What is the Net Worth of the Bottom 50% ?

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The President’s remarks at the recent State of the Union aroused my curiosity:

Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47 percent — three times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent.

Questions:

This prompted the following questions:

  1. So, what is the average net worth of the bottom 50% of Americans?
  2. How has the average net worth of the bottom 50% changed over time, adjusted for inflation, starting around 1970?
  3. For extra bonus points, can you compare that to data on the top 1%?

Follow-up:

This sounds like it would make a good story for  The Indicator from Planet Money.

What is a Post-Jesus Christian?

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Post-Jesus Christian

 

Post-Jesus Christians are “Christians” who have decided to postpone following Jesus’s teaching until Jesus returns and ushers in 1000 years of peace.

Post-Jesus Christians hold that Jesus’s teachings do not need to be followed in our present era if they are a hindrance to obtaining the power they fear they need to help usher in the Kingdom of God.

Post-Jesus Christians (privately) hold that Jesus’s teachings are a nice thing to follow when dealing with the in-group of their fellow PJCs but may be disregarded when dealing with non-PJC neighbors.

Prophecy: What God Can Do For You

Post-Jesus Christians talk a lot about about prophecy, and unlike the Biblical Prophets, when they do, they punch down, rather than up:

You will know them by their fruit, because they only have one key message – God is going to “enlarge your tent” and “expand your influence“, he’s going to “give you great favor” and “bless you mightily”.

Later Craig Greenfield writes:

In Biblical times, there were two types of prophets.

  1. Firstly, there were those who feasted at the King’s table because they had been co-opted to speak well of evil leaders (1 Kings 18:19). They were always bringing these smarmy words of favor and influence and prosperity to the king. And the king lapped it up. Like a sucka.
  2. Secondly, there were those who were exiled to the caves, or beheaded (like John the Baptist) because they spoke out about the injustice or immorality of their leaders (1 Kings 18:4). The king didn’t like them very much. He tried to have them knee-capped.

An Inversion of Ben Franklin’s Morality

While many Post-Jesus Christians appeal to a historical “Christian Nation” , Post-Jesus Christians appear to be an inversion of founding father Ben Franklin, who in historian John Fea’s description, wanted to discard Jesus’s Divinity but retain and celebrate his ethical teachings.

Post-Jesus Christians value Jesus’s divinity, particularly his role of sacrificial lamb (for their salvation), but are eager to discard Jesus’s ethical teachings.

[Read more…]

The 9 Political Leadership Tactics Donald Trump Excels At

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Many political pundits underestimated Donald Trump, mistaking Trump’s lack of political experience for a lack of talent and skills. Even today, many critics fail to understand how 9 political leadership tactics have powered Trump‘s business and political career.

  1. Self-Promotion and Media Management: dominating the news cycle through “engagement”.  Trump’s self-promotion skills were a key differentiator when the Republican Primary had 17 candidates.  Had there only been 3 candidates in the primary it would have allowed other candidates to compete more on substance, drawing attention to his empty healthcare policy.  With 17 candidates, the contest worked against those who were weaker at self-promotion.
  2. Salesmanship/Marketing of a certain type: Trump appears to become what you want him to be.  Once he identifies his “mark’s” most core desires– what they are willing to sell their soul for– he could “shoot someone in the middle of 5th aveue and they will still support him”
  3. Looking out for #1: getting others to take the fall.  Trump’s associates often try to protect him from the consequences of his actions.  Inevitably, it is the associates who end up getting hurt (H.R. McMaster).  When he borrows money, it is the lenders, contractors, and employees who suffer, while Trump maneuvers through bankruptcy.
  4. Avoiding Accountability: moving goal posts, and making excuses.  If people attempt to try to hold Trump to account, even if it is a promise he made himself, such as releasing his big beautiful tax returns, he will move the goalposts, for instance, by suggesting that Hillary need to first release her emails.  A later excuse was that he can’t release his tax returns because his was under audit,  even though that is not true — Nixon release his when he was under audit.  In actuality the audit threat was not a legal barrier he faced, but a fear that a new audit might be initiated were his tax returns to face the harsh disinfectant of sunlight.
  5. Attacking the Referees: Trump has seldom been accountable to anyone.  Trump so frustrated his father, that Fred Sr sent him to military school.  Ever since that experience of accountability, he has run his own business, reporting to no one.  As president, the media represents a source of accountability that he can not abide.  While in New York, Trump found he could manipulate the tabloids to his own purposes.  He expected the national political press to work the same way, but has been dismayed to find that they can not all be co opted as easily as the New York Tabloids.
  6. Fighting Spirit: Always Attack and Double Down: He learned from Roy Cohn: Never admit you were wrong.  Always go on offense and double down.
  7. Identifying and Insulting Weakness in Rivals
  8. Using Conflict for his own purposes
  9. Channeling Fear and Grievances, often on scapegoats

Why the 9 Sentences After Agreeing 100%?

