"The S&P 500 closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since June 2016." https://t.co/RktwZUJYZz
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 2, 2018
U.S. stocks had their worst April start since the Great Depression in 1929. https://t.co/moeHcI2NXx
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 2, 2018
A return to ABnormalcy, people!
On the one hand, cynics might point out that Melania would seem to be all too happy to poison her spouse, if that becomes necessary. Unfortunately, things move so much faster these days, I’m not sure we can tread water for another six years. Bess Levin, at Vanity Fair: “Pro-Business President Throws His Hair-Curler In Wall Street’s Bathtub”:
Something you may have picked up on in the 71 years that Donald Trump has polluted the earth is that he has a pathological need to take credit for events, real or imagined, even—or perhaps especially—when his connection to said events is incidental at best… Nowhere, however, does this phenomenon rear its papaya-colored head more readily than when it comes to the economy. So obsessed is Trump with the idea of having the power to move markets that he once straight-up bragged about crashing healthcare stocks. In general, though, the 45th president has stuck to taking credit for positive economic indicators, even if the actual credit belongs to his predecessor. So it’s rather curious that Trump has lately seemed intent on scaring the ever-loving hell out of investors—a strategy that Monday resulted in the Dow falling nearly 758 points midday to close down 458.92 points; the S&P 500 dropping 58.99 points; and the NASDAQ sinking 193.33 points. For the history buffs out there, equities recorded their worst second-quarter start since 1929, shortly before the Great Depression.
So far, the president has been unusually bashful about the matter, not tweeting even once to claim credit for sending the market off of a cliff (if he had, we assume the tweet would have been along the lines of “I moved on those tech stocks like a b*tch”), despite the fact that he may actually deserve it. Granted, diagnosing markets is generally a losing game, but experts believe that yet another of Trump’s early-morning tantrums about Amazon combined with a sluice of Trumpian bullshit to precipitate Monday’s slide…
Nor did Trump’s outlook on trade in general, which was served a dose of reality over the weekend when China announced it would slap tariffs as high as 25 percent on 128 American-made imports, including wine, pipes, and pork—the latter being a significant moneymaker for farming regions that voted for Trump. China had been expected to hit back following the president’s tariffs on aluminum and steel, but this was a more significant response than expected, with Beijing presumably taking one look at the White House’s additional China-targeted tariffs and saying, Screw it, we’ll do it live.
Taken together, these factors had Wall Street in a cold sweat. “The Trump administration’s announcements on trade sanctions in total so far encompass a relatively small portion of overall U.S. trade,”Jason Pride, chief investment officer at Glenmede Wealth Management, wrote in a note to investors. “However, this could only be the beginning, as the Trump administration ponders the extension of further sanctions on the Chinese trade relationship.” Nick Raich, C.E.O. of The Earnings Scout, told CNBC: “The new bearish narrative is that tariffs implemented by the Trump administration will spur a global trade war that would spiral the world into a recession. We understand the fear. We get how bad a global trade war would be on future profits.”…
Professional Republican:
You know what's not normal? A sitting president attacking a major U.S, employer, driving stock price down 5.2% down in single day … helping to tank market. #Amazon #techrout
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) April 2, 2018
rise in Dow Jones Industrial Average from presidential inauguration to first market day of April the following year:
–Obama: 37%
–Trump: 19%— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 2, 2018
The Dow is down over 4% since the tax law was signed. So #Trump's erratic and ill considered antics have destroyed more than all the value creation from that. The @gop says nothing. Does nothing … it will have ZERO to campaign on in November. Nothing.
— Adam Quinton (@adamquinton) April 3, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
Meh.
Tony Jay
Fox Business scrolling headline – “Obama poison pill restricts record market boom. President Trump cites illegal Chinese tariffs as evidence of Clinton Collusion with Red Menace.”
