What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Admiral Yi]

See previous discussion about the press missing the point.

Do you feel the same way about White House gatherings of school shooting families and survivors?

[Oexmelin]

No. Why would I?

[Razgovory]

Speaking of, the normalization of immigrants as violent subhumans continues, with the White House as cheerleader.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/trump-autographed-photos-of-dead-crime-victims-for-white-house-event.html

What a revolting display. Just disgusting.

That is indeed repulsive.  I don't know what's happening to my country.

[Jacob]

See previous discussion about the press missing the point.

Do you feel the same way about White House gatherings of school shooting families and survivors?

Are those gatherings designed to whip up hate and justify human rights abuses against a vulnerable group of people?

[Barrister]

The latest Gallup poll puts Trump's job approval at 45%. That's the highest it's been since he took office, and it's up from 37% at the start of the year. Although you'd barely know it from the press Trump gets, his approval number has been on a slow but relatively steady rise all year.

From Investor Daily.

We are so fucked.

Nationalism sells. Saying fuck you to foreigners makes people happy.

Bill Clinton was right when he said "it's the economy, stupid".

The US economy is doing fantastic.  In some ways it's surprising that Trump's numbers are as low as they are, given you're basically at full employment.

[crazy canuck]

Small quibble

That was his brilliant campaign manager - Carvil sp?

[Syt]

Full employment isn't everything:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-economic-numbers-are-cheery-but-dont-believe-the-hype/2018/06/05/5aa5e1e6-6821-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.49e0a3539bb2

President Trump was so delighted by the May jobs report that he tipped off investors by tweeting while the information was still embargoed. The news — more than 220,000 new jobs, unemployment down to 3.8 percent, the lowest in 18 years — was undoubtedly strong. The Economic Policy Institute hailed "the economy's steady march towards full employment," noting that most of the drop in unemployment came from workers finding new jobs and only about one-third from workers leaving the workforce. Wages are finally beginning to budge, though the growth rates still don't keep up with the rising cost of basics such as health care and education. The last time the U.S. economy enjoyed across the board wage growth was in 2000, when the economy also neared full employment levels.

The cheery numbers, however, should not blind us to the harsh reality facing most Americans. The United States is one of the richest nations in the world, yet many of its citizens live in misery. Consider: "About 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty. It has the highest youth poverty rate in the [industrialized world] and the highest infant mortality rates. . . . Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, . . . and it has the world's highest incarceration rate, one of the lowest levels of voter registrations in among [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries and the highest obesity levels in the developed world. The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries."

The quotes come from the official "Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his mission to the United States of America," on behalf of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston notes that for the poorest Americans the situation is getting worse. "For almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best, but the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship."

Although Alston's report is rigorously documented, many will ignore its findings and scorn the U.N. for messing in our affairs. Consider then the recent "Report on Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households" from the authoritative Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, a bastion of the financial establishment.

The report concludes that while surveys show Americans are feeling increasingly okay about their financial situation, 4 in 10 adults don't have savings to cover an unexpected expense of $400. More than 1 in 5 are not able to pay their monthly expenses. More than 1 in 4 skipped necessary medical care because they could not afford the cost.

A detailed study by the United Way found that 43 out of 100 households cannot afford the basics to live. They aren't earning enough to pay for the combined costs of housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cellphone.

The harsh reality is that America is a wealthy country with millions of struggling people. Compared with their peers in other industrialized nations, Americans live shorter, more stressful, less healthy lives while working longer hours with fewer vacations. Our stunning decline in life expectancy is largely because of diseases of despair — addiction, suicide and depression.

Extreme inequality not only immiserates Americans, it corrupts and undermines our democracy. Overt and covert disenfranchisement has disproportionately hurt the impoverished and people of color. "It is thus unsurprising," the U.N. special rapporteur writes, "that the United States has one of the lowest turnout rates in elections among developed countries."

Similarly, the International Monetary Fund warns that the extreme inequality is bad not only for the poor and the middle class but also for society as a whole with high poverty levels "creating disparities in the education system, hampering human capital formation and eating into future productivity."

Trump promised to end the "carnage." His policies, however, only contribute to the decline. His signature achievement — the tax cuts — will add to inequality. He opposes raising the minimum wage. His administrative and judicial appointees are working to undermine worker rights and free up corporate executive suites.

His tax bill gives multinationals incentives to ship jobs abroad. His budgets and efforts to roll back regulation undermine protection of U.S. consumers, workers and communities. His forays into the health-care system will leave millions more without affordable health care. And even though the country's water systems, roads, bridges and trains are aged and crumbling, Trump has shelved his promised infrastructure plan.

So celebrate the good economy, hope that job growth continues and wages finally begin to rise. But don't buy the hype. If there is not a dramatic turn in course, the next downturn will erase what gains there have been and leave most Americans in worse straits. For all of his "America First" bluster, Trump's misplaced priorities will only add to the misery.

[Admiral Yi]

Are those gatherings designed to whip up hate and justify human rights abuses against a vulnerable group of people?