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Jonathan Karl asked Donald Trump whether he would be willing to testify under oath contradicting James Comey’s claim that Trump asked him to pledge his loyalty.

MY QUESTION IS ABOUT WHAT TRUMP SAID AFTER “AGREEING” TO TESTIFY:

  • What did Trump mean by the 9 sentences of weasel words that followed his agreement to Testify under Oath — 100%?
  • It seems needlessly complicated when, if he meant to agree, he could have stopped talking after “100%.”

WHAT THE MEDIA REPORTED:

Karl: So, [Comey] said those things under oath. Would you be willing
to speak under oath to give your version of events?

Trump: 100%.

TRUMP’S ACTUAL FULL ANSWER:

Trump: 100%. [footnote]This is a perfect soundbite that Trump knew would get picked up by all the news shows, but the remainder of his answer does not make for a good soundbite, so he knew it would get ignored.[/footnote]

  1. I didn’t say under oath — [footnote]Why would Trump say this? It sounds as though he’s deceptively trying to give a soundbite-perfect answer, and then immediately negate it.[/footnote]
  2. I hardly know the man,
  3. I’m not going to say I want you to pledge allegiance.
  4. Who would do that?
  5. Who would ask a man to pledge allegiance, under oath? [footnote]Why would Trump say this? It sounds like he is implausibly pretending he heard the question wrong: “Did Trump ask Comey to pledge his loyalty, with Comey’s hand on the Bible.”[/footnote]
  6. I mean, think of it.
  7. I hardly know the man.
  8. It doesn’t make sense.
  9. No, I didn’t say that, and I didn’t say the other.

Full Transcript

Notice the 9 sentences of *weasel words* that didn’t get reported
because they weren’t a good soundbite.

Trump acts as if he’s answering his own invented question:

  • Did Trump ask for Comey’s loyalty, and
    did he have Comey place his hand on a Bible (pledge allegiance under oath)? [footnote]Line #5: “Who would ask a man to pledge allegiance, under oath?”[/footnote]
  • It doesn’t seem like these weasel words are accidental because
    its not credible that Trump misheard the question that way.

How does this make any sense?

  • Trump wasn’t under oath. He was just answering a reporter’s question; and lying doesn’t seem to be against his principles, so why add the weasel words?
  • Trump has established an expectation of testifying, regardless of weasel words[footnote]If Scott Adams is right, I don’t expect him to actually testify, just as he hasn’t released the tax returns he previously offered. Likely he will back away from his original remarks, perhaps saying that his lawyers don’t recommend it, or even saying that Mueller’s staff is partisan and out to get him.  He himself recommended that Bill Clinton take the 5th.  But he made it sound as though he wants to testify, which is what he wants people to believe.[/footnote]
  • By employing weasel words, he adding to his risk, because the
    weasel words confirm to a savvy audience that he intended to mislead.
  • So what purpose do the weasel words serve?

My theory: “Donald does Deception as a Sport”

  • It seems to me that Trump wants to be able to tell himself that
    he didn’t lie because what he said was technically not untrue,
    although highly deceptive.
  • Maybe “Donald does Deception for Sport”.
    • Trump wants to tell himself that he “cheated fair and square”.
    • The weasel words are his way of telling himself that he technically gave the press and public a chance, but he outsmarted the losers.

What’s your Theory?

  1. Are these 9 sentences of weasel words just accidental?
    • If Trump really meant to affirm, he could have simply said: “Yes. 100%” and left it there.
    • Or is this just a Trump brain fart?
    • What’s Your Theory?

Suggestion:

  • Next time reporters might try reading Comey’s statements verbatim (without tripping up) to see whether Trump’s tactics change.  My suspicion is that when Trump says “I didn’t say that” he means that you didn’t pin him down with the exact words.

I’ve posted more on my blog:  openpolitics.com

Tim Langeman
Akron, PA
717-723-9898 (cell)
timlangeman@gmail.com