Cermet
Not too surprised by all the losses – the fundamentals of the economy are far from sound; over and above the growing wealth inequality best reflected in the extremely low minimum wage (which hurts all wage groups.) Then add school debt (while college degree’s are still getting more expensive). Medical cost still rising (strangely, drug costs, which is a major factor is often overlooked as a factor) and credit card debt and frankly, the stock market is vastly over valued. Can’t see what these corrections shouldn’t go on (regardless of the orange fart cloud) except people refuse to follow logic relative to investing.
kd bart
The one day last week, Monday, the market went up, Trump tweeted about it. Taking credit for it. Nevermind that the market had fallen about 5% the Thursday & Friday before. Was quiet the remainder of the week.
OzarkHillbilly
I love the timing of China’s tariff on pork. A shot across the bow of American agriculture. Every single midwestern farmer is now wondering whether they should bank on soybeans or not this year, and they have to place their bets real soon.
satby
Whatever phase my life is in, the Republican party has always ruined it and made my life harder. This is just more of the same. It surprised me though, that more people have never figured that out.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: and for some of my former neighbors, couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch. Not sorry for farmers at all. They’re the biggest welfare queens.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Waldo
Note to POTUS: When begging the Chinese to call off the disastrous trade war you started, DO NOT CONGRATULATE!
eric
it is very hard to time an upward surge in the market. it is VERY easy to short the market when your utterance can drive the market lower. just saying.
Wag
The Chinese tariffs targeting the wine industry would be perfect if only Iowa was the heart of Napa Valley instead of California. By targeting wine the Chinese are going to hurt trump resisting regions in additional to trump loving regions.
Schlemazel
Off thread but the topic came up here the other day. The Arlo and Janis cartoon strip this week is about how they realize that they have no need for great grandma’s fine china & are drying to dump it off on the kid.
I pulled all my 401k out of the market late last fall expecting the worst. It took longer than I would have guessed but I am ahead of the game so far. I have been looking at investing in some ETFs that are inverse of the market because I expect things to get much worse before they get better.
NotMax
Jared will fix it.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: “Meh” from you is like three rikyrah smiles!
NotMax
@satbyTo answer your question from yesterday, the cake is superb.
satby
@eric: and I hope that somebody is watching to see if that’s happening.
TS
@satby:
And they’ll be screaming for more welfare to help them survive the China Tarriffs
satby
@NotMax: nice!
satby
@TS: no doubt. But enjoying the shock as their hate votes boomerang back on them?
Priceless.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: I thought this was Jared’s fix.
Kay
I think a lot can be explained by the fact that cable tv hosts are running the country.
Immanentize
@Schlemazel:
My retirement savings had a nice run with Obama. They were well ballanced and are in good shape. But now? Who knows? I still have at least a decade of input. Bonds? Tech? I’m seeing a financial adviser Thursday but they probably have no clue about this either. The mattress is not an option.
With so many more people owning IRAs and 401ks and 539 accounts than even possible when Reagan was President, the subburbs may be shocked. But the core Social Security base will not be much affected?
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s even better timing than that. Most of them already placed their bets. The President doesn’t know anything, about anything. That continues to be a problem.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
As Al Jolson says in The Jazz Singer, “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.”
satby
@Immanentize: the SS base still has to buy food and other items. Prices going up will get their attention, because it hits limited incomes hardest. Just the rise in gas prices so far this year has been a pinch, and that’s going higher too.
Immanentize
@Kay:
Kay, there is an article at TPM saying Kucinich is doing OK against Cordray?
debbie
Has the USPS made any statements about Trump’s “incorrect assumptions”?
satby
@Kay: Ozark means when they actually plant. Corn has to go in soon, soybeans (in my area) are a little longer window to plant. They may have already bought seed, but where I used to live they still might change from one to the other based on how soon they could actually work the fields. They can hold seed over year to year if they have to.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
When what they should be thinking is, “Why did I vote for that guy again?”
