to customers and explain where their donations are going”. Food banks said they would have serious difficulties finding volunteers to spare.
The briefing confirmed another U-turn: the retention of Asda’s Chosen by You scheme, whereby customers use green tokens to choose local charities to benefit from the supermarket’s donations. It had been scheduled to end on 1 March.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/26/asda-backs-down-over-food-bank-ban
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Because it’s so much easier for WalMart to take a charity tax write-off (do they have that in the UK?) than it is to handle actual STUFF. And WalMart gets to pick the charity. How convenient.
At the same time, the public is more likely to donate STUFF, because they know that the STUFF is not going to go directly into someone’s corrupt pocket.
Your limited company pays less Corporation Tax when it gives the following to charity:
money
equipment or trading stock (items it makes or sells)
land, property or shares in another company (shares in your own company don’t qualify)
employees (on secondment)
sponsorship payments
You can claim tax relief by deducting the value of your donations from your total business profits before you pay tax.
From the Inland Revenue website
Region VIII
People with mortgages do not get to ski here:
http://imgur.com/t2ln5NJ
Or drink a bloody mary for lunch on a Friday, for that matter.
Actually, I bet the majority of the guest there own homes and have mortgages …..
If you have a mortgage, you don’t “own” anything. Anyone with a mortgage is borrowing just to eat.
if a bear screamed in the forest, would anyone hear it?
Listen to your betters.
Lessers should be seen and not heard.
Better, I went to Huffington Post seeking a SJW narrative and surprisingly found an article on housing:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-coates/americas-on-going-housing_b_9325654.html
In which the narrator advocates more free sh*t for the free sh*t army.
Debt donkeys gonna donk.
“betters”
Like the Trumplings who show up here daily to abuse and ridicule anyone who dares to criticize their Dear Leader?
Betters = the SJW set who promote every aspect of diversity except diversity of thought.
By contrast, Trumplings are big advocates of open dialogue to entertain a diversity of views.
“Betters = the SJW set who promote every aspect of diversity except diversity of thought.”
Exactly right.
So the SJWs who promote diversity of thought and the non-better SJWs.
So what is an SJW, anyway? You guys practically chant it.
So what is an SJW, anyway? You guys practically chant it.
Social Justice Warrior
Here I have been assuming a bunch of anti-Semitic mysogenistic posters were ranting on Single Jewish Women…
“So what is an SJW, anyway?” = massively out of touch. Turn on the internet grandmaw.
“Social Justice Warrior”
I’m kind of speechless… can’t think of many things dumber to get your undies in a bunch over.
“…can’t think of many things dumber to get your undies in a bunch over.”
Trumplings are expert at thinking up dumb things to get your undies in a bunch over.
Bears don’t scream. We occasionally growl, and our pearls of wisdom are often ignored to the detriment of the ignorant.
Everyone who disagrees with a leftist, Obama voting, SoCal University academic, public pension receiving SJW is a stupid ignorant racist bastard.
He’s so smart.
Everyone who disagrees with a fascist gets put into some kind of strawman political box and ridiculed.
put into some kind of strawman political box and ridiculed.
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.”
Ironically, it’s the people who rant the most about Hillary being buds with Alinsky who are following his strategy to a T.
They don’t have a strategy. These are just the natural reactions of the Obese Ragemonkey.
What happened to all of your imaginary friends?
Canklepants
Anklepants
CawCawCaw
Donald Trump
Etc.
You know, I thought thing were uncharacteristically civil around here yesterday. Maybe he finally stroked out.
You rang?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_(gay_culture)
I’m not that kind of bear. LOL
I know you aren’t, it’s a joke. When I was in Palm Springs a few weeks ago that place was overrun with bears.
Linky no worky. Try this one instead:
http://www.clawinfo.org/
Oh boy… fearing my sidebar advertising for the next few days.
When I was in graduate school my gay landlord invited me to CLAW.
I could tell you a few more things about that but Ben Jones might not like that. There are children reading this blog…
Whut whut, the do, who’s who in the zoo.
Has living in a progressive city will made you knowledgeable about gay culture, goon?
Better, script whatever narrative you need. I’ve known the difference between a drag queen and a scag queen since I was 14.
The smartest gay men I know are all libertarian, they have no use for the SJW victim identity politics narrative.
The smartest gay men I know are all libertarian
So you know many gay men, and the smarter ones are libertarian. But you don’t live in no stinking progressive city!
Just an old West cowboy town, full of open gays. Yup.
Better, your desperate need to script a narrative is making you deranged. You claim Denver is progressive and sprawly like Atlanta, in the same thread yesterday. What kind of narrative is that?
I’ve noted your attempts at gay shaming here too. That’s not very “progressive” of you now, better?
your attempts at gay shaming
Pointing out that gay-baiters are quite often closet cases isn’t gay shaming.
Better, I find the attention flattering, because it means I exercise and eat well (posting from the treadmill as I type). So shame away if it scripts your narrative.
You need to get rid of that dadbod, put down the fork and get some exercise. You’ll look better and feel better, better.
(posting from the treadmill as I type)
You are such a progressive. And dadbods are in.
Dadbods are a disgrace. So are swimsuit models with waists larger than 35 inches.
Probably as it’s nailed on someone would be filming it.
The consumer is strong! There is no recession. BUY stocks and homes!
Tell your friends!
Do you personally know anyone whose first choice is Sanders but second choice is Trump? I do. Hillary is unelectable.
“One thing Clinton supporters remain in complete denial about (other than the fact most Americans who don’t identify as Democrats find her to be somewhere in between untrustworthy and criminal), is that a significant number of Sanders supporters will never vote for Hillary. Forget the fact that I know a few personally, I’ve noticed several interviews with voters who proclaim Sanders to be their first choice but Trump their second. Are they just saying this or do they mean it? I think a lot them mean it.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-25/why-hillary-clinton-cannot-beat-donald-trump
Never underestimate how stupid and amoral the electorate has become. Hilary voters are as vile as the candidate herself, with endless ways to rationalize their vote for evil, duplicity, and corruption.
Never underestimate how stupid and amoral the electorate has become.
Stop attacking Trump!
I know of people who don’t know if they will vote for Sanders or Trump, but know they will vote for one of them, as their main goal is to blow up the established political order.
Do you personally know a single one ?
No. Everyone I know seems to think Trump voters are loopy.
I asked a Filipino cleaning crew member at work what he thinks of Trump. He said you wouldn’t want to have a hot-headed, loud mouthed guy like that “near The Button.”
I lmfao!
“No. Everyone I know seems to think Trump voters are loopy.”
You live in the San Diego metro and EVERYONE you know thinks that Trump voters are loopy??
In a metro area of 2+ million you know of not a single person?
Yet you call yourself impartial.
Do you have any idea how you come across to anyone here who spends any time thinking?
Do you have any idea how you come across to anyone here who spends any time thinking?
The way that he comes across to you probably doesn’t accurately reflect who he is.
I take it back. I do have one pro-Trump associate at work who definitely IS loopy.
I get the same impression from the news sites. Bernie voters hate Hillary. I think they know that Bernie Even worse, they find Trump palatable enough that they won’t hold their noses for Hillary.
