**** off donald trump

[ramshackles]

So he retweets 3 misleading videos purporting to show violence in the UK by Islamist migrants.

- First video is from the Netherlands and is of a dutch man, not a migrant. He was arrested and sentenced.
- Second video is from 2013 and believed to be from Syria
- Third video is also from 2013 and from riots in Egypt. Those involved were prosecuted, with one man being executed.

Then, when May (all to politely) criticizes him, he tells her to "focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom".
Dude, she is focusing on the UK by ticking you off for promoting radical extremism.
Oh and the original poster of the videos has been charged in the UK for inciting hatred in a separate incident.

Sorry for the language but this despicable man is just an absolute twat.

 

[tands]

Sorry. It's embarassing. Guess he's starting to crack, and it's all coming out.

 

[ruffrecords]

How long before the fool gets himself impeached?

Cheers

Ian

 

[frans]

As Bernie Sanders said, it doesn't make much difference who is president in the USA, as the system there is fundamentally broken. Of course he's not slick - who would you rather have in the position?

 

[tands]

John or Joan Cusack.

 

[gyraf]

Sorry. It's embarassing. Guess he's starting to crack, and it's all coming out.

Thanks. Appreciated.

Jakob E.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Hopefully a public rebuke from May will register.... 

Sharing and retweeting misinformation is all too common and not his first time (like during the campaign).

It is not an impeachable offense, but embarrassing.

JR

 

[pvision]

His campaign and approach is built on lies, misdirection and incitement so this is just more of the same. For anyone else it would signal the beginning of the end. For Trump it just signals business as usual. His divisive campaign plays brilliantly with the disaffected, the disenfranchised and the plain stupid, all of whom seem to be in good supply in 2017

There's been some quite good reporting over here about how polarised American politics is and how the traditional overlap between Democrats and Republicans has disappeared. The Roy Moore case, where apparently voters would support a Republican been accused of paedophilia over any Democrat, just because he's a Democrat. Quite an enlightening view of politics from across the pond

Nick Froome

 

[fum]

Things are pretty grim here from my viewpoint.

The darkest point in the US in my lifetime for certain.

I would like to have believed that the policies and social fabric we were creating in this country were moving forward, to build a better nation and future.

I'm ashamed of this country, and what it has become.  At present it represents the worst qualities of the human condition, on display and unabashedly proud of being ignorant, racist, misogynist and deceitful.

To the rest of the world, I'm sorry we didn't do better.

 

[bruno2000]

Well just damn......the stock market's up again.....
Best,
Bruno2000

 

[fum]

Trade in your morals for stockholder value.  The American way.....

 

[JohnRoberts]

Well just damn......the stock market's up again.....
Best,
Bruno2000

The stock market is trading up on likelihood that republican tax reform passes.  Rationalizing business tax rates to be competitive with other countries will keep jobs here, maybe move some jobs back, and make a measurable bottom line improvement to high tax rate businesses. Using the same price/earnings multiplier will reflect into stock price increases. Arguably some (all?) of this is already priced into the market so it may be a sell the news event, but positive for future.  Even better many large businesses have gamed the tax system to pay less than typical rates, but small businesses do not have that luxury so tax reform will preferentially help small businesses (a good thing IMO).

One interesting change in tax law is speculation that capital gains will have to be calculated FIFO, so if you decide to sell a few bitcoin after the 1000% run up this year, you will have to calculate your trade profit using the first bitcoin you bought several years ago, not those from several months ago..

This is actually good to discourage short term trading, but won't be appreciated by short term traders. It will raise tax revenue (and/or discourage churn).  A lot of tax loss selling happens at the end of the year. Changing the law like this will affect that strategy.

JR

PS: While tax bill is getting closer to passage, the temporary postponement of budget comes due again (mid december). Back in september President trump cut a deal with the democratic leadership... who boycotted his scheduled meeting with them this week.  Let's see if he plays let's make a deal without republicans again. FWIW President Trump is ticking off the political elite from both parties (not a bad thing).

 

[hodad]

The stock market is trading up on likelihood that republican tax reform passes.  Rationalizing business tax rates to be competitive with other countries will keep jobs here, maybe move some jobs back....

It's certainly about the tax bill, but not for these reasons.  Investors believe (and leaders of a few major companies have publicly stated this) that a large chunk of the tax cut windfall will go to them, either as dividends or increased stock prices.  Most large corps won't be investing in workers,  just enriching the rich. 

If you look at the big offshore-profits amnesty that happened some years back, you'll find that things played out very much that way.  No reason to expect this time to be any different. 

 

[Matador]

The stock market is trading up on likelihood that republican tax reform passes.  Rationalizing business tax rates to be competitive with other countries will keep jobs here, maybe move some jobs back, and make a measurable bottom line improvement to high tax rate businesses.

