POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[romad1]

19 minutes ago, oblong said:

I can see that.  The hardcore protestants think dancing is a sin (Footloose is real, people) so I also wondered if it was meant to convey a "safe" style of dancing, that wasn't devilish.   

The old joke, why don't baptists have sex standing up?  Could lead to dancing

 

Meanwhile,  I have witnessed Mormons -- who don't drink at weddings -- putting on dancing exhibitions that would put the cast of "Breakin" and "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" to shame. 

[1984Echoes]

5 hours ago, ewsieg said:

Do you actually believe this or is it just a good talking point so you roll with it?

I don't have to believe this, it's the truth.

He purged his assigned Secret Service agents and replaced them with loyal supporters only, in the Secret Service. The culmination on Jan 6th...?

This:

https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-ties-donald-trump-ring-alarm-bells-jan-6-revelations-1720584

[CMRivdogs]

This should be an interesting case. Considering a certain "conservative" Governor who ran on school and classroom choice. The mothers here basically say I respect you not wanting your child to read certain books, but in doing so don't restrict MY Child from reading...

 

[ewsieg]

10 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

I don't have to believe this, it's the truth.

He purged his assigned Secret Service agents and replaced them with loyal supporters only, in the Secret Service. The culmination on Jan 6th...?

This:

https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-ties-donald-trump-ring-alarm-bells-jan-6-revelations-1720584

Trump wasn't competent enough to get a cabinet full of folks that would be loyal supporters to him, yet he somehow turned over about 3000 secret service agents?   If he was able to do this and it took the 1/6 investigation to even give an example regarding a few of his direct agents (at the very end of his term, meaning he pulled this off in a few weeks), than I might have to vote for the guy and hope he can get a chief of staff that will put that amazing ability to good use in a second term.

[1984Echoes]

10 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

Trump wasn't competent enough to get a cabinet full of folks that would be loyal supporters to him, yet he somehow turned over about 3000 secret service agents?   If he was able to do this and it took the 1/6 investigation to even give an example regarding a few of his direct agents (at the very end of his term, meaning he pulled this off in a few weeks), than I might have to vote for the guy and hope he can get a chief of staff that will put that amazing ability to good use in a second term.

I didn't state that he replaced 3,000 agents. Quit misrepresenting my posts. Or else find where I stated that specifically.

He replaced all of his Secret Agents (purged) that were not loyal to him with loyal supporters. That does not say he replaced 3,000 agents. He has corrupted the Secret Service. That also does not state 3,000 agents were replaced by him.

Corrupted enough that Biden took specific actions:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/31/joe-biden-secret-service-team-trump-loyalty

PS: Tell me how Pence reacted to his Secret Service agents when they tried to get him into a car on Jan 6th? He absolutely trusted them, correct? Oh wait... they weren't CORRUPTED, were they?

Edited May 17, 2023 by 1984Echoes

[chasfh]

On 5/16/2023 at 7:31 PM, 1984Echoes said:

It was MAGA so they let the dude pass through...

Secret Service is compromised/ corrupted.

Beginning with Trump's purge and recruitment of Trump supporters only in the SS.

Sadly, this is not unlikely.

[chasfh]

Greedflation—not just a conspiracy theory anymore ...

