That's my guess. I also think they'll just keep pumping trillions into corporate ETFs and such to keep the market afloat till November. They can't keep propping it up forever.

His bonfire of the vanities interview is another classic.

YouTube

I say we start a Go Fund Me to raise money to give to the first reporter at a press conference who asks "Is it true when you were in the bunker you wet your pants?"

He was inspecting the absorption capabilities of said pants.

Trick question. He wears a diaper.

I would happily donate to this cause

As time passes, the stock market has become less of an indicator of the economy because 10% of Americans own 80% of it and our US economy is growing more dependent on service based industries and large contractors (military, infrastructure, tech, real estate, etc.) that is slower to “trickle down“ to the middle class than manufacturing/labor was. I feel like we are probably a similar age and learned the same rules of the market, but things are changing significantly with wealth disparity over the past 20-years.

What the hell happened to Rudy? Look at this interview from '07 on CSPAN when he was running for President and compare it to the interview today with Piers Morgan. He was actually articulate, intelligent and well spoken (and most notably not orange).

Former Mayor Giuliani Interview | C-SPAN.org

Compared to:

Not the US but seems that UK is doing the right thing (and it does belong in their court). GB has 66M pop. so the 2.9M is about a 4.4% increase in their population.

U.K. PM tells China that Britain will admit 3 Million from Hong Kong

Piers Morgan is a wind-up merchant and pure gutter press, and looks like Guiliani fell for it. He was right in that he didn’t swear, I think they misheard ‘sucked up’

However, I agree that Guiliani has significantly deteriorated mentally, but there are better examples than a Piers Morgan interview. Basically he got old.

If you really want to know, it's all in this Rolling Stone article:

Rudy Giuliani: What Happened to America's Mayor? - Rolling Stone

There's a whole litany of pulpy stuff in there to chew on...but if I cobble my poor recollection together and read between the lines, he completely alienated all of his original friends & family, including his children, got a new money-motivated 'trophy' wife that nobody else actually liked, she eventually decided she didn't like him either, divorced him and implied he couldn't get a boner anymore, he was constantly making poor financial decisions along the way, and somewhere in there he decided to drink all day.

it happens to the best of us

FWIW a data point that the economy is reviving. Obviously one month does not make trend and there are definitely going to be bumps in the road but it is good news.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/econo...rus/index.html

Small glimmer of hope. We're still, what, a net 18M jobs down? I'd love to see more signs of progress and hope it's not just a dead cat bounce.

SI

Another article I read yesterday said AA had record gains because their Jul projections were better than expectations so travel is coming back some.
What I know of college news (with the couple data points I have), they do plan to reopen in the Fall. And of course, Disney is reopening.

In my area, I have seen more people out and dining outdoors. We are ordering pick-up now (and I'm not insisting on microwaving the food first!).

So it is getting better for sure (until if/when there is a second wave).

I’m more than a little worried about Obama’s safety right now. I wouldn’t put anything past this administration. Especially when everything is crumbling and it’s obvious Trump has a vendetta.

And also Rudy

And make him a martyr?

SI

That will be great if it is the ceiling on unemployment levels and it is way better than the 20% that had been floated, but many businesses are staying afloat with the aid PPP and EIDL loans that require them to retain employees. As mentioned, pumping trillions of dollars into the economy is a great band-aid and I am fine with it (I'm also fine with higher taxes for better services).

For the past three months the government has been supplementing labor (with these PPP and EIDL loans) and funding its consumption with the $1200 stimulus checks and extra $600/week for unemployed that earn under $96,000/yr (smartly targeted on folks that will spend it quickly rather than save/invest it).

Keep an eye on August and September. Corporate taxes are typically due quarterly, but first two quarters were suspended until July 15th. I think a lot of business are not going to have the liquid assets to pay their taxes and will need to cut costs/payroll or go out of business. Even if they can pay, that money is going to go back into state and federal government (both of which have decreased revenue from the unemployment and taxes not being collected), where some if may recirculate into the economy (paying gov't contracts, state/fed insured medical costs, etc.), but much of it will just go into paying for costs and maintenance already incurred. Add that to the $600/wk unemployment benefit expiring on July 31st, and I think those months will have a pretty noticeable spike in unemployment.