Anything truly racist/godwin will be stopped by Congress and the courts anyway. And as I said, Trump is just a realtor, not a bloodthirsty rapturite trying with grand delusions of securing the realm. Can you visualize him lacing green tea with polonium. I can’t.
IMO it comes down to what we were arguing about last week. The smart centrists don’t believe The Donald’s racist/godwin talk — they just chalk it up to his carnival barker persona.
Trump could very well garner the support of the racists who are stupid enough to believe the racist talk, and independents who are smart enough to not believe the racist talk.
could very well garner the support of the racists who are stupid enough to believe the racist talk, and independents who are smart enough to not believe the racist talk.
How do we know he’s not faking it with everything else he says? Like tariffs and walls? How do we determine what he will or will not do?
We have to vote him in to find out?
How do we know he’s not faking it with everything else he says?
How is this different from any other politician?
Most other politicians at his level don’t make such extreme statements.
It’s no different. What’s different is that the man was a national embarrassment before he decided to run for president, and if he gets elected he will be an international embarrasment.
I take t
I take the extreme statements and mindlessly simplistic policy proposals as bad signals of how Trump might serve in office.
You don’t care to know anything about his policy positions. Just revel in your ignorance. Can you name the two judges whose names he floated as possible Supreme Court picks? No.
He’s got lots of specifics out there for anyone who cares to not remain ignorant.
But you just want to call everyone a stupid ignorant racist bastard and pretend to be a “professor.”
If you think Trump’s SCOTUS choices are good ones, why not post them? It would be a breath of fresh air for you to post some factual information for once instead of throwing poop like a chimpanzee at the zoo.
Okay, William Pryor and Diane Sykes.
Ditto.
Our household is split, my wife is voting for sanders come Tuesday and I am voting for Trump. I don’t know how she’ll vote if HRC is the nominee. I checked early voting and today is the last day. You’d think they’d have it through at least saturday.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A-hed
Till Death—or Donald—Do Us Part: Couples Spar Over Trump
Discord over GOP front-runner is making some marriages rocky
Donald Trump has generated conflict in the 34-year-marriage of Jon Hinman, who likes the candidate, and Jeannine Hinman, who doesn’t.
Photo: Michael M. Phillips
By Michael M. Phillips
Updated Feb. 25, 2016 5:11 p.m. ET
CLOVIS, Calif.—If the Hinman marriage is to survive the 2016 presidential election unscathed, certain rules must be observed.
When Donald Trump appears on the evening news, either Jeannine or Jon Hinman must leave the room, or they can flip to the National Geographic channel. If Mr. Trump comes up at a party, the Hinmans migrate to different conversational groups, his pro and hers anti.
Above all, there shall be no Trump in the bedroom. “From bedtime on, we don’t talk politics,” says Ms. Hinman.
…
Most of my Facebook friends, and that number is over 70, say NOTA is their first choice. As do I.
Wow! That will really slow the boat down!
Selection bias. If someone is not NOTA, then likely they would never have friended you in the first place.
I will be happy to friend you. Please approve my friend request.
re: Hillary is unelectable
Does anyone remember in 2007 when everyone said that Obama was finished and could never win a second term?
Check your calendar, Bush was still president in 2007…
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
Will subprime auto loans require a taxpayer bailout?
http://www.shtfplan.com/commodities/subprime-auto-loans-triggering-crash-borrowers-are-upside-down-in-their-vehicle_02252016
I’m selling my car to the federal reserve for more than I paid for it.
Unbelievable. The guy could just stand on a stage and break wind for two hours and he’d still win in the polls by landslide numbers. Which shows how irrelevant the “debates” are. Parker Lewis can’t lose.
How is little boy blue going to debate his way out of being part of the sham espy supporting gang of 8. Or Mr. Goldman Sachs gonna debate his way out of his wife’s job?
It’s a populist election. That’s where all the sentiment and intensity is.
“Little Boy”
That’s a great new nickname for The Donald. Good thinking…
Little Boy
Beware the Ides of March.
Japanese Americans likely disagree.
I had to shut the dang thing off, weirdest “debate” yet. The optics were so strange. It was like American Idol meets Tales from the Crypt. The venue looked like some sort of cavernous mausoleum, Woof Blitzer reminded me of a mortician and that one guy with the glasses at the judges’ table was doing a pretty good imitation of the Mummy. And there was Charro re-animated and the lady sporting Jennifer Anniston’s old hairdo.
And all bunched up in a corner was the Bush clan, looking like one of those Roman families captured in lava after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Creepy.
Depending on your point of view, Trump looked like a bored golden labrador retriever flanked by two chihuahuas, or Ferris Bueller with Beavis on one side and Butthead on the other.
Man that was some awesome imagery.
Thank you. What has been seen, can’t be unseen.
Lol, someone forgot to tell Kasich it wasn’t a real debate.
American Idol meets Tales from the Crypt
+100!!
Beware the ides of March.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-tom-demark-is-predicting-an-ugly-fall-for-the-sp-500-in-march-2016-02-25?dist=beforebell
Nothing a little printing press money and stealth interventions can’t fix…
I’m thinking March 13/14 is where things really start to get Barnum & Bailey.
Hmmm… so I’ll put my annual Roth IRA money initially into cash and then move it to stock after the crash? Sounds like a plan.
I just did the same, $6500 into it, waiting for bargains.
The oligarchy’s media flagship, the NYT, is naturally touting Marco Rubio’s prospects now that he has taken on Jeb’s mantle of Establishment Annointed Puppet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/27/upshot/how-marco-rubio-could-lose-every-state-on-super-tuesday-and-still-win.html?_r=1
A Sheldon Adelson sponsored production.
Goyim, remember my goyim, that all you are, and all you’ll ever be, are cannon fodder to secure the realm.
Who’s Sweating Now? Not Marco Rubio
By Margaret Carlson
For the first time in 10 Republican debates, Senator Marco Rubio owned the night.
With his back against the wall, yet to win a nominating contest, Rubio didn’t prove he would be a better president, but by going toe-to-toe with Donald Trump showed he had improved as a debater. What a big mistake it was to lay off Trump for months, afraid of blow back. With nothing left to lose, Rubio stopped playing nice. It might be in time.
Rubio got his first digs in on immigration, attacking Trump’s hiring of foreign workers instead of locals who wanted jobs at his hotels. The business tycoon paid a huge settlement for doing so. Rubio got even more personal on immigrant labor saying that if Trump were to build his wall along the Mexico border “the way he built Trump Tower, he’ll be using illegal immigrants to do it.”
Trump even took a hit on what he holds up as his greatest credential, his business acumen. After he referred to himself as the only person on stage who had ever hired anyone, Rubio made a crack about Trump’s easy path to success. If his father hadn’t left him “$200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be right now?” Rubio asked. “Selling watches in Manhattan.”
Rubio made Trump look like a huckster who fleeces the little guy to make a buck. This line of attack had been underplayed in the campaign, despite sporadic articles tearing the bark off Trump’s claim to being the world’s best businessman creating millions of jobs. Rubio came at him about the defunct Trump University, which is now subject to several lawsuits, including a class-action by former students.
