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Trump’s steel tariffs cost U.S. consumers $900,000 for every job created, experts say

“U.S. consumers and businesses are paying more than $900,000 a year for every job saved or created by Trump steel tariffs, according to calculations by experts at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The cost is more than 13 times the typical salary of a steelworker, according to Labor Department data, and it is similar to other economists’ estimates that Trump’s tariffs on washing machines are costing consumers $815,000 per job created.”

Remember Solyndra? While the government program that funded Solyndra turned a slight profit, Solyndra lost 528 million. Divide that by the 1100 Solyndra employees and you get 480,000 per job created or saved.  The Trump tariffs are nearly twice as expensive per job created as the most ungenerous metric of Solyndra.

From: washingtonpost.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/07/trumps-steel-tariffs-cost-us-consumers-every-job-created-experts-say/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6c24c8c4b156

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With apologies to Chris Rock: Republicans always want credit for some shit they supposed to do.

You know the worst thing about Republicans? Republicans always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. A Republican will brag about some shit a normal man just does. A Republican will say some shit like, “I cooperated with the investigation” You’re supposed cooperate, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant obstruction of justice shit is that? “I ain’t never colluded with Russia!” What do you want, a cookie?! You’re not supposed to collude with Russia, you low-expectation-having motherfucker!

Republicans love to NOT know. Nothing make a Republicans happier than not knowin the answer to your question. Just ask a Republican a question. Any Republican! “Hey, Republican, who was the president right before Obama, the one who lied us into war, crashed the economy, allowed the use of torture and was rewarded with a second term by a Republican majority?” “I don’t know that shit! Keepin’ it real!” Republicans love to keep it real… Real dumb!

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Trump Defends $1.17 Billion in Losses as Just for ‘Tax Purposes’

“Yet even as he tried to explain in a pair of Twitter posts that showing “losses for tax purposes” was considered a “sport” among real estate developers like himself, the president also said The Times’s account was “a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!””

His defense is that he is a tax cheat. He is saying the NY Times story is inaccurate because the times thinks his reported losses are losses and not fraud.

From: nytimes.com https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/us/politics/trump-tax-investigation.html#click=https://t.co/DNWG0W4J6f

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Billion in losses or a decade of felony tax fraud?

“The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.”

From: nytimes.com

I’m not a lawyer and do not have any special information here but one thing to keep in mind, a billion in declared losses may not be a billion in actual losses. He may be overstating or just inventing losses as a way to conceal profits. That would be tax fraud. And a 30 year history of felony tax fraud seems like a really good reason to block anyone from being able to look at his taxes. If they should become public, it would open him up possible fines and penalties, perhaps exceeding his ability to pay.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html

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New Trump Rule Protects Health Care Workers Who Refuse Care For Religious Reasons

Can we call these ‘bad Samaritan laws’ ?

“Severino made it clear that defending religious freedom was his primary goal when he created a new Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom. “Never forget that religious freedom is a primary freedom, that it is a civil right that deserves enforcement and respect,” Severino said when he created the division.”

From: npr.org

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/02/688260025/new-trump-rule-protects-health-care-workers-who-refuse-care-for-religious-reason

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A turd polishing in three acts.

Act one, the turd arrives

Act two, the turd must be made to shine

Act three, we realize it was still just a turd.

Here’s a list of all the ongoing government investigations that could spell legal trouble for Trump, regardless of whether he’s president, and the people and entities associated with him.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/after-mueller-ongoing-investigations-trump/585376/

The reaction is exactly what one might predict.

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The Barr Letter completely exonerates Hillary Clinton

On October 19th 2016 Hillary Clinton stated this during her debate with then Candidate Trump:

It’s pretty clear, you won’t admit that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race.

So here’s the thing. If you break this down, statement by statement you can see that from what we know of the Mueller report and the released Barr letter, she was correct about most of it.

“you won’t admit that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America”

Well this is true. We now know that Russia engaged in the cyber attacks and Trump was told this. But even at Helsinki, he was still unwilling to admit it. The Mueller indictments establish that case. In addition, we now know that there were multiple attempts by Russia to reach out to Trump and his campaign. They didn’t contact the FBI. They invited them to Trump tower.

“that you encouraged espionage against our people”

There was that famous “Russia are you listening” moment. The Mueller indictments document that the Russian active ops stepped up. Clearly they listened. What’s important is that this occurred after Trump was warned that Russia was looking to interfere.

that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do,

This is a wash. It looks like Trump’s campaign changed the GOP platform, blocked sanctions congress enacted and did a host of other suspicious things, not because of a quid pro quo but because Trump really likes Putin and is looking to be his buddy? Ok. I don’t see why thats better but lets give them both partial credit here.

you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race

Again. the Mueller investigation and the Barr letter establish that Russia was looking to help Trump.

So my point is that almost everything she said about the hack during the debate on the was correct: ” of those points, Hillary was 100% right about points 1,2 and 4. And 3 is well, embarrassing for Trump.

Hillary has been exonerated.