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Author | Topic: The Trump Presidency | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chiroptera Inactive Member |
Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, has been talking about this since the beginning of the year.
From Feb. 27: The numbers we have so far show that the much-hyped bonuses are trivial — less than $6 billion, or 0.03% of GDP — while stock buybacks have been more than $170 billion. And many of those bonuses would probably have happened anyway, whereas stock buybacks are running far above historical levels. From Jul 9: Nothing like that is happening, and leading indicators of business investment, like orders of capital goods, show no sign of an investment boom ahead. Corporations have gotten a really big tax cut: The tax take on corporate profits has fallen off a cliff since the tax cut was enacted. But they’re using the extra money for stock buybacks and higher dividends, not investment. Oh, God! Pride of Man, broken in the dust again! -- Quicksilver Messenger Service
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
I can't believe how little is being made of how negatively the recording of John Kelly firing Omarosa reflects upon him. I'd embed the audio in this message, but I haven't yet found it in a form that allows me to do that. The full recording can be found on this webpage: Omarosa Releases Tape Of John Kelly Firing Her In White House Situation Room. Scroll down just a little to where you see a video that has the word "EXCLUSIVE" in the upper right. That's the full audio.
A full transcript can be found at John Kelly firing Omarosa in the situation room. Here are my comments on the interaction between Kelly and Omarosa:
quote: Kelly has just accused Omarosa of the civilian equivalent of an offense worthy of court martial. He does not say what the offense is.
quote: Kelly still doesn't say what Omarosa did.
quote: Kelly is pretty unambiguously threatening Omarosa with legal action if she doesn't make this a "friendly departure."
quote: Kelly repeats the threat, this time to her reputation. So first he threatens her legally, then he threatens defaming her character.
quote: Kelly is threatening Omarosa legally again.
quote: So that's it, and we're left wondering what Omarosa did. Since they're obviously unaware of her recording activity, it wasn't that. And since Omarosa is making all this public, she evidently isn't cowed by any legal threat. Her publishers legal department (Gallery Books) has probably assisted her in vetting how much she can make public. A little Googling says that the supposed offense was using the White House car service for office pick-up and drop-off. This is not a severe integrity issue. This is a "Hey, cut it out" type of offense, and that's it. I also don't believe the reports that Omarosa tried to "storm the White House residence to appeal to Trump, according to one of the officials, accidentally tripping an electronic Secret Service wire that monitors entry and egress from the residence." That's from Politico. Reason I don't believe it? I think guards are stationed at the entries and exits from the residence. I doubt the doors are just open with only "an electronic Secret Service wire." --Percy
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Capt Stormfield Member Posts: 429 From: Vancouver Island Joined: |
The truly distressing part about the Omarosa thing is that she was in the White House at all. Arguably the least qualified person (next to Trump himself)(OK, and his relatives) in the place.
Assuming tokenism, how would you feel as a black person if that was your token representative?
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Chiroptera Inactive Member
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From the Guardian:
Republican politicians can no longer count on the support of their families The headline may be overstating things; it only gives a couple of instances of candidates' families (the son of one, the parents of another) publicly donating money to the opponents' campaigns as well as one or two instances of family members openly disagreeing with policy decisions; nothing to indicate that it's a widespread problem for Republicans. But maybe good for an lol. The last paragraph is interesting, though:
One way daughters of Republican members of Congress can influence their parents’ decisions, however, is simply by existing. In 2008, Ebonya L Washington, an economist at Yale University, cross-referenced the voting records of every member of the House and found that those with daughters, especially those with more than one daughter, were significantly more likely to cast liberal votes. Oh, God! Pride of Man, broken in the dust again! -- Quicksilver Messenger Service
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9
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Stephen Miller is one of Trump's senior advisors, so in case you didn't already see this one: Stephen Miller’s Uncle Calls Him a Hypocrite in an Online Essay. Here's the essay: Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.
--Percy
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Percy Member Posts: 22504 From: New Hampshire Joined: Member Rating: 4.9 |
Yeah, Omarosa lacked qualifications.
For me, though, Kelly comes off as bullying and dishonest. Whether Omarosa was qualified or not, the interaction reads to me like him railroading her out. After cutting her off he says, "We can talk another time," like there's ever going to be an opportunity for her to talk to him after she's out of the White House. And if I have this right, according to Omarosa this was her first meeting with Kelly. The public needs these glimpses, even from people we don't like (that might just be me - independent of her competence, I just don't like Omarosa), into the inner workings of this presidency of a corrupt and repugnant man. Sean Spicer must have signed one of those NDAs Omarosa talks about. It explains the insipid fawning untruthfulness of his book. How can you trust anything anyone who worked in the Trump administration says when they've signed an NDA that has clauses like this (link to NDA):
There's been some discussion in the press about this NDA being unenforceable because it is overly broad (in the case of the the White House version of the NDA) and because it seeks to restrict information about a candidate for public office (in the case of the Trump Election Committee version of the NDA). Omarosa says she signed an NDA while working on the apprentice, and another NDA while working for the Trump campaign, but not when she started working in the White House. --Percy
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Capt Stormfield Member Posts: 429 From: Vancouver Island Joined: |
No argument here. When you're talking about the pile under the outhouse, where you landed on the pile doesn't bring much distinction, and it's always wider at the bottom.
