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so yesterday we talked about GM cutting
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15,000 jobs in the wake of a seven-year
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stock buyback frenzy this job cutting is
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supposedly going to save them 6 billion
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dollars a year
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supposedly they over the past 7 years
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have bought back of 14 billion dollars
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worth of stock they have just been on
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the receiving end of hundreds of
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millions of dollars of tax breaks
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annually and they of course also
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continue to have incredibly massive CEO
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salaries all this just seven eight years
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shortly after the US government bailed
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them out saved all of the executive jobs
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as well as other jobs and Fox News is
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starting to get a little bit worried
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here’s Brian Kilmeade with Peter Morey
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ichi am i saying his name right and he
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is he is starting to worry for
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capitalism because it’s it’s showing a
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little too much flesh i think it’s
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probably the way to put this got a huge
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corporate tax cut didn’t they and wasn’t
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the thought was that the american
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industry would start bringing industry
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home because our corporate tax rate was
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now competitive absolutely there’s no
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reason why we shouldn’t be selling cars
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in China that are made here now the
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president has to open up the Chinese
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market and you know I guess that’s the
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next stage but abandoning the American
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worker
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she says that Americans aren’t buying
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sedans do you see Toyota getting out of
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the sedan business they make money on
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sedans they know how to make sedans well
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the problem of MS Berra is she has a
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company that doesn’t make competitive
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sedan wait where’s the part doesn’t he
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go on to say
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um oh here it is okay sorry I got
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confused and so there is Fox News saying
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you know maligning the company but
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here’s the real issue this is on Charles
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Payne and shannon bream here he is
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Fox News is getting a little bit
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concerned here let’s we have this is
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clip number four he’s broke when you
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were sitting here yesterday and all we
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really had was the headline I think as
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the day went on the news sunk in and
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this news is it’s not good for these
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it’s not good last quarter the company
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did thirty five billion dollars in three
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months 77% came from North American
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customers eighty seven percent of
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operating income came from North
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American business so yeah you can build
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out factories all over the world but the
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Americans are keeping you in business
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and you kick them to the curb at the
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first sign it’s really the president’s
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not happy he’s shooting back at Mary but
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but the president told us that the tax
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cuts were gonna make this all magically
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be no problem the GM wasn’t going to
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outsource their thing because of the the
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the taxes are coming home it’s gonna be
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magically no problem I guess it’s just
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going we could do in the opposite I
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meant the opposite
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Mary Barra who by the way happened to be
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at the White House is straight for a
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pre-scheduled meeting with Larry Kudlow
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we don’t really know it was discussed
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there but the president’s fired back
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saying that they should make a better
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car that that he was very tough on GM’s
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borrow over these plant closure
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happening no he shouldn’t be happy of
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course I don’t think any American
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president would be happy about this and
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again it’s not like they’re in dire
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straits now they’re trying to get ahead
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of things they want a big fat cash flow
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but this is why I think capitalism in of
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itself is in a lot of trouble in this
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country because you know these companies
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keep posting record earnings and to keep
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firing people they keep posting record
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earnings and they keep buying back
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billions of dollars of their own stock
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the American public is going to get hip
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to this and my fear is that they’re
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going to end up electing not a
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democratic socialist just a straight-up
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socialist because of the
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kind of shenanigans that’s coming a long
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time number two from your mouth to God’s
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ears money you know how would have
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talked about waterways right exactly
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right on her segments chuckles did wrong
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walk away I would love to see Dave Rubin
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Dave Rubin a react to this clip oh well
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I mean well I enjoy competitions a big
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deal sometimes the government there’s
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competition and competition would start
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kicking in competition I think what he’s
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really saying is that when government
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interferes that paves road to socialism