There is little (actually no) evidence that the current bill does anything of the sort.  In fact, it may actually be the opposite:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/trump-corporate-tax-reform-jobs/544487/

The Trump-GOP plan will also propose a minimum tax rate on foreign income, according to multiple reports. But whereas Obama’s plan (which ultimately didn’t become law) assessed a company’s taxation in each country individually, the Trump framework would come up with an average for all foreign earnings combined, a so-called “global minimum.”
...
Many economists agree about the problems with this global minimum tax. As Kimberly Clausing, a professor of economics at Reed College who specializes in international taxation, told the Senate Finance Committee in early October, companies would be able to “use taxes paid in Germany to offset the Bermuda income and then you have an incentive to move income to both Bermuda and Germany.” Similarly, Ed Kleinbard, a law professor at USC and a former chief of staff of Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, told Bloomberg, “Companies will double down on tax-planning technologies to create a stream of zero-tax income that brings their average down to that minimum rate.”
...
Why would Trump and Republicans in Congress support a plan designed to incentivize sending jobs overseas and transferring tax revenues from the U.S. to other countries? The answer is that such a plan would please large multinational companies, who lobbied heavily for a minimum tax on foreign earnings to be watered down. In other words, instead of a minimum tax that would discourage companies from moving jobs and shifting profits overseas, Trump and congressional Republicans have settled on one that would encourage more of both.

This was tried several times in the past (1983, 2001), and it didn't work then either.  Why are we expecting any difference today?

 

[JohnRoberts]

For more evidence that politicians lack common sense, or integrity, (or both) is a proposed clawback clause in the tax cuts that kick in to increase tax rates "IF" the economic growth scored into the bill does not materialize.  How many politicians do you think will willingly raise taxes during a recession or economic growth contraction?  None with a clue, sounds like an empty promise no one expects to keep, or worse maybe some believe the BS.

If the economy is slowing, or not growing, it makes zero sense to raise taxes...  Smarter would be to crank in higher taxes if/when economic growth exceeds targets, to cool the economy to prevent overheating (a good problem to have). Likewise they should raise gas taxes when oil is cheap (like now) when the consumers won't feel it as hard.

JR

PS: I am not inclined to argue about the future but always willing to speculate about stuff like this. The way to tell when a politician is lying, is that his (her) lips are moving.

 

[dmp]

It's just nuts and totally devoid of common sense and integrity.

A tax cut to INCREASE the deficit already approaching a trillion dollars a year. The most recent deficit was $666 billion.
This tax cut will add $1.5 trillion of debt over ten years - probably push the deficit over a trillion dollars a year.
The debt is extremely high in historical terms, due to nearly 30 yrs of deficits brought on primarily by the Reagan and GWB tax cuts and both parties refusal to cut spending.
This current tax cut is hitting the gas when you're headed to a brick wall.

It would only be possible to put off the day of reckoning if interest rates could continue to decline (as they have for 30 years) but they are bouncing off zero now.

All late in the cycle of a bull market. Next economic downturn will be from excessive debt, rising interest rates, and it will hit hard. 

 

[hodad]

For more evidence that politicians lack common sense, or integrity, (or both) is a proposed clawback clause in the tax cuts that kick in to increase tax rates "IF" the economic growth scored into the bill does not materialize. 

If you're referencing what I think you are, it was a bone thrown to Bob Corker to get his support.  Of course, even this is contentious among Republicans.

The really grim part is that all those highly touted middle class tax breaks actually expire--having them go away was the only way to get the projected deficit increase down to 1.5 Trillion while still handing out huge breaks to the ultra-wealthy and to large corporations.

 

[Phrazemaster]

You know, if they wanted to simplify the tax code they should just take that new corporate rate 20% and make it the individual rate. No write offs, no itemized deductions - just 20% off the top. No ifs, ands or buts, and you pay it when you buy something just like sales tax.

Clean as clean can be, easy peasy.

But there's a reason the tax code is so twisted and confusing...

 

[Script]

You know, if they wanted to simplify the tax code they should just take that new corporate rate 20% and make it the individual rate. No write offs, no itemized deductions - just 20% off the top. No ifs, ands or buts, and you pay it when you buy something just like sales tax.

Interesting idea, although I guess high earners and the more affluent would sure love that one.

 

[tands]

You know, if they wanted to simplify the tax code they should just take that new corporate rate 20% and make it the individual rate. No write offs, no itemized deductions - just 20% off the top. No ifs, ands or buts, and you pay it when you buy something just like sales tax.

Clean as clean can be, easy peasy.

But there's a reason the tax code is so twisted and confusing...

Nobody here is confused. Like the rest of the world we have progressive taxation, so that if you get more benefit from the commons, you pay a higher percentage back into it. If you get less from it, you pay a lower percentage into it. It also helps reduce wealth inequality, to restrain capitalism's tendency toward hellscape. It's not 'twisted', and this 'simple, easy' framing is a scam someone sold you.