“There are people that borrow $36,000 to go to Trump University, and they’re suing him now,” Mr. Rubio said with delight. “And you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump.”
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-26/trump-not-rubio-breaks-a-sweat-in-republican-debate
By Margaret Carlson
Ahhahahahahahhahahahaahha
DumidoFanger
Canklepants
Anklepants
CawCawCaw
Donald Trump
BwahahahHahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is the GOP’s last chance to dump Trump at hand?
Get used to President Donald Trump. The Christie endorsement adds legitimacy and ONCE AGAIN sucks all the air out of the room. It’s over in less than 2 weeks.
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney – Verified account @MittRomney
No legit reason @realDonaldTrump can’t release returns while being audited, but if scared, release earlier returns no longer under audit.
7:15 PM - 25 Feb
“Rubio made Trump look like a huckster who fleeces the little guy to make a buck.”
That must have been difficult…
“Selling watches in Manhattan.”
That’s a pretty good line, really. Because you can kind of picture it.
Better, you’ve never been to Manhattan.
Are you a regular there? I hear it’s quite…progressive.
“Because you can kind of picture it.”
Yes, I can totally picture it, but more like the Vince Vaughan watch salesman in The Internship.
Trump is one of those guys who would have made it with or without family money.
Trump is one of those guys who would have made it with or without family money.
He’d be the local car dealer with the crazy ads.
“No job, no problem! Everyone drives at Trump Autos!”
“He’d be the local car dealer with the crazy ads.”
Actually, that’s what Norman Braman, Rubio’s long time patron is. NTTAWWT.
http://www.bramanmotorcars.com/dealership/normanbraman.htm
I remember the car ads well from my time in South Florida. Braman Honda, I think he even had a Chevy dealership.
Trump is one of those guys who would have made it with or without family money.
You really think so?
I very high percentage of his wealth could have been obtained simply by putting his inheritance into an S&P 500 Index fund.
The Koch Brothers on the other hand, turned a $20MM enterprise into a $100B enterprise.
I believe the correct statement is that Trump could have done better by parking his initial wealth into a well-diversified portfolio and leaving it there, rather than building his gambling and real estate investment empire. And there would have been no need to stiff his creditors in that case.
I’ll look into this further and report back to y’all on it.
“I’ll look into this further and report back to y’all on it.”
Thanks, but we’re good here.
I think he got a million dollar loan from his dad in the late 70s or early 80s when he was starting out in the big commercial real estate/hotel project biz. At some point in the very late 90s I think he inherited 20-40 million from his dad. By then he was worth much more 200 million or more.
Prepare for some disingenuous shill piece saying if Trump invested his inheritance in 1974 he’d have almost the same 10 billion, but not mentioning Fred Trump died in 1999, 25 years later.
Do you have any factual information on how large Trump’s net worth would be if he hadn’t stiffed creditors?
I guess he didn’t have Obama to bail him out like the auto industry?
Electric Cars Will Cause the Next Oil Crisis
A shift is under way that will lead to widespread adoption of EVs in the next decade.
By Tom Randall | Feb. 25, 2016
With all good technologies, there comes a time when buying the alternative no longer makes sense. Think smartphones in the past decade, color TVs in the 1970s, or even gasoline cars in the early 20th century. Predicting the timing of these shifts is difficult, but when it happens, the whole world changes.
It’s looking like the 2020s will be the decade of the electric car.
Battery prices fell 35 percent last year and are on a trajectory to make unsubsidized electric vehicles as affordable as their gasoline counterparts in the next six years, according to a new analysis of the electric-vehicle market by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). That will be the start of a real mass-market liftoff for electric cars.
By 2040, long-range electric cars will cost less than $22,000 (in today’s dollars), according to the projections. Thirty-five percent of new cars worldwide will have a plug.
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-ev-oil-crisis/
And they’ll be robotic, so you won’t need one sitting in your garage or parking space 90% of the time, depreciating, as most cars do now. You’ll just call one as needed. Or have a standing appointment.
Da Boyz don’t want you to exit the pump & dump before they do.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-its-too-late-too-foolhardy-to-ditch-stocks-now-2016-02-26
Happy Friday!
Keeeeeeeeeeeerank it up to 11, sit back and count your pile o’ cash.
https://youtu.be/tpzuhVRU3HI
And here’s your favorite Lola.
https://youtu.be/pIgZ7gMze7A
Will inflation manifesting (despite a deflationary environment) curb Yellen the Felon’s plans for moar QE?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-inflation-rate-in-past-12-months-doubles-to-13-in-january-2016-02-26
http://www.capoliticalreview.com/top-stories/middle-class-fleeing-ca-at-record-rates/Middle Class Fleeing CA at Record Rates
February 25, 2016 By James Poulos 19 Comments
http://www.dreamstime.com/-image14115451New data has brought a new urgency to the souring fortunes of California’s middle class.
“Not only are Californians leaving the state in large numbers, but the people heading for the exits are disproportionately middle class working families — the demographic backbone of American society,” the American Interest recently noted.
Looking at labor force categories provides more evidence that California is losing working young professional families,” argued Hoover Institution research fellow Carson Bruno; “while there is a narrative that the rich are fleeing California, the real flight is among the middle-class.”
“Knowing that net out-migrants are more likely to be middle-class working young professional families provides some hints as to why people are leaving California for greener pastures. For one, California is an extraordinarily high cost-of-living state. Whether it is the state’s housing affordability crisis — California’s median home value per square foot is, on average, 2.1 times higher than Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Oregon and Washington’s — California’s very expensive energy costs — the state’s residential electric price is about 1.5 times higher than the competing states — or the Golden State’s oppressive tax burden — California ranks 6th, nationally, in state-local tax burdens — those living in California are hit with a variety of higher bills, which cuts into their bottom line.”
Real estate indicators
“In 2006, 38 percent of middle-class households in California used more than 30 percent of their income to cover rent. Today, that figure is over 53 percent,” according to Christopher Thornberg, director of the UC Riverside School of Business Administration Center for Economics Forecasting and Development. “The national figure, as a point of comparison, is 31 percent. It is even worse for those who have borrowed to buy a home — over two-thirds of middle-class households with a mortgage are cost-burdened in California — compared to 40 percent in the nation overall.”
Recent studies illustrated a continuing plunge in homeowning among traditional buyers in-state. “California’s middle class is being hammered,” wrote Joel Kotkin at the Orange County Register. “The state now ranks third from the bottom, ahead of only New York and the District of Columbia, for the lowest homeownership rate, some 54 percent, a number that since 2009 has declined 5 percent more than the national average.”
Low on houses
Some analysts looking to explain the trend have pointed to a so-called housing shortage statewide. “With supply falling far below demand, California needs to build at least 1 million more homes for low- and middle-income Californians in the next 10 years,” CAFWD suggested, adding that, although Gov. Jerry Brown “did not mention housing in the State of the State address,” he has “not explicitly ruled out addressing the issue in the next three years.”