1 big thing: "Greedflation" goes mainstream

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Once dismissed as a fringe theory, the idea that corporate thirst for profits drives up inflation, aka "greedflation," is now being taken more seriously by economists, policymakers and the business press, Emily writes. Why it matters: Though inflation is starting to come down, it still remains well above the Fed's target level of 2%, and understanding what's causing inflation is key to combatting it — now and the next time. The idea that profits drove our current bout of inflation surfaced in the last few years among progressive economists and lawmakers but was waved away by more mainstream types as a "conspiracy theory." That changed earlier this year. In a speech in January, then-Fed vice chair Lael Brainard said wages weren't the main driver of inflation and pointed to a "price-price spiral," where companies mark up prices far higher than the increases in their input costs. In March, the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, Paul Donovan, published a note on "profit margin-led inflation," describing how in late 2022 and into this year, companies — particularly retailers and consumer goods makers — convinced consumers that they needed to raise prices. (They didn't really.) Most of the time, these companies have "weak pricing power," meaning they depend on repeat customers and can't just wildly increase prices because consumers will abandon them, he says. But businesses both large and small had a convincing story to tell: They really didn’t want to raise prices, but there was "this terrible war or the pandemic or labor shortages or whatever," Donovan tells Axios. "That's what's basically been going on." With so much in flux, people were more accepting of higher costs for everything, and more convinced companies HAD to raise prices. In earnings conference calls last year especially, executives spoke in corporate lingo about consumers accepting such price increases. A few weeks after Donovan's paper came out, European Central Bank executive board member Fabio Panetta expressed worries that inflation growth was "due to increasing profits." The following month, a column in Bloomberg Opinion drew attention to increasing profit margins and urged consumers to push back. "The idea that corporate profit expansion has been a big driver of inflation was once mostly confined to trade unions and left-wing academics, but it’s now taken seriously by central bankers," the authors wrote. By May, the Wall Street Journal published a story on how corporate profits were keeping inflation high, citing the work of Isabella Weber, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was derided for her work on the topic back in late 2021. In a stunning comeback this month, The Times of London profiled Weber's rise from a lone voice to a star economist who's drawn attention to the notion that companies and certain sectors can drive inflation. What she's saying: "Suddenly everybody wants to know how to think about inflation differently," Weber tells Axios. She's been inundated with calls recently, she says, from central bankers, Parliamentarians, think tanks and academics — and reporters, of course.

[gehringer_2]

21 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Greedflation—not just a conspiracy theory anymore ...

1 big thing: "Greedflation" goes mainstream

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Once dismissed as a fringe theory, the idea that corporate thirst for profits drives up inflation, aka "greedflation," is now being taken more seriously by economists, policymakers and the business press, Emily writes. Why it matters: Though inflation is starting to come down, it still remains well above the Fed's target level of 2%, and understanding what's causing inflation is key to combatting it — now and the next time. The idea that profits drove our current bout of inflation surfaced in the last few years among progressive economists and lawmakers but was waved away by more mainstream types as a "conspiracy theory." That changed earlier this year. In a speech in January, then-Fed vice chair Lael Brainard said wages weren't the main driver of inflation and pointed to a "price-price spiral," where companies mark up prices far higher than the increases in their input costs. In March, the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, Paul Donovan, published a note on "profit margin-led inflation," describing how in late 2022 and into this year, companies — particularly retailers and consumer goods makers — convinced consumers that they needed to raise prices. (They didn't really.) Most of the time, these companies have "weak pricing power," meaning they depend on repeat customers and can't just wildly increase prices because consumers will abandon them, he says. But businesses both large and small had a convincing story to tell: They really didn’t want to raise prices, but there was "this terrible war or the pandemic or labor shortages or whatever," Donovan tells Axios. "That's what's basically been going on." With so much in flux, people were more accepting of higher costs for everything, and more convinced companies HAD to raise prices. In earnings conference calls last year especially, executives spoke in corporate lingo about consumers accepting such price increases. A few weeks after Donovan's paper came out, European Central Bank executive board member Fabio Panetta expressed worries that inflation growth was "due to increasing profits." The following month, a column in Bloomberg Opinion drew attention to increasing profit margins and urged consumers to push back. "The idea that corporate profit expansion has been a big driver of inflation was once mostly confined to trade unions and left-wing academics, but it’s now taken seriously by central bankers," the authors wrote. By May, the Wall Street Journal published a story on how corporate profits were keeping inflation high, citing the work of Isabella Weber, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was derided for her work on the topic back in late 2021. In a stunning comeback this month, The Times of London profiled Weber's rise from a lone voice to a star economist who's drawn attention to the notion that companies and certain sectors can drive inflation. What she's saying: "Suddenly everybody wants to know how to think about inflation differently," Weber tells Axios. She's been inundated with calls recently, she says, from central bankers, Parliamentarians, think tanks and academics — and reporters, of course.

HaHa, we have everything in this market economy worshipping society except effective competition? Who'da thunk?

High profits should drive the entry of new competitors into high return industries. But the Corporate world has been so good at rent-seeking from governments that they have succeeded in lowering actual competition by the establishment of legal environments favorable to the biggest players to the point were competion disappears.