OzarkHillbilly
An interesting read: ‘I have no thought of escaping’: inside the Brazilian prisons with no guards
In a country where jails are seen as ticking timebombs, a system of self-rule among inmates has proved a striking success
A self selecting success but with lessons for all.
Schlemazel
@Immanentize:10 years is not that much time, I am at 4 and already don’t have enough. Our planner couldn’t come up with actual safe investments because the bond market will go to hell to from the Fed action. So the sidelines are where I am.
Schlemazel
@debbie:
USPS management goes by the theory it is safer not to piss anyone off. The result is they won’t say anything while the business is burnt to the ground
debbie
@Immanentize:
Guns. Cordray has a record of not supporting an assault weapons ban.
satby
@Immanentize: @Schlemazel: I only have the (very small) trust IRA I inherited, and moving it is such a hassle with all sorts of tax consequences I just left it be. I don’t even want to look at it today.
TS
@Immanentize:
I’m already retired with most of my money in investment funds – do have a variety of investments and a good manager – thus said my advisor told me he thought we had 2 years of growth with trump when I ran scared in Nov 2016. Seems he was out by a year.
I am partly willing to suffer a major loss if it helps get rid of trump. Took about 3 years to recover from the 2008/9 losses so I’m hoping this will be similar, although it will need someone to take over from trump & get the recovery underway.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I don’t know. Kucinich is the candidate of low information liberals :)
I can’t stand him. I just think he’s completely full of shit. He’s not even that liberal. In his previous incarnations he was an ordinary urban (white) Democrat – like Marcy Kaptur. He reinvented himself as this gadfly progressive when it became harder for white urban Democrats to win.
I’m going to a multi-county meeting tonight so I’ll let you know what I hear. I’m a big supporter of Cordray. You will not find someone better on economic issues- authentic “populism”. He was a great attorney general. He’s bad on guns, that’s true, but I’m not a single issue voter. Kasich is leaving a billion dollar hole in the budget. There isn’t enough revenue. When the economy tanks, and it will, the state will hit a wall.
debbie
@Kay:
Yeah, but there’s that rainy day fund Kasich refuses to use, even to help with the opioid crisis.
Kay
@satby:
The problem here is they rent the ground. They lease it in January. A lot of our “farmers” are really just landholders. They’re in the leasing business. The people who lease- the people actually growing – are incredibly sensitive to price changes, because it’s an up-front investment.
Betty Cracker
Not a parody account:
Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: @satby: Around here, they’ve turned their fields but there won’t be any planting for at least another 2-3 weeks, maybe more if the rains don’t let up. Most, if not all, have already placed their seed orders but they may be able to change them with this much time left.
Farming in the best of times is an uncertain business. The last thing they need is more uncertainty.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I’m just tired of him. I’ve been listening to his bullshit for years. I was hoping FOX was his new career. He ran against Marcy Kaptur for the House and he’s fucking identical to her but idiot liberals concocted this huge conspiracy theory that she was “the establishment” candidate. There is no difference between them except she’s anti-abortion and admits it and he’s anti-abortion and lies about it. That’s where they came from- they had a base of urban Catholics- former immigrants. The difference is she didn’t reinvent herself when it became harder for urban “labor” Democrats to win. She won, BTW.
Baud
@satby: No more Farm Aid concerts.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Four tweets already this morning! Someone must have woken up on the cranky side of the bed.
ETA: 538 still has him at 40.6%.
Baud
@Kay: If the Dems are shaping up this way, I fear that the GOP will win even if it’s Cordray. Hard to see unity after the primary.
satby
@Kay: @OzarkHillbilly: and Drumpf made his protectionism obvious when he was running. They voted for him, so fuckem.
They vote against food stamps, for g-d sakes, and that’s a farm subsidy.
Time for them to reap what they’ve sown.
debbie
@Baud:
Take a look at the GOP primary and you’ll feel much better.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
When the Chinese attack corn and soybeans… that’s when the fun will begin.?
