Unfit Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

[kramerica.inc]

Trump didn't dismantle the swamp like he promised at all. Just wanted his own cut like he does with everything else.
Trump was enough of an interloper that he scared the career politicians. He didn't grift like (IN THE SAME STYLE) they do. His loud rhetoric was too obvious and was enough to scare the career or quiet grifters in DC about getting caught. Now all the career criminals can get back to quietly lining their pockets.

[RedFromMI]

Trump didn't dismantle the swamp like he promised at all. Just wanted his own cut like he does with everything else.
Trump was enough of an interloper that he scared the career politicians. He didn't grift like they do. His loud rhetoric was too obvious and was enough to scare the career or quiet grifters in DC about getting caught. Now all the career criminals can get back to lining their pockets.

Didn't grift? C'mon - Trump is a champion grifter. Even his fundraising for "election battles" has 75% going into a slush campaign fund.

It is the allowance of even more grifting than before, although with an admittedly different set of grifters that is happening under Trump. Look at the quality of his hires (mostly incompetents...)

[kramerica.inc]

Trump didn't dismantle the swamp like he promised at all. Just wanted his own cut like he does with everything else.
Trump was enough of an interloper that he scared the career politicians. He didn't grift like they do. His loud rhetoric was too obvious and was enough to scare the career or quiet grifters in DC about getting caught. Now all the career criminals can get back to lining their pockets.

Didn't grift? C'mon - Trump is a champion grifter. Even his fundraising for "election battles" has 75% going into a slush campaign fund.

It is the allowance of even more grifting than before, although with an admittedly different set of grifters that is happening under Trump. Look at the quality of his hires (mostly incompetents...)

Clarification-
"Didn't grift like" = "in the same style"
Edited above for clarification.

[MDlaxfan76]

Trump didn't dismantle the swamp like he promised at all. Just wanted his own cut like he does with everything else.
Trump was enough of an interloper that he scared the career politicians. He didn't grift like they do. His loud rhetoric was too obvious and was enough to scare the career or quiet grifters in DC about getting caught. Now all the career criminals can get back to lining their pockets.

Didn't grift? C'mon - Trump is a champion grifter. Even his fundraising for "election battles" has 75% going into a slush campaign fund.

It is the allowance of even more grifting than before, although with an admittedly different set of grifters that is happening under Trump. Look at the quality of his hires (mostly incompetents...)

Clarification-
"Didn't grift like" = "in the same style"
Edited above for clarification.

Difference in proportion, not just style.

There is no doubt that some, perhaps many, politicians 'grift' a bit, usually at a penny ante level.

The Trump crew has taken it to epic, brazen proportions.
And yet, 70 million said 'cool', give'em another 4 years.

[kramerica.inc]

Trump didn't dismantle the swamp like he promised at all. Just wanted his own cut like he does with everything else.
Trump was enough of an interloper that he scared the career politicians. He didn't grift like they do. His loud rhetoric was too obvious and was enough to scare the career or quiet grifters in DC about getting caught. Now all the career criminals can get back to lining their pockets.

Didn't grift? C'mon - Trump is a champion grifter. Even his fundraising for "election battles" has 75% going into a slush campaign fund.

It is the allowance of even more grifting than before, although with an admittedly different set of grifters that is happening under Trump. Look at the quality of his hires (mostly incompetents...)

Clarification-
"Didn't grift like" = "in the same style"
Edited above for clarification.

Difference in proportion, not just style.

There is no doubt that some, perhaps many, politicians 'grift' a bit, usually at a penny ante level.

The Trump crew has taken it to epic, brazen proportions.
And yet, 70 million said 'cool', give'em another 4 years.

When you know you could only be there for 4 years, you need to step up the grifting timeframe. When you dont have term limits and have a lifetime to do it, you can take your time.

[MDlaxfan76]

Trump didn't dismantle the swamp like he promised at all. Just wanted his own cut like he does with everything else.
Trump was enough of an interloper that he scared the career politicians. He didn't grift like they do. His loud rhetoric was too obvious and was enough to scare the career or quiet grifters in DC about getting caught. Now all the career criminals can get back to lining their pockets.

Didn't grift? C'mon - Trump is a champion grifter. Even his fundraising for "election battles" has 75% going into a slush campaign fund.

It is the allowance of even more grifting than before, although with an admittedly different set of grifters that is happening under Trump. Look at the quality of his hires (mostly incompetents...)

Clarification-
"Didn't grift like" = "in the same style"
Edited above for clarification.

Difference in proportion, not just style.

There is no doubt that some, perhaps many, politicians 'grift' a bit, usually at a penny ante level.

The Trump crew has taken it to epic, brazen proportions.
And yet, 70 million said 'cool', give'em another 4 years.

When you know you could only be there for 4 years, you need to step up the grifting timeframe. When you dont have term limits and have a lifetime to do it, you can take your time.