[chasfh]

15 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

HaHa, we have everything in this market economy worshipping society except effective competition? Who'da thunk?

High profits should drive the entry of new competitors into high return industries. But the Corporate world has been so good at rent-seeking from governments that they have succeeded in lowering actual competition by the establishment of legal environments favorable to the biggest players to the point were competion disappears.

As long as phrases like "free market" and "market economy" and "market competition" and "capitalism" are deployed, the voting useful idiots will be satisfied and none among them will be motivated to look too closely under the hood.

[CMRivdogs]

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[1984Echoes]

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

 

That be me.

[1984Echoes]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

CUE:

DeSantis Alligator Tears... lots of them...

[gehringer_2]

20 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

getting a little more background on this, spiting DeSantis certainly plays a big part, but there are apparently a few additional moving parts here, as you might expect in any big corporate move. One is that this development was not an Iger project, and when he inherited it he was not big on the idea a moving a chunk of the creative management talent away from the studio in CA. Disney is apparently also not thrilled with the increasing prospect of FLA allowing inceased Casino activity near Disney venues. So some additional parallel motivations.

[Archie]

I'm sure the fight with DeSantis may have played a small part but I doubt it was the deciding factor. Disney is not doing well and is cutting everywhere. Besides the mass layoffs going on, they just announced they are shutting down their star wars galactic starcruiser that opened a year or so ago at WDW. 

[chasfh]

2 minutes ago, Archie said:

I'm sure the fight with DeSantis may have played a small part but I doubt it was the deciding factor. Disney is not doing well and is cutting everywhere. Besides the mass layoffs going on, they just announced they are shutting down their star wars galactic starcruiser that opened a year or so ago at WDW. 

Reads to me as though the jobs were coming from California, and now they're going to stay in California:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/business/disney-ron-desantis-florida.html

In March, Disney called Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida “anti-business” for his scorched-earth attempt to tighten oversight of the company’s theme park resort near Orlando. Last month, when Disney sued the governor and his allies for what it called “a targeted campaign of government retaliation,” the company made clear that $17 billion in planned investment in Walt Disney World was on the line.

“Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, said on an earnings-related conference call with analysts last week.

On Thursday, Mr. Iger and Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, showed that they were not bluffing, pulling the plug on an office complex that was scheduled for construction in Orlando at a cost of roughly $1 billion. It would have brought more than 2,000 Disney jobs to the region, with $120,000 as the average salary, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

The project, near Lake Nona Town Center, was supposed to cost $864 million, but recent price estimates have been closer to $1.3 billion. Disney had planned to relocate as many as 2,000 employees from Southern California, including most of a department known as Imagineering, which works with Disney’s movie studios to develop theme park attractions.

Most of the affected employees complained bitterly about having to move — some quit — but Disney held firm, partly because of a Florida tax credit that would have allowed the company to recoup as much as $570 million over 20 years for building and occupying the complex.

When he announced the project in 2021, Mr. D’Amaro cited “Florida’s business-friendly climate” as justification.

Mr. D’Amaro’s tone in an email to employees on Thursday was notably chillier. He cited “changing business conditions” as a reason for canceling the Lake Nona project. “I remain optimistic about the direction of our Walt Disney World business,” Mr. D’Amaro said in the memo. He noted that $17 billion was still earmarked for construction at Disney World over the next decade — growth that would create an estimated 13,000 jobs. “I hope we’re able to,” he said.

[ewsieg]

On 5/17/2023 at 2:01 PM, 1984Echoes said:

PS: Tell me how Pence reacted to his Secret Service agents when they tried to get him into a car on Jan 6th? He absolutely trusted them, correct? Oh wait... they weren't CORRUPTED, were they?

Actually by the actions they took, it appears they weren't corrupted.  But yes, he had some serious doubts.  Which sidebar, is why he should never be allowed back into the GOP.  He sat there and played that 'executive power' bull**** with the 1/6 committee when he truly felt that Trump would have no problem having him killed.  He's a power hungry coward that thinks he can somehow win and that's more important than helping ensure Trump never gets near the White House again...pathetic.