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no I think like when when Dave Rubin is
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like struck with something like that
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first of all he would be lately over not
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do that analysis no but he would say
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like look everybody has they can do what
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they want this is what a free country is
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about and then he would just ask the
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moving onto topic to I will say this I
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think you know based upon the other day
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I was listening last night I think it
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was maybe I don’t know I was listening
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to Mark Levin who is now taken to
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calling Bernie Sanders a communist
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because and I think that that’s true
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that that notion there like we’re not
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gonna vote for a Democratic Socialist
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we’re gonna vote for a socialist
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socialist I think and and good for that
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dude for just having the wherewithal to
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realize like hey there’s a problem here
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and I think like you’d have to be really
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really oblivious not to notice it that
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they’re gonna have to start they’re
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gonna have to come up with another word
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to demonize the and I don’t think
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communist is gonna work either frankly
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because they’ve been trying like sjw’s
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but they need something specifically
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economic but that that doesn’t hide that
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by the way like communist what are you
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talking about fashion it’s retro retro
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school it’s it’s all like it’s it’s it’s
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the equivalent of like saying that
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Chicago politics but also a pretty big
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stigma around the word communist but
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less and less I would say
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definitely a stigma around the word
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communist but the the vast majority of
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people who react to it as if it’s like
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saying a boogeyman are already going to
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vote for the the right-wing in Canada
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dis is with two quick point I mean this
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was exactly what happened with de Blasio
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who by the way is an insult to the
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Sandinistas but they remember when he
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was first running for mayor they were
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like bill de blasio hung out with the
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Sandinistas for a week in the 80s and it
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was like over 90% of New Yorkers were
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like the Sun the one you mean like he
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was in on a clash recording that’s cool
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not even that like right a handful of
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people who read the New York Post like
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he’s a communist because they’re already
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like brain-dead Upper East Side lunatics
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and we’re gonna vote for me and then
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people like me were like it’s nothing
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that’s what Obama did for me when
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Reverend Wright came out I was like hey
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it’s like the sector of conservative
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publishing that’s trying to really
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really hard to make the anti-semite
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Ilhan Omar stick right based on just BDS
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support and that’s very dynamic
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and I also think like I would love to
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see an actual president would
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immediately nationalize the GM plants
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and let’s get it into the court system
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and see how that works out because
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that’s how you would save those jobs you
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don’t want to do this government’s
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taking it over these are public
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cooperatives now jobs stay we make
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energy efficient cars we support the
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economy screw GM and not either fake
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totalitarian hectoring like Trump or
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like training people for the jobs of the
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future whatever the Third Way scam no it
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seemed that the right is a whole lot
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more optimistic about the chances of
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communism in our lifetime than the left
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so maybe we should cheer up a little bit
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well the very least you know that would
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be a good clip to show you know people
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in Schumer and Pelosi is calm staff like
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you’re so neurotic about a systemic
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critique of capitalism when you get
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asked the question from a young person
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on CNN meanwhile Charles Payne is saying
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this on Fox
Robert Reich: Socialism of the Rich, Capitalism for the Rest
Robert Reich explain how the wealthy and corporations receive billions in corporate welfare.
What do you expect will happen to Trump if President Trump lasts to the end of his term and is not re-elected?
I believe we are now just beginning to see the real world results of Trump’s policies on the economy, Wall Street and the jobs markets and I don’t think it will be pretty. Already GM has had to close factories in the US with the number of jobs lost in the thousands. One of the reasons the company cited was the increase in steel prices made manufacturing cars in the US too expensive to maintain GM competitive in the medium and long run. As you might recall the increase in Steele prices is a direct result of Trump’s policies. This explains why he reacted so poorly and even threatened to take away GM’s subsidies (something he cannot do without congress).
.. So why did I mention this? Because it tells me how this will go down. Trump has made a lot of off the cuff policy decisions based not on policy carefully crafted by experts or any any coherent economic strategy, but on what Trump thought made him look “tough” and “decisive” in the moment. His instinct is to demand and bully others into submission on the force of his will alone and Trump being the showman he is wanted to play to his base. His decisions didn’t result in any immediate negative changes so he just blew it off and went on to the next manufactured “tough guy” act without a second thought. But time doesn’t stop and all the actions he has taken are having serious consecuences that only now are starting to show, and it looks bad.
.. Already economic experts are predicting that the US is close to entering another recession, including very wealthy people who enthusiastically applauded Trump’s irresponsible tax cut[1] Once the economy spirals into a recession and the average American feels the direct effect there will be no one else to blame but him.