Giving ammunition to the housing shortage thesis, meanwhile, was “a new report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office that found that poorer neighborhoods that have added more market-rate housing in the Bay Area since 2000 have been less likely to experience displacement,” the Washington Post noted. But experts have differed significantly on how to read the tea leaves of the data, and analysts disagree on whether increasing density — or what kind of density — is the right answer.
A cloudy picture
The Golden State has been haunted in recent times by sharply mixed economic indicators. “While California has added 2.1 million jobs since 2010, employment in six industries is still below 2007 levels, before the Great Recession, according to the center’s analysis. Those sectors — including construction, finance and manufacturing — generally pay more than the service-type jobs that we’re adding in droves,” the Sacramento Bee noted late last year.
Economic growth concentrated in Silicon Valley has also not done much to relieve the income or jobs picture for middle-classers. “In a recent survey of states where ‘the middle class is dying,’ based on earning trajectories for middle-income cohorts, Business Insider ranked California first, with shrinking middle-class earnings and the third-highest proportion of wealth concentrated in the top 20 percent of residents,” Kotkin observed.
California is the poverty capital of the United States.
As usual, California shows America’s future. A land with a rich minority, a poor majority, and very little in between.
The east side of the central valley is what’s in between. To the east, it looks like mad max. To the west it’s elysium.
Better put a wall along it.
Between the ICBM launch from Vandenberg and the detritus from Fukushima, it’ll all glow in the dark anyway.
Those launches were incredible to watch/feel… we used to have keggars in the hills above the base on launch days.
They had keggers at Canaveral for the space launches. Never went to any, but they tell me it was an awesome experience.
The Haves live on the coast. They are insulated.
The Have Nots live everywhere else. They are not insulated.
The wealth disparity is greatest perhaps in California.
3rd world for sure.
From the central valley east, it’s flyoverland… where you unhappy people live because you can’t make it anywhere else.
“California Is The Poorest State In America”
http://www.laweekly.com/news/california-is-americas-poorest-state-4177082
white middle class has been fleeing since the 80’s. Just ask people in OR.
The last time there was a golden cross pattern for gold was in 2009
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-25/golds-largest-inflows-june-2009-unleash-bullish-golden-cross-pattern
Is world trade imploding?
Financial Times
Global Trade
World trade records biggest reversal since crisis
First snapshot of data for 2015 highlights rising fears for global economy
by: Shawn Donnan in Washington and Joe Leahy in São Paulo
Weaker demand from emerging markets made 2015 the worst year for world trade since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, highlighting rising fears about the health of the global economy.
The value of goods that crossed international borders last year fell 13.8 per cent in dollar terms — the first contraction since 2009 — according to the Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis’s World Trade Monitor. Much of the slump was due to a slowdown in China and other emerging economies.
The new data released on Thursday represent the first snapshot of global trade for 2015. But the figures also come amid growing concerns that 2016 is already shaping up to be more fraught with dangers for the global economy than previously expected.
Those concerns are casting a shadow over a two-day meeting of G20 central bank governors and finance ministers due to start on Friday. Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, was set to warn the gathering that the global economy risked “becoming trapped in a low growth, low inflation, low interest rate equilibrium”.
His comments will echo the International Monetary Fund, which this week warned it was poised to downgrade its forecast for global growth this year, saying the world’s leading economies needed to do more to boost growth.
The Baltic Dry index, a measure of global trade in bulk commodities, has been touching historic lows. China, which in 2014 overtook the US as the world’s biggest trading nation, this month reported double-digit falls in both exports and imports in January. In Brazil, which is now experiencing its worst recession in more than a century, imports from China have collapsed.
Exports from China to Brazil of everything from cars to textiles shipped in containers fell 60 per cent in January from a year earlier while the total volume of imports via containers into Latin America’s biggest economy halved, according to Maersk Line, the world’s largest shipping company.
“What we are seeing right now from China is not only a phenomenon for Brazil; we are seeing the same all over Latin America, declining [Chinese export] volumes into all the markets,” said Antonio Dominguez, managing director for Maersk Line in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. “It has been going on for several quarters but is getting more evident as we move into the year [2016].”
…
World trade is not imploding as you suggest. The volume is not dropping. The price of stuff is dropping. This is wonderful news, unless you are a 1%er.
http://mishtalk.com/2016/02/26/world-trade-plunged-13-8-in-us-dollar-terms/#more-35523
The value of goods that crossed international borders last year fell 13.8 per cent in dollar terms
And… what fraction of that decline is simply due to the change in exchange rates?
Markets Financial Regulation
Baltic Exchange Gets a Bid From Singapore, and Others May Follow
Platts and CME Group also said to be interested in buying historic shipping marketplace
Traders at the Baltic Exchange in London in 1969. The historic exchange is attracting suitors.
Photo: Peter King/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
By Costas Paris and Alistair MacDonald
Updated Feb. 26, 2016 1:27 p.m. ET
Another iconic London exchange is in play.
Baltic Exchange Ltd., a 272-year-old shipping marketplace credited with helping expand British trade during the country’s imperial heyday, has attracted a handful of potential suitors interested in its globally traded shipping contracts and indexes.
Singapore Exchange Ltd. said Friday it made a nonbinding bid for the Baltic exchange, but didn’t disclose details. Platts, a division of McGraw Hill Financial Inc., and CME Group Inc., the operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, are also considering making offers but haven’t done so yet, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Baltic exchange confirmed it had received “a number of exploratory approaches and that it is now in confidential discussions with selected third parties regarding its future strategy and ownership.”
Interest in the exchange comes in the shadow of much bigger consolidation of global exchanges that is under way just a few minutes’ walk away in London’s financial district. London Stock Exchange Group PLC and Deutsche Börse AG disclosed this week that they are in advanced talks to merge in a deal that could create Europe’s largest exchange with a value of $28 billion.
The Baltic exchange is tiny by comparison. Bids are expected to range between $100 million and $120 million, people familiar with the matter said.
Despite its small size and relative obscurity today, the Baltic in its prime was a global exchange powerhouse. Founded in 1744, it grew out of one of the many coffee shops concentrated in the City of London, the capital’s historic trading center, where merchants congregated to conduct business.
It matured into a more formal market and was later credited as being a driving force in Britain’s rise as a global trading power, matching merchants with shipowners and serving as a venue for traders to swap tips and information.
More recently, the exchange pioneered a derivatives market linked to freight. The Baltic Freight Index was launched in 1985, and was followed by a series of other freight market indexes, used to trade and settle shipping freight contracts. The Baltic Dry Index, for instance, provides daily freight rates for dry-bulk cargoes like iron ore, coal, cement and grains. The index has long served as a benchmark for the health of the shipping industry and for global trade more broadly.
…
Oopf…
MarketWatch dot com
Trump says he can’t release tax returns because he’s being audited
By Robert Schroeder
Published: Feb 25, 2016 11:28 p.m. ET
‘I can’t do it until the audit is finished,’ Republican front-runner says
Reuters
Donald Trump (C), flanked by Sens. Marco Rubio (L) and Ted Cruz (R) says he’s being audited and can’t release his tax returns
Donald Trump said Thursday night he can’t release his tax returns because he’s being audited, pushing back against the suggestion there may be a “bombshell” in them.
…
The fact that he was being audited wasn’t surprising.