I was more worried after he was inaugurated, but I fully believe that fuckwad in chief is looking for anything he can do. Truthfully, that's no different from anything else in the last 3 years.

I have noticed an uptick in the amount of "Q" shared information that is crossing my FB feed from people who by all accounts are smart and well educated former acquaintances and friends. I won't engage them, because frankly, I'm tired. I'm totally worn out and have my own struggles. I just can't figure out how that stuff makes them feel like they now have "the big picture". I don't know how to have any respect for them either. Like none. Like, you're not even worth being in my orbit, because we have nothing in common that would ever bring us together.

That's hard. Just like my thoughts this week on whether or not hoping that trump were dead makes me a bad person. I'm not one to go around and wish that on random people, or anyone. So the fact that I'm willing to simply jettison people who 'should' be in my orbit, and just stop caring about them as people brings me to a thoughtful place on how much I should care, and how much I should care about things that I can actually control, or that matter. I'm in my own head a lot these days and it's a struggle.

It's so depressing that 20k cases a day, 1k deaths a day, and 13% unemployment is cause for victory laps and a sense that everything is fine now.

You do realize that number is almost completely furloughed workers returning to work? We actually lost about half-million jobs in May.

I’ve worked for GOP candidates since I was 17, but this year it must be Country First. Proud to be joining ⁦@RVAT2020⁩ — Republican Voters Against Trump as a strategic advisor.

Here’s a TV spot we just whipped up. Releasing today. See you in MI, AZ, FL, PA, NC and more. pic.twitter.com/LPOnAm5Hsg

— Mike Murphy (@murphymike) June 5, 2020

I think these and the ads from Project Lincoln are really important. Partisans need permission to switch sides and both of these groups are working with that goal in mind. Any 2016 GOP voters that stay home or switch sides are crippling for Trump, who needs to expand his voter base.

Wow.. that was quite the ad. The Lincoln Project as well has been hard hitting.

Always count on Republicans for the best attack ads I guess...

I love the propaganda that is the Official White House daily blast:

Great American comeback: 2.5 million jobs in May!


Together, President Trump and American workers built the greatest economy on Earth. Now, as we safely reopen from Coronavirus, we are rebuilding stronger than ever!

“Experts” predicted that America would lose 7.5 million jobs last month. Instead, our country added 2.5 million—10 million more than expected.

🇺🇸 President Trump: We’re starting an incredible period of growth!

May’s 2.5 million jobs are the most new jobs ever recorded in a single month.

Across our country, America is coming back. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. small businesses are now open, up from the pandemic low of just 52 percent in April.

American workers helped slow the spread of Coronavirus by social distancing and following the guidelines of their local health officials. Many paid a price by losing their jobs to keep the rest of us safe. As we reopen America, they deserve this incredible news.

All told, last month our economy added:

• 1.2 MILLION leisure & hospitality jobs
• 464,000 construction jobs
• 424,000 education & healthcare jobs
• 368,000 retail jobs
• 225,000 manufacturing jobs

“We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. And that strength let us get through this horrible pandemic,” President Trump said.

“We’re going to be back there. I think we’re going to actually be back higher next year than ever before. And the only thing that can stop us is bad policy.”

WATCH: A record-breaking job surge across American industries!

READ: Economy trounces expectations by 10 million jobs

I like the new math where 2.5 million is 10 million more than 0.

Not that facts matter or anything, but after the parade is over, we're going to correctly count the millions of workers accidentally left off the unemployment rolls for this data point, and it will look a whole lot less impressive.

But yes, toot your horns, by all means. That is indeed how the game is played.

JFC

There is no bottom at Fox News pic.twitter.com/NDn1N8bZuI

— Akhil Vohra (@asv141) June 5, 2020

So, killing a black dude bumps the S&P? White dudes for the win.

The absurdity just knows no bounds

That has to be fake.