.. Once his popularity falls below some magical number you will start to see how the well honed Republican instinct for political survival will kick in and they will start to abandon the SS Trump like rats from a burning ship.
Trump will lash out when he realizes his “allies” in Congress are no longer protecting him from the Meuller investigation with the same ferocity they once did. His first instinct is the call them traitors and poison the Republican well which might work to a degree but at some point he will realize that his options are truly limited.
.. Meuller is smart and he knows that Trump is trying to interfere, so he is most likely handing off investigations and lots of evidence to state prosecutors in as many states where possible crimes were commited as fast as he possibly can in order to keep them out of Trump’s reach. He also very likely has extensive copies of every single detail he has uncovered in safe places so that once acting attorney general and Trump stooge Mathew Whitaker inevitably brings down the hammer to stop the investigation all the information will be safeguarded so the investigation can resume from where it left off at some future point if and when the Democratic House appoints a special prosecutor.
.. If all else fails then it can be arranged so copies of the information can be “anonymously” sent to trusted people in The New York Times and other news media. The point is to deny Trump control of who sees the information and thus he looses control of the narrative. This most likely already has happened and he knows he has no way out. By this time he will also likely realize the prospects of him winning re-election are low and his Republican allies will not protect him. He knows that no matter what he does the information will come out and as soon as he is out of office he will be indicted.
.. Trump has a strong instinct of self preservation but like all bullies he is also a coward. He might talk the talk of insurrection and violence, but at the end of the day he will not be willing to put his orange hair to the fire. His lawyers will look for a deal where Trump can leave the presidency at the end of his term while appearing like he left on his own terms and he won’t make any more trouble and they will most likely get most of what they ask for. Those in power will want to avoid the serious constitutional crises and violence that indicting a sitting president will entail so they will see it in everyone’s best interest to just let him go away with as little fuss as possible.
.. The way I see it Trump will get a deal similar to what Nixon got and leave the presidency only to immediately get a blanket pardon by then president Pence. The criminal cases pending in state courts would be a whole different matter. Not only will he have to fight there, but his children will also be targeted, especially by ambitious states attorneys looking to make a name for themselves.
.. On the bright side for Trump (if you can call it that) he is 72 years old and not exactly the picture of health. The cases will take years before reaching any conclusion and that’s not counting the inevitable appeals and the man will probably die a free man before any case reaches a conclusion. His children though are fuuuuu…..
Exxon Puts Up $1 Million to Campaign for a Carbon Tax
Rare donation to fight climate change represents a break with fellow oil giants—and with the Trump administration
Exxon Mobil Corp. is committing $1 million over two years to promote a tax on carbon emissions by corporations, one of the few times an oil company has given money to make fighting climate change a political priority in Washington.
Exxon sees a carbon tax as an alternative to patchwork regulations, putting one cost on all carbon emitters nationwide, eliminating regulatory uncertainty hovering over Exxon’s business in states that might seek to target oil companies, the person said.
.. Exxon’s contribution will go to Americans for Carbon Dividends, a new group co-chaired by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. It is promoting a carbon tax-plus-dividend policy first proposed by two former secretaries of state, James Baker III and George Shultz, last year. All three figures are Republicans.
The idea is to discourage companies from emitting carbon through the tax, but to avoid burdening consumers by returning the money to Americans through what the group calls a “carbon dividend” that it estimates could be as much as $2,000 annually per family.
On climate change issues, Exxon finds itself in unlikely opposition to many in the Republican Party, at a time the GOP holds the White House and majorities in Congress. Republican leaders there have often derided the idea of global warming and shown contempt for taxes as a solution.
While the Baker-Shultz plan is designed to be revenue-neutral by sending all of the money directly back to Americans, critics say it is too nuanced and complicated to be palatable.
.. “I don’t think the base would believe that, even if it were true,” said George David Banks, a former adviser to Mr. Trump on climate issues. “Not only are you asking the base to support climate policy, but you’re asking them to support a tax. You’re asking them to support a double whammy.”