The fact that he was being audited for the 12th year in a row is more surprising, since they IRS only implemented their initiative to audit the rich more in 2010.
In 2014, the IRS audited more than 16% of the tax returns where the tax payer made more than $10MM.
That’s more than 1 in 8.
Wow.
What are we gonna find out? That he’s rich? That he tries every way to pay less taxes? He already says all that. What bombshell could be there that anyone cares about?
Here are a few possibilities from a tax expert who looked into Trump’s taxes in the past:
How much income tax, if any, Trump has paid over the years, thanks to a special rule enacted by Congress two decades ago that lets full-time real estate professionals live tax-free.
How much NBC paid him for “The Apprentice,” which would establish whether Trump’s $65 million-per-year claim or NBC’s dismissal of that claim as “grossly inaccurate” is truthful.
How much, or little, Trump actually gives to charity, a significant issue in light of his claims to be an “ardent philanthropist,” even though his last modest gift to his eponymous foundation was in 2006.
How much Trump relies on tax-deductible interest to leverage his assets and, thus, how vulnerable he is to pressure from bankers if, as in 1990, he cannot pay his debts as they come due.
How much of Trump’s lavish lifestyle, which includes being surrounded by bodyguards and flying a Boeing 757 jet, is deducted as business expenses rather than treated as personal after-tax spending.
The degree to which Trump avoids income taxes by borrowing against his assets to finance his lifestyle, a common tactic among those with wealth that grows faster than their spending.
Possibly new details on Trump’s business associates and whether he continues his longstanding deals with major mobsters, a major drug dealer (his personal helicopter pilot), and a convicted felon who was his “senior adviser” on some proposed deals.
How much Trump made off his fraudulent Trump University, which charged up to $35,000 per student for advice you can get at a local newsstand, including Trump’s effort to shut down law enforcement exposing his conduct.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/9-key-points-about-trumps-income-taxes-and-many-more-questions/
I firmly hope he paid as little tax as possible. Charity is his business but I’m sure there’s many millions in donations.
Who cares how much he made on the apprentice?
Associates with a convicted felon? I doubt Hillary bringing up felons is going to help. She’s under investigation. Remember Marc Rich?
Why do you favor derogatory screen names, like
DumidoFanger
Canklepants
Anklepants
Etc?
Is this just a manifestation of your aging middle-class white male rage?
You also think I’m ABQDan and Donald Trump. Keep up the paranoia.
The fraudulent Donald Trump posts are obviously yours.
I just threw AlbuquerqueDan into the mix because many of us find it hard to imagine that he dropped from fifty percent of all posts here to zero. But as you have pointed out, you never post on China or rig counts, so can’t possibly be our Dan.
Leightweight chocker Marco Rubio looks like a little boy on stage. Not presidential material.
FRAUDULENT POSTER ALERT
rubio is done. he will be doing manual labor on trumps wall from h@ll.
LOL, I was watching the local news this evening and they showed Trump at 44%, Rubio 28% in Florida according to the Quinnipiac poll. A lot of Floridians who got conned by Rubio are not happy and don’t trust the guy, with good reason.
Is Florida governor Rick Scott going to endorse Trump?
A preference cascade is beginning.
I’ve taken a lot of heat lately for posting factual information about Trump that ruffles Trumplings’ mob rule mentality.
No problem. It’s far more prudent to try to stop Trump now rather than sit back and watch him turn America into a fascist dictatorship.
Seems like you and the Koch’s are on the same page. One of their senior political advisers left the Koch organization to work for Rubio.
Are the Kochs themselves planning to spend a millions to stop Trump?
That’s what’s showing up in the press…but apparently they want to put all their resources behind someone that they think can beat him…and they haven’t decided who that is.
Hillary?
Jokes write themselves.
Professor Ad hominem cut and paste = anyone not an SJW is a stupid ignorant racist bastard.
I never said a thing about SJWs. That’s the sort of thing closeted Hillary Clinton supporters like Dumidol like to constantly discuss.
Seems like you and the Koch’s are on the same page.
LOL
It seems like you, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are on the same page, Canklepants.
Trump would bully the world. He is the worst choice of all statists.
Like GW or like O?
even more so than GW and O. More than drone assassinations and starving 500,000 Iraqis to death. Those were child’s play compared to the inhumanity Trump would cause to people who worship the wrong sky wizard or have the wrong skin color.
Trump flat out called Iraq a mistake and called out Bush. He’s no neocon foreign war adventurer. He wants a strong military, but that isn’t the same. To think that he gets no credit from you for at least calling out Bush and Iraq — as a Republican — is hilarious.
You lie! (Again and again!!!!)
The invasion of Iraq was much more than a mistake. It was an outrageous, immoral act of aggression that killed untold numbers of people.
The Augusta Free Press
Trump backs off Iraq charge: Admits he favored the war
February 23, 2016 • By AFP
Sheldon Richman
Alas, Donald Trump has backed off from his charge that the Bush administration lied the country into war against Iraq, telling a CNN town-hall broadcast Thursday night that he doesn’t know why Bush invaded. “I’m not talking about lying. I’m not talking about not lying,” he said. “No one knows why we went into Iraq.” But Trump restated the obvious: that Saddam Hussein and Iraq did not fly planes into the World Trade Center. And he again, to his credit, said the war “may have been the worst decision any president has made in the history of this country…. Whether [George W. Bush] lied or not, it was a horrible decision.” (See video.)
Trump’s shameful wimping out under firm questioning from a voter may reflect troubles in the polls — he was campaigning in South Carolina, where George W. Bush and anything military are popular — but it’s a blow to the badly needed public discussion of the disastrous war, which has destabilized the Middle East by boosting the bin Ladenites and helping to give rise to the Islamic State, first in Iraq, then in Syria, and now far beyond.
As for Trump, who seems willing to take whatever position serves his purpose at the moment, we now know that he told radio host Howard Stern on September, 11, 2002, six months before Bush started the war, that he favored the mission. (Audio here.) Asked by Stern if he approved of the coming invasion, Trump said, “Yeah, I guess so,” adding, “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
…
Happy to have him bully China and Mexico.
Trump’s whole platform is based on bullying and bluster, not attractive qualities in a President.
“posting factual information…”
Ahem.
Hillary has already taken $150million in bribe money on the record. What is it that her supporters do not get about what most Americans are thinking?
Voted for Obama and will vote for Hillary.
Doesn’t Trump’s nomination make Hillary’s election a “lock”?
Hilary was a lock in 2008 too.
Sure, CawCawCaw…just like your Dear Leader Donald is lock now.
Hillaryous is unelectable.
I’ve been saying for years stuff lettuce under the mattress, hoard precious metals. Also buy crypto currency.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/02/no_author/escalating-war-cash/
Is ZIRP a positive or a negative for banks?
ft dot com
Last updated: February 26, 2016 12:16 pm
Global banks sunk by low rate climate
Dan McCrum, Leo Lewis and Adam Samson
On February 16 — the day when Japan’s newly unveiled negative interest rate policy came into force — volume in the overnight lending market collapsed by nearly two-thirds: a particularly disruptive newcomer on the growing list of unintended consequences of the Bank of Japan’s experiment.