WereBear
Yes! This! Always the asshole move!
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Hey Imma… what’s little Imma gonna do for the summer? Some robotics camp?
Baud
@debbie: I haven’t heard much about that. But the Republicans always unify afterwards.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
It seems like every move Trump’s administration takes, every step it takes, is the one most damaging to America’s interests and in particular to the most vulnerable Americans. Someone should be watching him.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know but I don’t really agree with that. My sense is Kucinich is more popular with national media as a token gadfly than he is with Ohio Democratic voters. I went to the ’08 national convention and I stayed in the “Ohio hotel” and I was struck by how Kucinich was surrounded by people from California. Marcy Kaptur treated it as a working trip. She spent hours talking to her actual constituents. I think he disappears (again) if he loses. Back to FOX, where I don’t have to hear him.
NotMax
@rikyrah
So far as corn is concerned, already made moves on ethanol.
john carter
So is now a good time for all of us weathy liberals (cough cough nudge nudge wink wink) to use all of that extra tax money we got from that wonderful tax bill (!) to buy short and sell high when the market goes back up in a few weeks?
Isn’t that what this is all about…causing the down side so the wealthy can buy low with that extra cash then sit on it for a while and sell later?
Trump couldn’t think this far ahead…wonder who is telling him to do this? Couldn’t be the Kochs or Mercers. Why would they want more money? Oh, probably George Soros! Right! LOL!
rikyrah
@Kay:
Thanks for keeping us informed, Kay.
Baud
@Kay:
On Fox, however, you don’t think they have him talk trash about how the Dem establishment rigged the primary against him?
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Karma is a beach.
TS
@debbie:
Gallup has him at 39% approval, 55% disapproval
Kay
@Baud:
They’re fighting like mad. That’s because DeWine isn’t a Trump Republican but he now has to pretend he is. DeWine is completely and utterly without principle. He’s in that awful position people like that get, where everything he does just shows he believes in nothing. He satisfies no one- too far Right for moderates, too far Left for Trumpians. He will say anything.
Baud
Drum
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/04/why-isnt-donald-trump-polling-at-0/
Baud
@Kay: Good, I guess. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I’m looking at my retirement accounts. This does not make me happy.
Kay
@Baud:
I guess so but are there really reliable Democratic voters who get their information from Fox? I feel like he’s made a national career as a professional Lefty, which is a much different thing than governor. I’m not sure national politics translates = to state races like governor. It’s not like Clinton/Sanders where all of Bernies trashing was actually relevant to that race. At the end of the day it’s Ohio voters and it will be Ohio issues.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Yup. “A sparrow in every pot, a curtain rod in every underpass.”
satby
@TS: I would trade my entire small stake to get rid of Tangerine Twitler.
Or I will take what’s left and get outta Dodge if the election this November doesn’t go our way. It’ll go farther in another country.
Baud
@Kay: I don’t put anything past the Russians.
Highway Rob
I wish I were better at the twitter machine. On the theory of “there’s a tweet for everything,” I’d love to see if Our Only President (copyright Molly Ivins) ever attacked President Obama for “picking winners and losers,” and assuming he did, I’d love to see it juxtaposed with his Amazon ugliness.
debbie
@TS:
Even better!
OzarkHillbilly
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that..
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Blame Obama. If it weren’t for him, your retirement account wouldn’t be falling because it would never have risen as high as it had.
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): In the days after the election, I just went ahead and shoved mine into money markets and bonds; anything but the stock market. I knew the asshole would tank it; I just didn’t know how often and how deep.
We’ve been investing what little we have in our own business; buying computer equipment as needed, expanding our living space to accommodate a home business, getting supplies. This is why my laugh is very ironic when the local Republicans solemnly tell me they vote the way they do because they have a small business; like Republicans care about your piddly store or your local fuel oil empire.
