Have a look at this graph - which is the US GDP growth rate over the past 120 months - and tell us what you notice about the growth rate over the last 29 months.
Attachment 3152
Printable View
Have a look at this graph - which is the US GDP growth rate over the past 120 months - and tell us what you notice about the growth rate over the last 29 months.
Attachment 3152
How witty!
Now look at these graphs of the other major economies
Attachment 3153
Attachment 3154
American TV are not covering today's July 4th celebrations, they must really hate their country.
No but a very steady improvement from the crash ,not a disaster that anti Trump folk predicted along with no WW3 .
Has anyone got any stats on these in the Trump era :
Unemployment up or down
Job creation up or down
Deaths in conflict zones up or down
Immigration up or down .
Terrorists incidents up or down
Detained terrorists up or down
The reason why I list the above will determine if he gets second term .
If he doesn't get a second terms , who are we going to talk about on CCMB, as discussing Boris, Corbyn , Brexit constructively seem to be no go areas ??
Wow those are some unbiased sources! Take a close look at the graphs in the first article, on Slate, and you can see the uptick on every measure during the Trump presidency. The way they have presented the graphs makes it hard to spot but zoom in and the evidence is clear.
I will grant you that the failed businessman and con artist hasn't completely screwed up the American capitalist economy. It has mostly carried on the course that it was on for years before he arrived in the White House. However he has increased debt, reduced spending, given tax breaks to his business buddies and the other rich, thrown endless tantrums around trade deals (Not 'The Art Of..'), threatened, backed off, chucked his toys, twitter stormed, claimed credit for things he didn't do and denied any responsibility for the things he did.... Somehow despite the infantile clown's performance he still gets MAGA groupies to declare that he 'is causing an economic miracle'!
He's not interested in economic growth or sustainability (choose one or the other - not both!) or jobs - he is interested in ratings and sycophancy.
Like Wales-Bales, my total neutrality on the question of Trump may be shifting just a little bit.
It's pretty simple. As an individual should your net income rise 3% from 12 months previously but inflation during that period was 5% then you have more money but become 2% poorer in real terms due to the currency's reduced purchasing power, and the longer those conditions persist the worse off you become. The GDP calculation also uses inflation as a deflator. Let's say in the USA the total amount spent on goods and services increased by 5% in 2018 and inflation was at 2% then you get a plus 3% GDP number, which is where it's at today. But what if the inflation number was a false calculation and the true rate was 10%? Then you'd have a GDP number of minus 5%.
Over there, as with everywhere else on the planet, the two most important elements of measuring inflation are the differences in the prices of food and energy year-on-year because they affect everyone. But not in Yank land. What a con! The reason being those prices are 'too volatile.' Too reflective of reality, more like. They had no problem including differences up until the early 1980s. The Chapwood Index (http://www.chapwoodindex.com/) tracks cost of living increases, shadowstats is another.
The inflation tax is the most regressive tax there is: the poorer someone is the harder they're hit. That's why income inequality is off the charts and Oxfam publishes reports like the one below.
Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world - https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/p...lth-half-world
Yesterday Trumpy called for the US dollar to be manipulated lower. He's forever demanding that US interest rates are cut too. He wants the gap in wealth to increase, not decrease, and his base support are so dumb they believe he's on their side. :hehe:
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
China and Europe playing big currency manipulation game and pumping money into their system in order to compete with USA. We should MATCH, or continue being the dummies who sit back and politely watch as other countries continue to play their games - as they have for many years!
65.5K
3:21 PM - Jul 3, 2019
We are currently in the midst of a propaganda war that has crossed international boundaries. It's running cold at the moment, but it has the potential to heat up, and the media are a driving force behind much of it. It's difficult to distinguish between those who are playing a role, and others who have been tricked into repeating the script because they haven't got a clue.
cheers , it should do as its a real big powerful country ,that over the decades has changed the world in so many ways mcuh of it positive,and to all of our benefit. I'm guessing their fear now is China and the like taking a chuck out of that expansion and wealth hence the aggressive tariff war and other posturing around the world and its attempts to realign its economics and power, as they feel has been eroded .
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...mp-in-pictures
You've seen it so many times before, a strutting tinpot dictator glorying at his country's military might while addressing his "adoring" subjects - the only difference is this bloke was elected (albeit with substantially less of the popular vote than his opponent), he really needs to be beaten next year!
I agree TOBW however perhaps we are trying to attach our feelings and moral outrage not the Americans,there not like us , they do like a leader ,there flag ,the crowds were there to view .
Folk did know all about Trump in the last election as the equally obnoxious Democats did the smears as did his own Republicans, who if you recall didn't want him at the beginning.
Need to up the same anti on Putin ,Kim, and other dreadful leaders for an even point of view and balanced criticism.
All politicians lie, it's just that some do it more than others.
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/ (true to half true 29%)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/barack-obama/ (true to half true 73%)
https://www.politifact.com/personali...llary-clinton/ (true to half true 72%)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/bill-clinton/ (true to half true 76%)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/john-mccain/ (true to half true 57%)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/mitt-romney/ (true to half true 58%)
https://www.politifact.com/personali...ernie-sanders/ (true to half true 74%)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/mike-pence/ (true to half true 52%)
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/nancy-pelosi/ (true to half true 53%)
Last month the Washington Post's count of Trump's false and misleading claims since he took office stood at 10,796 - he's a one off in terms of modern day American politics when it comes to the amount of lies told.