Investor concern is the standard explanation, but Tokyo bankers privately admit the trading systems of Japan’s banks were simply not technically prepared for negative rates.
People familiar with the situation at three of Japan’s megabanks have described a “crazy scramble” to update IT systems as the banking industry approaches the financial year end on March 31. Bank stocks, meanwhile, have nosedived. The TSE banks index, which includes regional lenders, has shed 32 per cent of its value since early January.
Brian Waterhouse, a banks analyst at CLSA, lists a series of consequences — intended or otherwise — of negative interest rates which have affected the banks’ business directly.
These include: negative yields on Japanese government bond yields out to nine years; the Ministry of Finance suspending all sales of such bonds to retail customers; several brokers suspending sales of money market funds, and life insurers suspending sales of some savings-type insurance products. Banks themselves have been forced to slash their savings account rates by roughly 20 basis points, to 0.001 per cent.
“Has the sell-off in banks been overdone? Absolutely,” says Mr Waterhouse. “The negative rates policy has had the effect of hitting confidence at a time where the Japanese banks were under pressure anyway.”
…
Chris Christie just endorsed Trump. I KNEW something was going on when he ran interference for Trump and clocked Rubio two debates ago.
See, Russ? It’s all about the adipose.
Christie for VP? ?
vs
Bernie / Warren?
Another failed analysis by Porf must be discarded. Lay that “shill for Hill” theory to rest with CC’s endorsement.
Porf on the other hand is still a Hill shill.
You are the only poster who constantly brings up Hillary. It is obvious to anyone with a brain that you and The Donald are secretly working to ensure her election.
There are two kinds of people. Which one will you be? A loser like them? Or a winner like me.
FRAUDULENT DUMIDOL POST ALERT!
A New Jersey loudmouth endorsed the loudmouth from New York. I don’t see how Christie’s obesity influenced his decision.
Inside joke for Russ.
The speculation is Kasich for VP, Christie for AG, and Newt for chief of staff.
How about Andrew Dice Clay for Secretary of State?
Don Rickles is still working.
“…Jill came down with two fifty! OH!”
“The speculation is Kasich for VP, Christie for AG, and Newt for chief of staff.”
I heard about the Christie speculation, and I heard Newt was angling for something, but I don’t see him as Chief of Staff. The only man for that job is Corey Lewandowski, assuming he wants the gig.
As far as Veep, he’s gotta go for Scott Brown. The guy delivered NH for Trump.
Ohio
“See, Russ? It’s all about the adipose.”
Adipose is POWER!
America has always loved its fatties.
rolling over….
Bank of America is preparing for significant job cuts across its global banking and markets business, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
“US Government Releases 2015 Financial Statements: Keeps Getting Worse”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-26/us-government-releases-2015-financial-statements-keeps-getting-worse
Liquidate depreciating assets like houses, pay down your crushing debt and hold onto every dollar that comes your way. You’ll thank us later.
and eat less sugar and drink more water….
Fetch me a bag a Cheetos with that water.
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” – H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy
Thank you for your support & friendship Governor Chris Christie.
The Christian Science Monitor
USA / Politics
Koch advisor joins Marco Rubio. Will Koch brothers’ money follow?
Marc Short, a top advisor to the Koch brothers, has joined Team Rubio as “anyone but Trump” establishment donors flock to the the Florida senator. The Koch brothers themselves have yet to endorse anyone.
By Molly Jackson, Staff / February 25, 2016
Republican presidential candidate and Florida Senator Marco Rubio points to a child who drew a picture of Sen. Rubio at a campaign rally in Houston, Texas on February 24, 2016.
Richard Carson/ Reuters
A top Koch brothers advisor will be joining Team Rubio, the Florida Senator’s campaign has confirmed, suggesting the business moguls and political-donor heavyweights may be inching closer to an endorsement.
Marc Short has resigned from his position as president of Freedom Partners, a Koch-funded nonprofit that promotes “the benefits of free markets and a free society,” and will sign on as a senior advisor to Sen. Marco Rubio, Politico reported on Tuesday. Rubio’s campaign confirmed the news Wednesday.
“This is a big get for Rubio,” Phil Cox, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, told Politico. “Marc brings a unique perspective as one of the few people who have had one foot in traditional Republican Party politics and another in more movement-conservative efforts.”
Since Donald Trump’s second primary win, in South Carolina, establishment Republicans, governors, senators, and donors have been flocking to Senator Rubio as “anyone but Trump” warnings grow more dire. Potential help from Charles and David Koch, and the massive political machine they coordinate, can give a decisive financial boost to candidates in a typical year. In the next two years, their various organizations will spend $750 million, including $250 million in campaign money, Charles Koch told American Public Media.
But it’s not a typical Republican primary season, and not only because of Trump’s questionable conservative bona fides. His wealth, and penchant for personal attacks, has scared off many of the party’s usual big-pocket supporters.
Mega-donors like the Kochs, or casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, are typically fought-over endorsers for Republican candidates. But not only does Trump have a massive bank account of his own, but he’s turned the rules of campaign funding on their head, relying more on outrage-driven free media coverage than expensive ad campaigns.
Many spenders are wary of dedicating too much money during the primaries, in hopes of saving it for a general election blitz. The libertarian-leaning Kochs themselves have not endorsed any 2016 candidates, although Charles Koch’s Feb. 18 op-ed in The Washington Post outlined the qualities he’d like to see in one, along with agreement with his own small-government, pro-free trade views:
But Trump, whose business, tax and trade views run counter to the Kochs’ own, may have pushed their patience to the edge. Donors at the brothers’ biannual retreat, held in late January, debated strategies to highlight his weaknesses, anxious to stop not only his economic policies but his “Caesar-like” vision of leadership, as the Hill reported.
…
“All Americans deserve a president who, on balance, can demonstrate a commitment to a set of ideas and values that will lead to peace, civility and well-being rather than conflict, contempt and division. When such a candidate emerges, he or she will have my enthusiastic support.”
The Anti-Trump?
Looks like goon smacked down Oddie pretty good today.
Trump hopes to better Reagan’s tripling of the deficit, with a quadrupling.
Why bother when Black Privilege Barry already achieved that honor?
Mirror mirror on the wall. Who is the biggest deficit spending president of them all.
Why…. why it’s Barack Obama!
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200
Your chart shows that the deficit has been falling during the Obama years.
All time record high deficits.
Nice try Snowflake.
Mafia’s data frequently contradict his posts.
Are you sure?
San Diego, CA Housing Prices Crater 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92130/home-values/
Didn’t mean to suggest your data ALWAYS contradict your posts.
How can the Zestimate be going up, up, up when the median sale price is going down, down, down? Makes no sense whatever!
Falling prices are a good thing.
Remember….. Nothing accelerates the economy and creates jobs like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
Traffic — Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JweZ_wzmifw
WTF happened to Cheryl Tiegs?
Il Trumpo is no joko.
IL TRUMPO
Donald Trump is not a joke: A warning to Americans from an Italian who survived Berlusconi
We laugh to keep from crying.(AP photo)
Written by Annalisa Merelli
Obsession 2016
February 26, 2016
Donald Trump is hilarious, you guys.