These people are expendable, just like me. I don’t flatter myself that Republicans care, that’s all.
Baud
@Highway Rob:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrumpCriticizesTrump/
rikyrah
@Baud:
Because the floor for the GOP is the crazyfication factor-27%.
That should be the question.
Why isn’t he at 27%?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The stupid is strong, that’s why.
satby
@WereBear: the only small businesses they care about are ConAgra, Halburton, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs, etc.
Baud
http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-colorado-cambridge-analytica-states.html
satby
@Baud: following that link led me to Drum’s latest.
Maybe politicians don’t really represent anybody
Another Scott
@Schlemazel: Be careful.
It’s easy to think that the market or the economy has to do badly because Trump is so horrible, but remember – there’s still a huge amount of money out there looking for a home. Money that should have been used for productive things (infrastructure, education, sensible wages, etc.) has been sitting in CDs and Picassos and luxury condos and Uber. That money is still out there and still looking for returns. People with money aren’t going to just sit on it.
If money comes out of the market, where is it going to go? It’s hard to see better, safer, more sensible places to invest over the medium term than in the US economy. And if you believe that, then staying in the market to some extent makes sense.
(If you’re thinking long term and are willing to accept huge swings in value, and risk from corruption and legal changes, then India and Vietnam and places like that look to have huge potential. But nobody knows what the future brings.)
(Of course, being diversified (low fee stock index funds, bond index funds) makes a lot of sense.)
“Dollar cost averaging, baby.”
“If you get out, how do you know when to get back in?”
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
I find this whole Stormy thing funny as fuck. trump and company are just flailing, they contradict themselves left and right. For starters, according to Cohen trump isn’t a part of the deal, so how can he ask that she be held to it? He has no standing.
Baud
@satby:
I posted that last night. Another good piece.
Weaselone
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sucks to be the farmers, but I’m looking forward to the cheap bacon and other pork products later this year.
Chyron HR
@Weaselone:
You mean McRib is BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK???????????
OzarkHillbilly
@Weaselone: Bacon is proof that god is neither Jewish or Muslim.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Trump is proof that there is no loving God.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
All of the retaliation – Chinese and European – is targeted as much as it can be at GOP House districts.
Yesterday, our fishwrap had an article about how the bourbon distillers had bestowed some award on turtle – he went on about importance of the industry and how hard he works to protect it. Meanwhile, turtle’s Trump enabling is going to kill margins.
He talks a good game while doing nothing, in true conservative fashion.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Chyron HR:
I never understood the apparent love for a pressed meat-like product with an HFCS -based mediocre sauce.
Jeff
Thanks to Donald my IRAs have dropped about $12,000 in value since January. Heck of a job Donald.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, Trump said that a trade war was easy to win. He just left out the notion that China might win it.
Kay
I told you guys public education was a sleeper issue for Democrats. It doesn’t matter that I’ve been saying to for 5 years and it finally awoke. It slept late :)
Democrats could really do something with this- maybe not in Oklahoma (although they flipped a state seat on it already) but in Wisconsin and Ohio and Michigan.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: As an atheist I feel you can just leave out the “loving”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@kd bart: So this is Spanky’s game plan here; tank the market, take credit for the dead cat bounce? That sounds so lazy, idiotic and counter productive that this must be what Trump is doing.
Required by Presidential Order: Do you know this week is a infrastructure week?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I went and looked at Trump’s morning tweets. The combination of malice, ignorance, and power is terrifying.
He’s still going on about some caravan crossing Mexico right now! And Mexico better stop it or NAFTA is done!
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Unfortunately, Trump lends credence to the spiteful god theory.
Kay
@Baud:
I agree. I don’t know enough about The Russians which is not my fault because no one told us anything, so I have to assume the worst.
I’m not surprised they were in state races. We know they were in congressional races, although after the initial reporting we have not heard one word about that. We have no information.