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Chiroptera Inactive Member |
From yesterday's New York Times:
Trump Appears to Admit White House Aides Signed Nondisclosure Agreements Up to now, White House officials have been coy about whether they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Well, now we know.
For months, officials in the West Wing have refused to confirm reports by The New York Times and other news outlets that aides were ordered to sign nondisclosure agreements, which legal experts say are essentially unenforceable for government employees. As Percy mentioned, these non-disclosure agreements are probably unenforceable; the only thing that would be enforceable is if Ms. Omarosa discloses actual national security classified information. That said, this is about the non-disclosure agreements; it is still likely that Omarosa violated the law when she recorded the conversation in a secured conference room. But what caught my eye was this:
He’s created a White House in his own image, and that has led to many, many problems, Mr. Axelrod said. Taping conversations is, in fact, a longtime tactic of Mr. Trump’s. For decades, he used it both as an insurance policy and for private titillation as a real estate developer who liked to keep a record, should he ever need it, of phone conversations and meetings, according to former aides. Staff members warned one another to be careful if they used his phone system at his private club Mar-a-Lago, in Florida, and to be mindful of what they said across his desk at Trump Tower in Manhattan. During the presidential campaign, aides worried that their office on the fifth floor of Trump Tower was bugged. So Trump has himself made and made use of secret recordings of conversations and phone calls.
Tommy Vietor, another former National Security Council official under Mr. Obama, said Mr. Trump was being outdone by the people that play that New York tabloid game that the president had thrived on for decades. Oh, God! Pride of Man, broken in the dust again! -- Quicksilver Messenger Service
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Taq Member Posts: 10085 Joined: Member Rating: 5.1
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Chiroptera writes: So Trump has himself made and made use of secret recordings of conversations and phone calls. That reminds me of another US President:
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NoNukes Inactive Member |
Up to now, White House officials have been coy about whether they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Well, now we know. The reluctance might be because it is nearly impossible to discuss the agreements in a non-disparaging way, thereby violating them. Conway spoke about them a few days ago and made the outlandish claim that every employer requires similar agreements. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846) "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man. We've got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand. Neil Young, Rockin' in the Free World. Worrying about the "browning of America" is not racism. -- Faith I hate you all, you hate me -- Faith No it is based on math I studied in sixth grade, just plain old addition, substraction and multiplication. -- ICANT
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Taq Member Posts: 10085 Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
NoNukes writes: Conway spoke about them a few days ago and made the outlandish claim that every employer requires similar agreements.
To be honest, I don't see anything wrong with those NDA's. When you are working in public relations it makes sense that part of your job requirement is to not disparage your client. If one of Obama's aides had been saying disparaging things about Obama, or leaking stories which made Obama look bad, it wouldn't have surprised me if they were fired. When you sign up for a political job you are signing up for a public relations job, by default.
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PaulK Member Posts: 17828 Joined: Member Rating: 2.3 |
I would count an NDA as going beyond the threat of dismissal. The scope of it - extending to Trump and Pence companies - and the fact that it continues after leaving employment - also seems to be unusual and excessive.
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ringo Member (Idle past 441 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
NoNukes writes:
I once worked for a cleaning company that made me sign a non-disclosure agreement. Thankfully, the five year period is over now and I can get rich by selling all of their cleaning secrets. ... the outlandish claim that every employer requires similar agreements.And our geese will blot out the sun.
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NoNukes Inactive Member |
I once worked for a cleaning company that made me sign a non-disclosure agreement. You were likely bound not to reveal trade secrets. I doubt that you signed an agreement not to reveal that your boss was a slave driving ogre. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846) "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man. We've got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand. Neil Young, Rockin' in the Free World. Worrying about the "browning of America" is not racism. -- Faith I hate you all, you hate me -- Faith No it is based on math I studied in sixth grade, just plain old addition, substraction and multiplication. -- ICANT
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NoNukes Inactive Member |
To be honest, I don't see anything wrong with those NDA's. You are describing the state of things while you are on the job. Yes, you would be fired for disparaging your boss at that point. But these agreements purport to do much more than that, and extend, apparently forever. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846) "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man. We've got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand. Neil Young, Rockin' in the Free World. Worrying about the "browning of America" is not racism. -- Faith I hate you all, you hate me -- Faith No it is based on math I studied in sixth grade, just plain old addition, substraction and multiplication. -- ICANT
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