The Republican presidential candidate literally went from being that guy trolling the world on Twitter to being that guy trolling the Grand Old Party’s campaign. He says he’ll build a wall between the United States and Mexico and it will be huge and Mexico will pay for it and America will be great again. His sexism is nauseating, his ignorance cringe-worthy, his conduct baffling. He provides more memes, gifs, jokes and video games than one could possibly have time for.
And he really is winning.
In advance of the South Carolina primary on Sunday, a joke circulated online asking women if they’d have sex with Trump, if it meant he’d drop out of the race. My answer would be “no” for at least three reasons:
1) I am not an American citizen, and this is not the kind of thing one should even remotely consider doing for a foreign country.
2) Even if Trump dropped out of the race, what would we do about the people who support his brand of hatred? Would they give up their claims to US citizenship, too?
3) I’ve heard this question before.
Well, not exactly this question. As an Italian citizen, I have heard different variations on this question–with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi subbing in for the Donald.
It’s been said before that Trump is America’s Berlusconi, and the comparison is easy to see. Both are older white men with a lot of wealth of dubious provenance. Both decided to enter the public arena after promising they would run their countries the way they run their companies. Both are openly misogynistic while claiming to love women, and both share a questionable sense of humor. They appeal to what in Italy is referred to as “the belly” of the electorate—their gut reactions to the issues at hand.
Both Trump and Berlusconi represent populism at its worst. And their tactics work. Both men are populism at its worst. And their tactics work.
But perhaps the most striking similarity I can draw between Trump and Berlusconi has nothing to do with their actions. No, the thing that is most worrisome about the uncanny resemblance between these two politicians is the dangerous way the public and media have perceived their candidacies.
…
“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am - not stuck in the middle, but hovering above the entire farcical spectrum, weeping as I behold my fellow man’s devotion to political illusion and self-destruction.”
- Robert Higgs
What is Trump hiding in his tax returns that he doesn’t want voters to know?
Feb 26, 2016 @ 08:59 AM
Trump Won’t Release Tax Returns, Citing IRS Audit: Is It A Legitimate Excuse?
Kelly Phillips Erb
Forbes Staff
I cover tax: paying tax is painful but reading about it shouldn’t be.
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* In the hours before the debate, Romney renewed his call for Trump to release his returns
* Trump claims that he wants to release his tax returns but he cannot – because he is being audited.
After weeks of GOP presidential debates without any real tax talk (you can read about the last one here), the candidates finally got around to talking about tax. Only this time, instead of focusing on tax proposals, the candidates focused on tax returns. Specifically, tax returns belonging to Donald Trump: Trump has resisted calls to release his returns.
Prior to the debate, previous GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for Trump to release his returns, hinting there might be a “bombshell” in those returns, telling Fox News:
In the hours before the debate, Romney renewed his call for Trump to release his returns , tweeting:
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What is the difference between Donald Trump and a con artist?
Politics
Rubio labels Trump a ‘con artist,’ Trump responds with ‘Mr. Meltdown’: Debate fight spills onto the campaign trail
Campaign 2016
State of the 2016 race
Trump and Rubio trade post-debate burns
By Sean Sullivan February 26 at 1:21 PM
Hours after mounting the fiercest assault of his campaign against Donald Trump in Thursday’s debate, Marco Rubio established a new line of attack against the Republican front-runner, branding him a “con artist” and hurling insult after insult at him during a Friday morning rally in Dallas.
Rubio mocked Trump’s misspelled tweets. He jabbed at Trump’s age. And he portrayed Trump as a scared and phony politician.
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Friends don’t let friends vote for con artists.
Is Trump too dumb to spell properly?
I notice some Trumplings follow their Dear Leader in this respect. “Porf” is not a very good choice of abbreviations for “Professor.”
Marco Rubio teases Donald Trump over Twitter spelling
By Deena Zaru and Tal Kopan, CNN
Updated 5:12 PM ET, Fri February 26, 2016 | Video Source: CNN
Story highlights
* Marco Rubio teased Donald Trump on Friday for including spelling mistakes in his tweets that he wrote to insult the Florida senator
* The Republican presidential front-runner misspelled “honor,” and his error has spurred both amused and critical responses on Twitter
(CNN)Marco Rubio teased Donald Trump on Friday for including spelling mistakes in his tweets that he wrote to insult the Florida senator.
“‘He is a chocker. And once a chocker, always a’ — a choker, I guess that’s what he meant to say,” Rubio said at a rally in Texas, reading Trump tweets from his phone.
Trump misspelled the word “choker” in three tweets Friday, all referencing Rubio after the two had a heated exchange at Thursday’s Republican presidential debate.
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Trump the man, his real voice LOL
http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/02/26/watch-someone-added-a-gay-voice-to-donald-trump-and-its-fabulous/
Would Droomp sometimes be wiser to hold his tongue?
Kallstadt, Germany: on the trail of ‘the Donald’ in the Trump ancestral home
Kate Connolly reports from the village where Trump’s grandfather was born, but finds more affection for its other famous family
Kallstadt, Germany, where Donald Trump’s grandfather grew up.
Photograph: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
Kate Connolly in Kallstadt
Friday 29 January 2016 11.43 EST
Last modified on Friday 29 January 2016 18.35 EST
Drumb, Tromb, Tromp, Trum, Trumpff, Dromb … the Trump family name has had various permutations over the past five hundred years, according to the local church register.
Yet nowadays there are few traces of a clan that once had a stronghold in the village of Kallstadt in south-west Germany. There is no plaque outside the house where Friedrich Trump, the grandfather of US presidential hopeful Donald, was born in 1869.
The only hint is in the few gravestones, overgrown with shrubs bearing the name in the local cemetery, and the faint outline where once “Trump” was set in wrought iron above a bunch of silver grapes at a winery that went bankrupt several years ago.
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” said Hans-Joachim Bender, a retired vintner, sitting at his dining room table looking out onto the vineyards he used to farm. “If you’re here to talk about Donald Trump, I don’t have an opinion about him one way or another except sometimes he’d be wiser to hold his tongue.” Like everyone here, Bender pronounces the name in the local Palatinate dialect as “Droomp”.
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Does Trump remind you of Hitler?
Ex-Mexican President Fox: Donald Trump reminds me of Hitler
By Ashley Young, CNN
Updated 9:32 PM ET, Fri February 26, 2016 | Video Source: CNN
Story highlights
* Former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday kept up his withering criticism of Donald Trump, saying the GOP front-runner reminds him of Adolf Hitler
* “He has offended Mexico, Mexicans, [and] immigrants. He has offended the Pope. He has offended the Chinese. He’s offended everybody,” Fox said
(CNN) Former Mexican President Vicente Fox on Friday kept up his withering criticism of Donald Trump, saying the GOP front-runner reminds him of Adolf Hitler.
“Today, he’s going to take that nation (U.S.) back to the old days of conflict, war and everything. I mean, he reminds me of Hitler. That’s the way he started speaking,” Fox told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a phone interview on “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“He has offended Mexico, Mexicans, (and) immigrants. He has offended the Pope. He has offended the Chinese. He’s offended everybody.”