Chyron HR
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Eating it is a sign of defiance against the Muslims and [{(globalists)}].
Baud
@Kay: My local Sinclair station reassured me that there is nothing to see here.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Just finished reading this: ‘Double whammy’: teachers strike as healthcare costs cut into earnings
Legislative pushes to shift health and pension costs on to individual teachers leave many with less take-home pay than five years ago
It’s low hanging fruit but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pick it.
TS
@OzarkHillbilly:
trump is part of the Daniels lawsuit – it is Cohen who said trump was not part of the deal. Trump is in the Daniels lawsuit and he has has replied to Daniels and is counter suing- so he does have standing – this does not mean he will get the private arbitration he is requesting.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: You mean Satan?
OzarkHillbilly
@TS:
You can’t ask a court to enforce a private arbitration agreement you are not a party to. trump is being sued in a public court of law, that is where he has to fight it. Unless I have no idea of what I am talking about, which it wouldn’t be the first time.
Cohen is a part of that agreement. He can ask that it be sent to arbitration, but how does her speaking about her affair with DD harm him? If he suffers no harm does he have standing? Have no idea how that works.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
Hi!! I don’t know if you’re still here, I had to drop the Immp at the train today…. I have a lot of updates.
First, the Immp’s robotics team crushed it at the Scranton Super Regionals, basically coming n second behind their friends, Gluton Free (great robotics team name). So, it’s on to the WORLD CHAMPUONSHIPS! in — another garden spot — Detroit at the end of April.
May is the month of testing: SAT May 5, two AP exams mid-may, and SAT subject specific exams June 2…. As well as his course finals.
This summer he is looking for an internship where he might do some cool, difficult, programming. Still looking if anyone has a lead in the greater Boston area. Boy will travel!
JPL
@Immanentize: Congrats to immp, and to you for being so supportive.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS: Further thought, Daniels has sued him, but he is not a part of the agreement at the center of the lawsuit (yes Cohen is the only one who has said that but trump having yet to say one way or the other never signed it) as far as I can see should not the proper legal course be to ask that he be dropped from it?
My point is only they are trying to be too cute by half. trump and Cohen are doing everything they can to keep trump at a public distance from the whole affair while asserting he has a legal right to participate in it but wanting to keep it private.
germy
Mike Lindell (the man who invented a pillow) spent easter weekend at mar-a-lago, dining with drumpf. He is definitely NOT pulling his ads from Laura’s show.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Chyron HR:
And the obesity which comes from power-gobbling two of them in a sitting is a slap at Michelle Obama’s vegetable advocacy. Take THAT, libtards!
Yarrow
@Kay: @OzarkHillbilly: I love that teachers in Oklahoma are striking. Oklahoma! It’s such a red state and they’ve been gutting education for such a long time. It’s fantastic to see.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OzarkHillbilly: I was talking to my sister who is a programmer last weekend and she was ranting at me about how outraged she was the movie Bladerunner 2049 and the book Lord of the Flies dared to tried to get her to think of something besides programming. I keep on thinking that’s the same mentality in action at Facebook.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
“cheatin’ obama”?
danielx
The man is nothing if not subtle.
We have gone from a man accused of playing eleven-dimensional chess to one who clearly has difficulty with one-dimensional checkers.
Yarrow
@chopper: It’s always projection with him. Wonder who or what he’s cheatin’ now.
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
In national markets where Mickey D’s is halal, we don’t get McRibs.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yarrow: Last year the OK teacher of the year quit working there and now works across the state line in Misery making something like a third more (IIRC). We don’t treat our teachers all that well so that says a lot about how unOK OK is.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Whew!
I got exhausted just reading that. So glad that Little Imma’s team has done so well. I have no proclivity towards that area, so I was always jealous of those minds that could create like that..and, so young! Fabulous!
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have been following this, but something that someone posted here still sticks in my mind..
How could a contract be notarized if everything wasn’t signed?