There's video.

In 2014 43% of Americans said that the killings in Ferguson and NYC were "signs of a broader problem" and 51% said they were "isolated incidents" in a Post-ABC poll

Today 74% say George Floyd's killing was a sign of a broader problem in a ABC-Ipsos poll

For as much as Trump famously denies reality, his existence has made it easier for others to see the truth. I don't think that that makes his Presidency worth it. But it is a bit of a silver lining.

Sooo.... anyone following this "Lady G" story?

Dexter Filkins: In a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump expressed a desire to quell the protests by sending forces...into American cities. Milley resisted. “They got into a shouting match,” the senior military official told me. Trump finally backed down. https://t.co/4w2fsYhabG

— Michael Luo (@michaelluo) June 6, 2020

This would help explain all of the letters and statements from military leaders a couple of days ago.

It's been a rumor for a long time that Graham is gay, but nothing had come of it so far that I chalked it up to wishful thinking. Has only the one escort spoke up so far? Hard to take it too seriously if no one else comes forward, and no serious network/journalist is researching it.

Living in SC though and being a gay man, I would love, love, LOVE that this be the thing that finally causes him to disappear from politics. His opponent in the election has basically pulled even with him in some of the latest polls so its certainly possible.

There are rumors that his transformation from vocal Trump critic to key Trump ally had something to do with dirt that Trump had on him about his sexual orientation.

No one (that I'm aware of) has ever found any truth to this rumor, and they have had a long time to look. I could see the guy that ran the Enquirer and was Trump's friend having the dirt on Graham though and sharing it with Trump. Something pretty clearly got him to change from his 2016 hostility to Trump to ass-kisser. Or he's just weak and bends whatever way the winds blow.

That's...wow.

The guy claims he has three other male escorts willing to back him up. Please, please, please let them have proof.

Yeah just one guy is not going to be enough to convince me.

Womp womp:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...F8rYR4F5UL-Ous


Still better than 19%, but wow, what an error.

Totally honest error, I'm sure

Si

They've been doing it since April.

This jobs report was so good, that people started calls to look into manipulation.

Then they came out ahead of it and announced the "mistake."

It's lies all the way down.

The April unemployment was supposed to be closer to 20%, with a bounce down to 16.6% for May.

Now imagine a time when an "error" like this wold have gone unreported because it was easier to suppress information. This is an administration straight out of a McCarthy era.

People are overthinking the Graham thing. The party embraced Trump, and he's a politician doing what almost all politicians do - surviving. It's virtually guaranteed to be no more complicated than that. The thing is, as much as we complain when politicians don't do what their constituents want, I'm not sure we have a lot of room to talk collectively.

I think a much better explanation for Graham is that he's a snippy little asshole who for a few years modified his behavior to try to impress John McCain. Look at his behavior in the House during the Clinton years.

I can feel the tumult now. I feel it in the air. Trump followers everywhere trying to decide whether to keep thinking the virus is a hoax or to complain about protesters spreading the virus

I've always thought that people trying to find the double secret reason why a GOP politician from South Carolina supports Trump were ignoring a pretty obvious point.

It would be much more noteworthy if the GOP senator from South Carolina didn't support Trump.

Everything's a con.

dola: For whatever it is worth, I do think that Graham is gay. And I feel really sad for him that he's had to live a closeted life. I wish that he could have been out and open and married and happy. Maybe he'd be a lawyer in Columbia instead of a Senator. Maybe that's not the life he wanted. Maybe making it to the Senate was worth everything for him. But I doubt it. And I wish for him that he could have been happy and honest instead.

The ones I've seen are siding with hoax -- there is all this protesting, so obviously the protesters (libs) are not really concerned about social distancing/virus spread at all, because if they were they wouldn't be out.

This. The closet eventually destroys people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...onal-monument/

President Trump signed a proclamation Friday that opened the Atlantic Ocean’s only fully protected marine sanctuary to commercial fishing, dismissing arguments that crab traps, fishing nets and lines dangling hooks can harm fish and whales.