Fox’s comments come one day after he delivered a scathing response on Trump’s plan to make Mexico pay for a wall between the Mexico-U.S. border.
“I’m not going to pay for that f***ing wall,” Fox said in an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos.
Fox told Cooper he won’t apologize for that remark.
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Opinions
The moment of truth: We must stop Trump
The Republican presidential candidate focuses on the Super Tuesday state primaries after a win in South Carolina.
By Danielle Allen February 21
Danielle Allen is a political theorist at Harvard University and a contributing columnist for The Post.
Like any number of us raised in the late 20th century, I have spent my life perplexed about exactly how Hitler could have come to power in Germany. Watching Donald Trump’s rise, I now understand. Leave aside whether a direct comparison of Trump to Hitler is accurate. That is not my point. My point rather is about how a demagogic opportunist can exploit a divided country.
To understand the rise of Hitler and the spread of Nazism, I have generally relied on the German-Jewish émigré philosopher Hannah Arendt and her arguments about the banality of evil. Somehow people can understand themselves as “just doing their job,” yet act as cogs in the wheel of a murderous machine. Arendt also offered a second answer in a small but powerful book called “Men in Dark Times.” In this book, she described all those who thought that Hitler’s rise was a terrible thing but chose “internal exile,” or staying invisible and out of the way as their strategy for coping with the situation. They knew evil was evil, but they too facilitated it, by departing from the battlefield out of a sense of hopelessness.
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U.S. News
Chomsky: Trump’s rise fueled by same societal ‘breakdown’ that birthed Hitler
Travis Gettys
24 Feb 2016 at 12:51 ET
Noam Chomsky said the social conditions that are driving voters to Donald Trump also explain the rise of fascist leaders such as Adolf Hitler.
The famed linguist and political scientist discussed the presidential election in a recent interview with Alternet, where he was asked to explain Trump’s growing popularity with Republican voters.
“Fear, along with the breakdown of society during the neoliberal period,” Chomsky said. “People feel isolated, helpless, victim of powerful forces that they do not understand and cannot influence.”
He said economic uncertainty and a loss of social cohesion had also fueled the rise of fascism in the last century — but he cautioned that some current conditions were even worse.
“It’s interesting to compare the situation in the ‘30s, which I’m old enough to remember,” Chomsky said. “Objectively, poverty and suffering were far greater. But even among poor working people and the unemployed, there was a sense of hope that is lacking now, in large part because of the growth of a militant labor movement and also the existence of political organizations outside the mainstream.”
Chomsky traced echoes of that era in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, describing the presidential candidate as “an honest and decent New Deal Democrat.”
“The fact that (he is) regarded as ‘extreme’ is a comment on the shift to the right of the whole political spectrum during the neoliberal period,” Chomsky said.
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Is there any truth to the story about Americans preparing to flee to Canada if Trump wins?
News / Canada
Cape Breton gets windfall of attention from Trump-wary Americans
Local DJ’s move-here-if-Donald-wins website has boosted traffic at island sites promoting tourism, real estate.
A portion of Cape Bretoner Rob Calabrese’s website promoting the island as a refuge from Donald Trump. Notwithstanding, the words say, in part, “The truth is, we welcome all, no matter who you support, be it Democrat, Republican or Donald Trump.”
By: The Canadian Press, Published on Wed Feb 24 2016
An organization that promotes tourism on Cape Breton says the frenzied international interest around a website pitching the island to Americans wary of Donald Trump has presented an unintended and unprecedented marketing opportunity.
Mary Tulle, CEO of destination Cape Breton, says her group’s website has exploded with 300,000 referrals from the Cape Breton if Donald Trump Wins site, with about 216,000 of the clicks from curious Americans. Rolling Stone has profiled the Canadian DJ behind the website, Ron Calabrese.
Tulle says the numbers are growing exponentially as media from around the world call to inquire about the story, the website, and about Cape Breton itself. On Wednesday at noon, attempts to reach the Destination Cape Breton website produced an error message, “Resource Limit Is Reached,” meaning it is exceeding the server capacity assigned to it.
Tulle says she has done interviews with media from as far away as Russia in the past week and she has also talked with the BBC, CNN and Time among others.
Tulle says the resulting publicity is something her organization would never have been able to achieve on its own.
Valarie Sampson, a real estate broker in Sydney, N.S., also says there has been a noticeable increase in website inquiries as a result of “If Trump Wins,” but she adds it will likely be months before it’s known whether the publicity led to any sales.
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Are wealthy Republicans afraid to take down Trump, even though he is in the process of dismantling the GOP?
Does The Donald have a “wet pants” issue?
Marco Rubio mocks Donald Trump for ‘wet’ pants
By Tal Kopan, CNN
Updated 8:33 PM ET, Fri February 26, 2016 | Video Source: CNN
Story highlights
* Marco Rubio spent the first roughly 10 minutes of his rally in Dallas, Texas, relentlessly attacking Donald Trump
* Rubio and Trump squared off Thursday in a heated presidential debate hosted by CNN
Washington (CNN)Riding high off a strong debate performance, Marco Rubio went after Donald Trump on Friday with new vigor — even mocking the real estate mogul for worrying that his pants were “wet” Thursday night at the CNN GOP debate.
The Florida senator spent the first roughly 10 minutes of his rally in Dallas, Texas, on Friday morning relentlessly attacking Trump, including reading off misspelled tweets and turning Trump’s attacks back on the reality TV star.
“He called me Mr. Meltdown,” Rubio said, smiling and saying that Thursday night during the commercial breaks, “he went backstage, he was having a meltdown.”
He said Trump had “one of those little sweat mustaches,” borrowing Trump’s “sweating” line of attack against Rubio, and said he wanted a full-length mirror.
“Maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet,” Rubio said.
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Some of the cruder posters here have repeatedly insinuated that Hillary Clinton has incontinence issues.
You have to wonder if Donald Trump has them, as well. The dude is pretty darn old compared to his rivals.
Did Trump have a terrible night at the latest debate?
Donald Trump’s Terrible Night
The Republican front-runner took some sharp blows from Marco Rubio, and appeared listless—even low energy—up on stage.
Mike Stone / Reuters
David A. Graham
Feb 25, 2016 Politics
Donald Trump has gotten very used to winning recently, after racking up three straight primary and caucus wins. He’s even promised to win so much that Americans will get sick of winning.
But he didn’t get a victory in Houston on Thursday.
It was Trump’s worst debate of the campaign, and the defeat came largely at the hands of Marco Rubio, who hit Trump early and often. The climactic moment arrived during a discussion of health insurance. Every candidate has promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but with what? Trump’s answer was that he’d allow the sale of insurance across state lines. Rubio pressed him: Is that all you’ve got? When Trump tried to slap back, Rubio was ready.
“He’s repeating himself!” Rubio exclaimed with a grin, echoing the very attack Chris Christie used so effectively against him just a few weeks ago. “I’m not repeating myself. I’m not repeating myself,” Trump insisted, but he was practically drowned out by the huge round of applause sweeping the hall.
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Crater