When is this Fred gunna end 🤔
In fairness he’s a gift that keeps giving....
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.r...ar-855742/amp/
It's the whataboutery again. No, the democrats aren't equally obnoxious. Nor are the Republicans, the Tories, Labour, whoever else you compare to.
Trump sucks up to authoritarians and insults democratically elected allies. He's the 'leader of the free world'. He pays off porn stars that he's slept with. He's on tape saying he can get away with sexually assaulting women because he's famous. He lies on a scale that's never been seen in the US or UK.
You're free to start a Putin thread and a Kim thread to discuss those if you have something to say.
Draining the swamp trump-style #558651
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trump's July 4 event will feature donated fireworks from an Ohio retailer who lobbied the WH against expanded tariffs on Chinese imports, ABC reports.<br><br>The day of the donation, Trump decided to hold off on tariffs on Chinese goods, which include fireworks.<a href="https://t.co/WjiqXJ7NnG">https://t.co/WjiqXJ7NnG</a></p>— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) <a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1146551693724794881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Putting aside the rights/wrongs of Trump for a few minutes, and just catching up with news/fake news, I'm only just catching up with the largely boycotted by MSM July 4 celebrations, a few days ago Trump crossed the DMZ alone with KIM, all the SS guys had done the work etc. but he crossed alone with no personal guard protection, I'm sure this would have been against the advice of his generals, I've seen a short tweet this morning showing him behind glass probably bullet proof etc. giving his speech in Washington, he felt safe in NK but in Washington, had to stand behind a protective shield!!! Merica has always for me, been an oddball of a place, however, I've only been to Texas (an old western type one horse town called Mineral Wells complete with cowboyz, New York and Florida, we are almost witnessing a 2nd revolution, but currently without firearms!!!!
Rex on quodverum
https://quodverum.com/2019/03/75/end...ion-nears.html
CrowdStrikeOut: Mueller’s Own Report Undercutst Its Core Russia-Meddling Claims
At a May press conference capping his tenure as special counsel, Robert Mueller emphasized what he called "the central allegation" of the two-year Russia probe. The Russian government, Mueller sternly declared, engaged in "multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election, and that allegation deserves the attention of every American." Mueller's comments echoed a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) asserting with "high confidence" that Russia conducted a sweeping 2016 election influence campaign. "I don't think we've ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process," then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate hearing.
While the 448-page Mueller report found no conspiracy between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, it offered voluminous details to support the sweeping conclusion that the Kremlin worked to secure Trump's victory. The report claims that the interference operation occurred "principally" on two fronts: Russian military intelligence officers hacked and leaked embarrassing Democratic Party documents, and a government-linked troll farm orchestrated a sophisticated and far-reaching social media campaign that denigrated Hillary Clinton and promoted Trump.
But a close examination of the report shows that none of those headline assertions are supported by the report’s evidence or other publicly available sources. They are further undercut by investigative shortcomings and the conflicts of interest of key players involved:
- The report uses qualified and vague language to describe key events, indicating that Mueller and his investigators do not actually know for certain whether Russian intelligence officers stole Democratic Party emails, or how those emails were transferred to WikiLeaks.
- The report's timeline of events appears to defy logic. According to its narrative, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced the publication of Democratic Party emails not only before he received the documents but before he even communicated with the source that provided them.
- There is strong reason to doubt Mueller’s suggestion that an alleged Russian cutout called Guccifer 2.0 supplied the stolen emails to Assange.
- Mueller’s decision not to interview Assange – a central figure who claims Russia was not behind the hack – suggests an unwillingness to explore avenues of evidence on fundamental questions.
- U.S. intelligence officials cannot make definitive conclusions about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee computer servers because they did not analyze those servers themselves. Instead, they relied on the forensics of CrowdStrike, a private contractor for the DNC that was not a neutral party, much as “Russian dossier” compiler Christopher Steele, also a DNC contractor, was not a neutral party. This puts two Democrat-hired contractors squarely behind underlying allegations in the affair – a key circumstance that Mueller ignores.
- Further, the government allowed CrowdStrike and the Democratic Party's legal counsel to submit redacted records, meaning CrowdStrike and not the government decided what could be revealed or not regarding evidence of hacking.
- Mueller’s report conspicuously does not allege that the Russian government carried out the social media campaign. Instead it blames, as
- Mueller said in his closing remarks, "a private Russian entity" known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA).
- Mueller also falls far short of proving that the Russian social campaign was sophisticated, or even more than minimally related to the 2016 election. As with the collusion and Russian hacking allegations, Democratic officials had a central and overlooked hand in generating the alarm about Russian social media activity.
- John Brennan, then director of the CIA, played a seminal and overlooked role in all facets of what became Mueller’s investigation: the suspicions that triggered the initial collusion probe; the allegations of Russian interference; and the intelligence assessment that purported to validate the interference allegations that Brennan himself helped generate. Yet Brennan has since revealed himself to be, like CrowdStrike and Steele, hardly a neutral party -- in fact a partisan with a deep animus toward Trump.
https://www.realclearinvestigations....ng_claims.html
Totally predictable reaction from Trump to the Diplomat row;-
https://www.ft.com/content/0b57ad82-...c-ad1c6ab5efd1