Fishing can resume at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England, Trump said. The Obama administration closed off nearly 5,000 square miles of ocean in September 2016 to save whales and allow marine life to recover from overfishing. The controversial decision was praised by conservationists and challenged by commercial fishermen from the start.

“We’re opening it up today,” Trump declared during a roundtable discussion with commercial fishermen and Maine’s former Republican governor, Paul LePage. “We’re undoing his executive order. What was his reason? He didn’t have a reason, in my opinion."

The best idiot line from this entire thing:

I certainly agree that giving in to political pressure is a more likely reason for Graham's actions than some crazy bribery conspiracy, but I think the reason the Graham thing resonated so much isn't that he started supporting Trump, but that he did a complete 180 on specific issues, without so much as a Susan Collins "concern" on them.

I mean, Marco Rubio's version of supporting Trump is to ignore Trump's worst actions, attack liberals, and post bible quotes. Graham's departure from where he was in 2016 is much sharper.

He just could be wishy-washy. He used to follow McCain around, with him gone he's now Trump's lapdog.

Ted Cruz?

SI

Yeah, that's a good one, too. I do get great enjoyment out of thinking about how hard it must be for Cruz to stand by the guy who has personally insulted him and his family. It has to really eat him up inside. But he almost certainly would've been primaried in 2018 without it.

Still, Cruzz always felt more like he had personal/moral differences with Trump rather than political ones.

I know everybody is numb, but ...

Is a sitting President threatening people like a Mafia boss really the new normal ?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...66947938590721

I mean, this does mean what i think ? He is saying that unless the National Guard is treated well (whatever the fuck that means) he will bring in people that aren't so warm and fuzzy ? Also, how does that make the active military members feel, when they get presented like trained attack dogs doing their owners bidding or some shit while being pitted against american citizens ?

A WH staffer and wife of the head of CPAC retweeted a video of a guy yelling at protestors, at one point yelling fucking ni@#$$%. Is there any doubt that any other President would have already fired this person? And is there any doubt she's perfectly safe with Trump?

This woman is so good. She does these videos often, but this might be one of the best.

How to bunker pic.twitter.com/cu7StjllD0

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) June 6, 2020

The stupid Bible move didn't work, and may have even backfired. Approval rating among white Evangelicals has dropped from 77% in March to 62% this week.

It'll be back up to 77% by election time because of Biden's emails or something.

One of the more disappointing things to me over the past 4 years were the number of evangelical friends who were perfectly willing to blindly look past Trump's "sins" and try to justify him as "moral". I mean, if you want to play a means-justifies-the-ends game with conservative judges, etc - go ahead, but to pretend he's anything but an immoral man requires simply looking away. It's not forgiveness, it's willful ignorance and it's going to be something they have to answer for after they've shuffled off this mortal coil.

SI

You just know there's a solid WH faction saying "why didn't we just do this?"

FTFY


SI

Time to see if the NFL will kowtow back in line and risk player fallout or just stay silent and ignore bunker boy.

Erdogan running a test to see how stupid and gullible Trump really is.

#BREAKING Turkish president tells US' Trump those behind violence, looting in US are in cooperation with terrorist group PKK/YPG operating in northern Syria

— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) June 8, 2020

Hmmmm, I have also heard that the writers for the later season of Lost, the surviving members of Sublime, and paper straws are behind the violence and looting.

I mean there's no reason why Soros can't be funding both PKK *and* Antifa, right?

I don't know how likely this is, but holy shit, please!

403 Forbidden

I am do tired of winning. Can we please stop all the winning.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020

So if you lose, then you double your bet. And if you lose that, then you double it again. And you keep doubling your bet until you win.

A time-proven strategy.

I know we have become numb to just how low he can stoop, but man, that is some next level shit right there.

How anyone can support that is so beyond me.

Presumably he saw something on Fox News with this absurd story, right? He didn't, you know, just come up with this theory, of course. It involves multi syllable words and everything.

Imagine being him and thinking "yes, THIS is it, time to tweet it to everyone"

He tagged One America News Network. so I assume he saw it there.