And, if everything wasn’t signed, how could it be legal?
rikyrah
How is this remotely ok?
I agree with someone on Twitter – Bezos should purchase Twitter out of his petty cash and shut down his account.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/trump-war-with-amazon-and-the-washington-post-is-personal
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx:
and when he loses he takes a baseball bat to the game board.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@OzarkHillbilly: Trump knows who pays those shipping costs, right? That would be the consumer. Amazon just passes them on.
rikyrah
BREAKING: Trump proposes to end funding for ACA insurance exchanges. pic.twitter.com/RBrOFhVxlt
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) April 2, 2018
chopper
@Yarrow:
seems to me, what with O’s popularity and the fact that he hasn’t attacked trump at all, that this is not going to work out the way dumb donald thinks it will.
rikyrah
Breaking: Beto O’Rourke says he has raised a staggering $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2018. It’s an eye-popping number that poses a new category of threat to Ted Cruz. #tx2018 https://t.co/27RXfBPEO0 pic.twitter.com/8k10fFLF8g
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) April 3, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: That notary is in trouble. Not sure how much, possibly just at risk of losing her status as such, but she broke some rules/regs when she signed it.
rikyrah
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Plane carrying US Special Forces gets stuck on a sandy airstrip in a remote area in Kenya near the Somalia border. The US-registered aircraft belonged to Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, Trump’s unofficial war advisor. (Note men in the bushes) #AlShabaab #USSF #Somalia #Kenya pic.twitter.com/ZevLjVn1TE
— Margot Kiser (@margotkiser) April 2, 2018
Barbara
@Immanentize: I don’t know if this is still a thing, but at an earlier time in my life, when it was totally inappropriate for my circumstances, I read about people who use “bond ladders” to avoid the downside risk to the value of bonds from rising interest rates. You have to own the bonds — you can’t rely on mutual funds — but the idea is that you establish a position in bonds with maturity dates being “laddered” or staggered, so that when you need money you can either sell some bonds (e.g., the ones that interest rates have not devalued) or you can redeem the bond that is closest to maturity (and thus least affected by short term swings in interest rates). Interest rates have been so low for so long that many people simply cannot do what they have in the past, which is live off of bond income, so I would imagine it’s not too common anymore. Nonetheless, you might want to ask the adviser about this kind of strategy, which I would call ultra-conservative.
@Another Scott: To this I would add what I told my husband in 2008 when he kept me up night after night demanding to know why I had not liquidated everything we owned and put it into cash — How close you are to retirement is probably the most important factor in determining how conservative you should be, but for those of us — that is, almost all of us — who do not have reserves of gold or some other means to survive a financial cataclysm, our safety depends on a shift back to policy sanity, much as in 2008, the future depended on a shift back to optimism and willingness to do what it took to save GM and Chrysler, stimulate the economy, and so on. However much we wish, our individual investment decisions are not going to save us from a true meltdown even if those decisions are wise, rational, and well-timed.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Apparently Rosenstein issued an addendum to Mueller’s authorization that’s mostly redacted. It was produced in court when Manafort claimed Mueller was exceeding his authority. Huh. It’s been nice knowing you, Rosenstein. (I’d link but FYWP is being a butthead. It’s on CNN)
GregB
@rikyrah:
None of it is OK. It is all a descent into madness.
chris
@Kay: Corey Robin thinks that the teachers’ action may be a turning point similar to Cali’s Proposition 13.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: It’s OKIYAR.
Leto
@Immanentize: Congrats to immp! You mentioned looking for summer internships, and while this one has already closed, maybe he can look at it for next year? Summer Internship Program at the Information Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory. It’s right next door in Rome, NY.
Here’s a list of DoD STEM Internships.