True.
But you'd agree, yes, that the Trump crew have taken it to epic, brazen proportions that dwarf anything previously seen by ANY prior crew in office, at any level, term limits or lifetime? And throw in the post Presidency run of the Clintons for that matter...

Let's not equivocate on this, it's not remotely a close call.

The question is whether we should care...

And if not, why?

[kramerica.inc]

We should care.

It’s no different from being mugged. You just don’t know it’s happening.

[kramerica.inc]

But most of the grifting doesn’t happen directly. It’s the side hustles and inside info that allows for good “choices” on real estate, investments, and stocks that really pay off.

[Farfromgeneva]

Of course it could be a pro Biden swing. Or a pro trump Swing. He had things going the right direction before the Rona hit.

All I read is it’s probably excitement about split gov and no likely major policy changes.

Aside from the stock market, which is not the economy, can you point to quantitative or measurable items that indicate the president had things going in the right direction economically? And I would point out that economists who lean both Ways have exposed massive flaws in the measurement of unemployment rate, they are all working towards a better measurement to eventually be adopted by the government which would apply underemployed, meaning people working but below the level they need to support themselves effectively. By this measurement we weren’t doing very good.

So not applying a flawed UE rate and understanding the stock market doesn’t mean anything, what did he have going well?

GDP growth?
Stability of the dollar?
Budget deficit?
Productivity?
Inflation? (Why did we have Powell lowering Fed Funds prior to Rona if inflation was stable at the long run benchmark? Deflation is 100x worse than inflation when it hits you surely know)
Other metrics?

wage growth was probably the best metric
https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2019/
a lot of numbers someone can not like in there (wage inequality, others), but as a result of the already tightening employment picture prior and since, wages had a lot of beneficiaries.

The underemployment metric would suggest it wasn’t nearly enough to declare success. I would also note it took a long time after the financial crisis for wage growth to make ground. Stabilization took 4-5yrs into 2013, then we had the “taper tantrum” that summer because, oh god the Fed is going to raise rates, then the biyach Fed backed off and let the market have their way. There was almost no way to see true wage growth until 2014 or 2015.

And while that’s a nice metric, it’s not enough to state the “economy was humming” under this soon to be prior admin. Fact is things were weakening in 2019 for sure.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/mobil ... r-2019.htm

total employment had been climbing.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/269 ... ed-states/
as had wages. started in 2014 for both in unison. i guess you can have any take you wish.

As can you. That one statistic in isolation without any discussion of distribution, inflation or population is hardly enough to hang ones hat on that the economy was humming or doing well, which is what was stated as fact, prior to Covid in spite of GDP, underemployment, affordability and about a hundred other metrics yet you throw it out there with no context as if to suggest it alone and with no context is sufficient evidence. So like you said you can have any take you wish.

the first link i gave you was in real terms (inflation), i also initially gave it with the caveat of wage growth inequality (your distribution?). you asked for us worker population for context vis a vis total employment/underemployment, which i gave you as flattened (and is cut off from this post as we've each had a reply since).
you asked what was going well. oh, well.

No I asked a person who stated that the economy was going well to point to something factual. You threw out one metric, sure I can agree that's a good thing and think I already acknowledged that, but it's also not nearly enough to say "the economy was going well". Your caveat isn't a minor thing either when discussing the economy as a whole don't you think. To me that negates the entire premise if it's skewed such to leave significant portion of the populace. It's as if you picked one sentence out of a conversation and threw one, flawed when including the "caveat", metric out and that's the entire counterpoint. Is that what your intention was with this? Did you read what I originally replied to at all? Or is the whole methodology to only play devils advocate to others and never take a position to stand behind?

ok. didn't catch you wanted a list. and i didn't say the caveat made it flawed, though some can argue that.
gdp growth was fine even if not late 90s.
unemployment was good to very good.
inflation, tough to judge a perfect metric but was not outside any kind of rangebound issue, so good also. ask powell why he did what he did.
non farm productivity good.
stability of the dollar historically better than average.
budget deficit horse out of the barn without a cowboy around.. so, not good.

let's hope we get on good footing when and if this is over.

Not a list, a cogent, quantitative based argument to support the statement made that “the economy was doing well before Covid). Those two sub 2% GDP prints and the Fed cutting Fed Funds alone are pretty hard to argue against.

But you also didn’t make the statement, so other than just playing devils advocate, would you state out of personal belief the economy was doing well before Covid? Basically 2nd half of 2019 maybe include Jan but not full Q1 of 2020? Or is this just a theoretical argument from you?

sub 2% prints for a quarter are pretty common. it's typically not a straight line, and if consistency by quarter matters, the prior three years were more consistent than most:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/188 ... in-the-us/
there's no question low rates and an accommodative federal government were part of what helped things along. i'm glad it got into people's pocketbooks, at the least.
can we envision an extended 3+% run on gdp with a lot of related wins on employment, wages, etc. at our size? not impossible, i guess. we haven't seen it in a long time, but sure. @ a relatively consistent 2.7 to 2.3% from 2017-2019, i'd take that if people's livelihoods are getting better.