If Fox is marijuana, then OANN is crystal meth.

They are not constrained by whatever fig leaf Fox has to keep on to pretend that it is a legitimate news organization.

Which is exactly what authoritarian and totalitarian regimes love. As long as it's a voice of support, feed, and amplify to legitimacy. I wonder if Bolsonaro has his own OANN yet?

The reporter for OANN works for Sputnick which is controlled by the Kremlin, so Russian disinformation straight to the twitter feed of the President.

There has to be a generation of former KGB guys just mesmerized by how easy this is.

I have gotten to the point where I shrug off most of his stupidity, but this is next level low and just infuriates me, beyond words, what a despicable, piece of shit!

He's going to "win" with this, won't he? In a few days (hours?), all the actual pro-Trump voices and their legions of bot accomplices will vocally take up the side that all the police violence is staged and should be discounted to zero. And the issue will become another red/blue "draw" because you have to pay attention to both sides. That's where this goes, doesn't it?

on the other hand...

We could be looking at an army of Antifa super soldiers genetically engineered to be old and fall over easily.

— Jason Roeder (@jasonroeder) June 9, 2020

lol

:D

One of the ironies here is that if the GOP had just let Obamacare's death panels kill all the elderly, then they wouldn't be around now to be Antifa super soldiers.

The law of unintended consequences wins again.

I'm not sure if you are looking for actual discussion or just making a joke but I feel like the "Defund the police" for all it's intended purposes may end up being 2021's "How the hell did Trump get elected again?" situation. People can argue with me on here (they do on other sites) all they want about what the real intent is and how it is being misportrayed etc but in the end Trump will talk about how cities like Minneapolis have no police at the debates and in rallies, Biden will respond with something that doesn't make sense and Trump will win on this issue. Seems like they should have learned their lesson with Hillary and Michael Brown's mother at the Democratic convention.

(I really don't want a Trump 2nd term any more than you guys but seems like the Democrats may be heading to their usual how to throw away an election that should be easy to win... see 2016, 2004, 2000...)

Heh

FWIW, Biden and his campaign has already responded as explicitly & loudly as they could yesterday.

Biden campaign opposes calls to 'defund the police' | TheHill

Biden Opposes Defunding Police, Campaign Says : Live Updates: Protests For Racial Justice : NPR

Biden supports reform but not the 'defund police' movement | USA News | Al Jazeera

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bid...gains-traction

Single poll disclaimer and all, but McConnell may be in trouble in Kentucky. A RMG poll shows McGrath with a 1 point lead overall that extends to 15 points when voters are informed that she supports Senateterm limits and McConnell doesn't.

Another poll has Greenfield up 3 on Ernst in Iowa.

Interesting. I admit I don't follow the news cycle continually but I think I do follow what is going on and I didn't know that. He really needs to distance from it because we both know that Trump can easily pin this on him. Especially if he catches flack from the far left and tries to dance around the edges of it.

The "defunding" phrasing is being used as El Cucuy in this narrative and really needs to be repurposed as reallocation of funding to better serve the community and Police force, ala what Camden NJ did. Even though the union has managed to creep back into the Camden department after I did some lengthy research on it last night, it still seems like a solid model to both improve policing and satisfy community leaders.

I worked with Matt Jones, who is a sports/politics radio/TV guy up there now and was flirting with the idea of running for the Dem nomination.

He made the (I think smart) decision to stay in radio/TV and avoid the stress of a campaign.

But I really wish he had run. Because if this is the once-every-20-years wave election that could actually take McConnell out, it would have been really neat to actually personally know a Senator.

She completely needs to tap into the libertarian base here. It's the path that killed Bevin and if she can exploit enough of it, it's the only path.

Keep it up!

I see Brian Kemp's dry run at suppressing the hell out of Georgia in November is going splendidly today

What's the best time to donate to the people running against McConnell and Graham?

Monday through Friday ;)

Early and often.

This is just no shock. The courts have already proven they are turning their backs on voter rights, why just not blatantly suppress votes?