But back to what you said, yes, Trump wanted people that were more loyal to him.  Biden didn't necessarily trust them, just like Pence didn't.  But you're talking a small contingent of the presidential detail.  It's ridiculous to jump to the conclusion that Trump is at fault and wanted this national advisor dead, hence he somehow turned over and got rid of every SS that wasn't loyal to him in the DC area, not those a part of the presidential team.  Then they purposefully let an intruder go in just to land themselves in the hot seat with their bosses.  

[Tiger337]

On 5/18/2023 at 12:56 PM, chasfh said:

Greedflation—not just a conspiracy theory anymore ...

1 big thing: "Greedflation" goes mainstream

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Once dismissed as a fringe theory, the idea that corporate thirst for profits drives up inflation, aka "greedflation," is now being taken more seriously by economists, policymakers and the business press, Emily writes. Why it matters: Though inflation is starting to come down, it still remains well above the Fed's target level of 2%, and understanding what's causing inflation is key to combatting it — now and the next time. The idea that profits drove our current bout of inflation surfaced in the last few years among progressive economists and lawmakers but was waved away by more mainstream types as a "conspiracy theory." That changed earlier this year. In a speech in January, then-Fed vice chair Lael Brainard said wages weren't the main driver of inflation and pointed to a "price-price spiral," where companies mark up prices far higher than the increases in their input costs. In March, the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, Paul Donovan, published a note on "profit margin-led inflation," describing how in late 2022 and into this year, companies — particularly retailers and consumer goods makers — convinced consumers that they needed to raise prices. (They didn't really.) Most of the time, these companies have "weak pricing power," meaning they depend on repeat customers and can't just wildly increase prices because consumers will abandon them, he says. But businesses both large and small had a convincing story to tell: They really didn’t want to raise prices, but there was "this terrible war or the pandemic or labor shortages or whatever," Donovan tells Axios. "That's what's basically been going on." With so much in flux, people were more accepting of higher costs for everything, and more convinced companies HAD to raise prices. In earnings conference calls last year especially, executives spoke in corporate lingo about consumers accepting such price increases. A few weeks after Donovan's paper came out, European Central Bank executive board member Fabio Panetta expressed worries that inflation growth was "due to increasing profits." The following month, a column in Bloomberg Opinion drew attention to increasing profit margins and urged consumers to push back. "The idea that corporate profit expansion has been a big driver of inflation was once mostly confined to trade unions and left-wing academics, but it’s now taken seriously by central bankers," the authors wrote. By May, the Wall Street Journal published a story on how corporate profits were keeping inflation high, citing the work of Isabella Weber, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was derided for her work on the topic back in late 2021. In a stunning comeback this month, The Times of London profiled Weber's rise from a lone voice to a star economist who's drawn attention to the notion that companies and certain sectors can drive inflation. What she's saying: "Suddenly everybody wants to know how to think about inflation differently," Weber tells Axios. She's been inundated with calls recently, she says, from central bankers, Parliamentarians, think tanks and academics — and reporters, of course.

I have always assumed that greed ALWAYS plays at least a minor role in inflation.  

[oblong]

I don’t think Pence didn’t get into the car because he feared for his safety. It was because he had strong suspicions they wouldn’t agree to bring him back. Is that because they planned it that way or they just wouldn’t think it would be safe?  He knew the process started on January 6 had to be completed.  

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I have always assumed that greed ALWAYS plays at least a minor role in inflation.  

The question is "Whose Greed"?

TPTB love to blame it on greedy serfs and their grubby socialist labor unions driving wages, heaven forbid you point the camera back on them for driving prices.

😱

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

The question is "Whose Greed"?

TPTB love to blame it on greedy serfs and their grubby socialist labor unions driving wages, heaven forbid you point the camera back on them for driving prices.

😱

It’s the redirection toward the grubby serfs, grubby unions, and their supposed grubby Democratic patrons that allows the greedflation to proliferate under the radar. 

[Motor City Sonics]

On 5/18/2023 at 2:54 PM, CMRivdogs said:

 

Thank God !

[Tigeraholic1]

I know I know it’s Fox News BUT very interesting.

 

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

In honor of Memorial Day for a couple of folks around here since this is what the right now thinks of POWs and MIA.