I agree it's creepy.  My attempt at Devil's advocate was inappropriate.

[Malthus]

Speaking of, the normalization of immigrants as violent subhumans continues, with the White House as cheerleader.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/trump-autographed-photos-of-dead-crime-victims-for-white-house-event.html

What a revolting display. Just disgusting.

Do you feel that way even if it was done at the request of the families?  'Cause if that's the case, I think it's weird, but I'm OK with the President doing it.  Otherwise, it's incredibly tacky at best, and disgusting and terribly disrespectful at worst.

It's pure hate mongering, in direct response to intense criticism of the inhumanity of the Presidents poilicy towards the demonized group. In the video, they make the connection more that obvious, trivializing the 'temporary' seperation of immigrant parents when compared with the 'permanent' seperation caused by illegal immigrants murdering good American kids.

It is an absurdity to see it as some sort of spontaneous event requested by the parents.

I'm truly dismayed at how low this administration has gone, and worry that worse is to come.

[crazy canuck]

Speaking of, the normalization of immigrants as violent subhumans continues, with the White House as cheerleader.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/trump-autographed-photos-of-dead-crime-victims-for-white-house-event.html

What a revolting display. Just disgusting.

Do you feel that way even if it was done at the request of the families?  'Cause if that's the case, I think it's weird, but I'm OK with the President doing it.  Otherwise, it's incredibly tacky at best, and disgusting and terribly disrespectful at worst.

It's pure hate mongering, in direct response to intense criticism of the inhumanity of the Presidents poilicy towards the demonized group. In the video, they make the connection more that obvious, trivializing the 'temporary' seperation of immigrant parents when compared with the 'permanent' seperation caused by illegal immigrants murdering good American kids.

It is an absurdity to see it as some sort of spontaneous event requested by the parents.

I'm truly dismayed at how low this administration has gone, and worry that worse is to come.

To Yi's credit, he acknowledged his post was inappropriate in the post just before yours 

[Valmy]

The latest Gallup poll puts Trump's job approval at 45%. That's the highest it's been since he took office, and it's up from 37% at the start of the year. Although you'd barely know it from the press Trump gets, his approval number has been on a slow but relatively steady rise all year.

From Investor Daily.

We are so fucked.

Nationalism sells. Saying fuck you to foreigners makes people happy.

Bill Clinton was right when he said "it's the economy, stupid".

The US economy is doing fantastic.  In some ways it's surprising that Trump's numbers are as low as they are, given you're basically at full employment.

The economy was doing great back in 2015 and 2016 to but that didn't do us much good.

In any case I hope we can win in November and the economy continues to boom. That would be ideal.

[dps]

FFS. It's not the fucking picture signing. It's the whole operation, a White House event Friday highlighting victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Ah.  OK, I can agree with that.  I thought the criticism was because of the picture signing.  I may have missed the point, but as Yi pointed out, that was what the headline was about.

[Jacob]

Are those gatherings designed to whip up hate and justify human rights abuses against a vulnerable group of people?

I agree it's creepy.  My attempt at Devil's advocate was inappropriate.

[Syt]

https://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/house-budget-direct-302-billion-10-year-spending-cuts

House Budget Would Direct $302 Billion in 10-Year Spending Cuts

[...]

Under the draft fiscal blueprint, which will be marked up in committee Wednesday and Thursday, the deficit would be reduced by $8.1 trillion over 10 years compared to current law or policy. The budget would produce a surplus of $26 billion in 2027 if all of the assumed policies were enacted, growing to $142 billion in 2028.

[...]

The bulk of the deficit reduction would come from $5.4 trillion in savings to mandatory or automatic spending programs, including $1 trillion from Medicaid and $537 billion from Medicare. These savings would be optional for House committees under the budget blueprint, however, since they are only directed to come up with a fraction of the total through the reconciliation process.

The Medicaid savings would come from shifting the program from an open-ended federal commitment to a capped system pegged to medical inflation rates, similar to the health care reconciliation bill that was passed by the House last year. The plan also includes enacting work requirements for able-bodied, childless Medicaid recipients.

The proposed Medicare changes include gradually raising the eligibility age to 67, similar to the eligibility increases in Social Security; combining Medicare Parts A and B, the hospital and doctors insurance parts of the program; and restructuring the program into one where recipients can choose private health care plans.

The plan assumes saving $1.3 trillion from repealing the 2010 health care law and $2.5 trillion in additional savings through the following categories:

- Reducing improper government payments by 50 percent over a decade, saving $745 billion.
- Cuts to welfare and federal retirement programs saving $923 billion.
- Cuts to veterans programs intended to save $59 billion.
- Changes to student loan programs, intended to generate $231 billion.
- Changes to agricultural programs, which would save $23 billion.
- Overhauling medical liability lawsuits, assumed to save $33 billion.

The plan also assumes $4 billion in savings from preventing people from receiving Social Security disability and unemployment insurance benefits at the same time, a change that both Republicans and some Democrats have favored in the past.

[...]

[Eddie Teach]