Those two prints in four quarters happened in 2018 including Q4. The higher prints were within 12-15mo of that tax law change. Coincidence? Using a blended average over four years would overweight the tax law change which happens fairly infrequently. I’m not so sure the distribution is clean which makes that a huge “if” in your last sentence.

Take a look at this chart. 2019 was not going well, particularly second half of the year. It’s quite clear to people paying attention a day to date that things “were not going well before Covid”. That is something people believed in 2018 but 2018 was a different animal and it’s incongruous you suggest the Fed would’ve been dropping rates in 2019 if they thought things were going well. They’re not perfect but they have better information than we do and Powell is tighter than Yellen is philosophically.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A191RL1Q225SBEA

I still don’t see a positive argument as to what you believe was the state of the economy going into Covid. Not some abstract 3yr avg including a once in a decade tax code change and declining fed funds and loosening monetary policy (certainly compared with 2014-2016), but what do you think was the condition of the economy going into Covid, call it last quarter or so of 2019 and maybe the first month or two of 2020 give or take?

By the way, at least your providing evidence for an argument, even if it’s not one you made. Better than someone making a claim and then stepping back in after you attempted some counterpoint on said individuals behalf and then that person stepping back in with some moronic comment that clearly demonstrates that persons lack of understanding of the topic they made the initial claim on.

[kramerica.inc]

A topic near and dear to Brookie’s heart:

Biden’s silence on The Drone Wars:

https://theinterceptddd.com/2020/11/22/ ... less-wars/

[kramerica.inc]

Biden Picks a Woman for intelligence:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytime ... s.amp.html

[seacoaster]

Biden Picks a Woman for intelligence:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytime ... s.amp.html

These folks seem strangely qualified. It's unnerving relying on expertise and experience.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Biden Picks a Woman for intelligence:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytime ... s.amp.html

These folks seem strangely qualified. It's unnerving relying on expertise and experience.

When is Biden appointing Don Lemon and Judge Judy?

[CU88]

Best part of transition so far, is that none of the statements are starting with "First, I want to thanks President Biden for being so awesome and such a great human being and Leader. He is sure to be the best president in US history..."

That godawful cock sucking was just terrible.

I am also pretty sure that none of his team has called the Russian Ambassador to cut deals.

[kramerica.inc]

The level of hate here is inspirational.

[kramerica.inc]

Biden chooses Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary:


https://www.npr.org/2020/11/23/93812479 ... -secretary

[wgdsr]

Best part of transition so far, is that none of the statements are starting with "First, I want to thanks President Biden for being so awesome and such a great human being and Leader. He is sure to be the best president in US history..."

That godawful cock sucking was just terrible.

I am also pretty sure that none of his team has called the Russian Ambassador to cut deals.

and here i am turning into a pretzel every time i want to use a cuss word on here without it turning into "jerk".

[kramerica.inc]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/23/politics ... index.html

The General Services Administration has informed President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is ready to begin the formal transition process, according to a letter from Administrator Emily Murphy sent Monday afternoon and obtained by CNN.

The letter is the first step the administration has taken to acknowledge President Donald Trump's defeat, more than two weeks after Biden was declared the winner in the election.
Murphy said she had not been pressured by the White House to delay the formal transition and did not make a decision "out of fear or favoritism."
"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts," Murphy wrote. "I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official -- including those who work at the White House or GSA -- with regard to the substance or timing of my decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination."

The letter signals that Murphy has formally signed off on Biden's victory, a normally perfunctory process known as ascertainment. The move will allow the transition to officially begin, permitting current administration agency officials to coordinate with the incoming Biden team, and providing millions in government funding for the transition.
The move toward ascertainment comes after Michigan formally certified its election results on Monday and Georgia certified its razor-thin presidential results on Friday. Pennsylvania is nearing certification of its election results, too.

[cradleandshoot]

Best part of transition so far, is that none of the statements are starting with "First, I want to thanks President Biden for being so awesome and such a great human being and Leader. He is sure to be the best president in US history..."

That godawful cock sucking was just terrible.

I am also pretty sure that none of his team has called the Russian Ambassador to cut deals.

and here i am turning into a pretzel every time i want to use a cuss word on here without it turning into "jerk".

Doesn't that just "tick" you off?

[cradleandshoot]

Best part of transition so far, is that none of the statements are starting with "First, I want to thanks President Biden for being so awesome and such a great human being and Leader. He is sure to be the best president in US history..."

That godawful cock sucking was just terrible.

I am also pretty sure that none of his team has called the Russian Ambassador to cut deals.

and here i am turning into a pretzel every time i want to use a cuss word on here without it turning into "jerk".

"That godawful cock sucking was just terrible."

I thought I had a pottie mouth...