Barbara
@rikyrah: Meanwhile, states and localities are slobbering all over themselves to see who can best flatter Amazon with tax breaks and whatnot to get the next service center. I know it shouldn’t keep surprising me that (as my husband says) Trump can’t see more than five millimeters past his nose, but somehow it does because the sheer range of subjects that he manages to make about himself is really kind of stunning. Of course, his obsession with Bezos, much like his obsession with Obama, is fueled almost totally by jealousy.
rikyrah
Instead of guiding his media allies, Trump is the one being guided
04/03/18 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
During a recent meeting on veterans issues, Donald Trump reportedly called a Fox News personality, Pete Hegseth, “to get his opinion” on pending legislation. As the investigation into the Russia scandal intensifies, the president has sought legal guidance from Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro.
And the Daily Beast reported yesterday that Trump has an especially close relationship with Lou Dobbs, a likeminded Fox Business host, to the point that Dobbs’ voice is literally part of White House discussions.
rikyrah
The national significance of Oklahoma’s teacher walk-out
04/02/18 04:05 PM—UPDATED 04/02/18 06:25 PM
By Steve Benen
There are areas across the country where policymakers refuse to make necessary investments in education, but some of the details in this Washington Post piece on Oklahoma put conditions in the Sooner State in an especially unflattering light.
The report added, “Oklahoma’s schools and educators have endured some of the steepest cuts in education in the last decade, reductions that are evident in dwindling supplies, aging textbooks and the pay stubs of teachers. Before last week, state lawmakers have not raised the minimum salary for teachers in a decade, making them among the worst paid in the nation.”
rikyrah
Communications between Trump and Putin raise questions
Former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul talks to Joy about presidential communications and relationships with Putin amidst a report from the Kremlin that President Trump invited Putin to the White House.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): The best part is the people most dependent on Amazon are…. RURAL folks!! We have very few options out here in the hinterlands. WalMart and…. Yeah that about covers it.
ETA: Tractor Supply! How could I forget them?
rikyrah
Papadopoulos reportedly says Sessions “encouraged” him to find out about hacked Clinton emails
Former US Attorney Barbara McQuade speaks to Joy about new developments in the Mueller investigation involving George Papadopolous, Jeff Sessions and Alexander van der Zwaan.
danielx
Hmmmm….four inches of snow on Easter, all melted yesterday, and two inches of rain so far this morning, starting around five am. Plus weather is expected to be seriously sporty all day long…cold this morning, warm front this afternoon, cold front tonight. High winds and hail anticipated……
Everybody isn’t making love, but we are definitely expecting rain.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
The C.E. Schmidt denim shirts are a bargain to die for.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): TPM has it too.
FlipYrWhig
@rikyrah: Why is he SO fucking stupid? It really is a sight to behold. He’s a stupid fucker about EVERY. LAST. THING.
It probably doesn’t reflect well on my mindset but I really do fantasize about just beating him to a bloody pulp. I haven’t been in a fight since I was like 8 years old. I am not this kind of person. But it would be so satisfying. I hate him and want him to feel pain.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Congratulations to Immp!!! That is exciting news. I heard a WBUR segment several months ago about a citywide program to teach coding to high school students. Maybe he could help teach or tutor there this summer. I think the program is funded by Massachusetts companies and state funds.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah:
Yes, all the BEST lawyers, the BIGGEST firms want to work for him.
OzarkHillbilly
@FlipYrWhig: I think Bezos can handle it for you.
MomSense
@MomSense:
The program is called YearUp
Kathleen
@debbie: According to one PAC DeWhine is a Hillary Clinton liberal. Have you seen that ad? They’re also targeting Trump voters. DeWhine doesn’t share Trump ‘s values. Hilarious.
On another note Sherrod Brown tweeted in support of Trump and the tariffs. After piling on Hillary icw remarks in India.
debbie
@Kathleen:
I know you’re long gone, but yes, I’ve seen that ad. It’s always followed by a DeWine ad slamming Taylor as a “slacker.” I’d love to know who schedules the ads and how they decide on the order.