Empire In Retreat: Under Trump, we’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time

basquebromance

Diamond Member
Nov 26, 2015
109,396
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things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.
 
Well for a falling empire we aren't doing bad.

There are jobs for anyone who wants one. UE is the lowest its been in decades.

Working people have more money in their pay checks.

The economy is roaring along.

More people are happy with the direction the country is moving in.

Guess you will be disappointed when the empire doesn't fall.

Oh well. Maybe next time. LOL.
 
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things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.
America was once what Reagan called the shining city on the hill

What the rest of the world aspired to be. Now we are feared and ridiculed by the rest of the world. Trump is not trusted or respected in the Global Community and has surrendered the role of Leader of the Free World
 
I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.
Our decay began long before Trump.

He is merely a symptom, a reflection.
.

Took the words right out of my mouth
 
things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.
America was once what Reagan called the shining city on the hill

What the rest of the world aspired to be. Now we are feared and ridiculed by the rest of the world. Trump is not trusted or respected in the Global Community and has surrendered the role of Leader of the Free World
Reagan was a globalist fuck bag.
 
If ending the empire is the result then Trump was worth it

Good point. Considering that an empire is...
  1. an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress

article-1050428-027298B700000578-268_468x635.jpg


Despite the best efforts of Obama & Co to the contrary, perhaps the Republic will survive.

:2up:
 
Well for a falling empire we aren't doing bad.

There are jobs for anyone who wants one. UE is the lowest its been in decades.

Working people have more money in their pay checks.

The economy is roaring along.

More people are happy with the direction the country is moving in.

Guess you will be disappointed when the empire doesn't fall.

Oh well. Maybe next time. LOL.
Trump gave tax cuts to billionaires. Especially himself
Any meager increase in take home pay for workers had been wiped out by inflation, increased fuel costs and fewer deductions
 
Even referring to an American "empire" is stupid, incorrect, and inflammatory.

The U.S. has never been, never attempted to be, and doesn't want to be an empire. We have no colonies, no satellite countries, no one outside our states and territories with any obligations to the U.S., other than to deal with us fairly. Even our closest allies feel no obligation to vote with us in international bodies.

And as for the opinions of European "elites," even their own populations hold them in contempt.

Although our President can be an ass at times, everything he is DOING is right, and correct for the interests of the United States.

You have a problem with that?
 
It's not as bad as you think. As the discourse has moved into the virtual realm, it's gotten exponentially more nasty. People don't have to answer face-to-face for the wretched things they say to each other and accusations they baselessly fling. Biased media outlets whip up outrage and division because it's good for business, and the ubiquity of media keeps it prevalent and at the forefront of your mind. See my signature.

Unplug, go into the real world and you'll see people smile at you when you walk into a restaurant, hold doors open for you, help you if you trip and fall or drop something, and generally treat you with respect... all without needing to know which political tribe you belong to.

If people treated each other online and in media as they would in real life, then you'd see the extremes for what they really are: very vocal but tiny minorities that just have a media and technological megaphone in front of their faces.
 
Well for a falling empire we aren't doing bad.

There are jobs for anyone who wants one. UE is the lowest its been in decades.

Working people have more money in their pay checks.

The economy is roaring along.

More people are happy with the direction the country is moving in.

Guess you will be disappointed when the empire doesn't fall.

Oh well. Maybe next time. LOL.

Keep on living with your head in the sand.

Most people think we are going in the wrong direction.

Working people do not have more money in their pockets.

The Trump lie is about to get very real. So enjoy this short time. But when the shit hits the fan, and democrats control congress, don't blame democrats because that's what Trump is going to do.
 
Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” all the way to the bank.

The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors assured workers.

But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.

In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

So now, workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that raise?”

It’s nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.

That’s not what Congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages.

Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group, Americans for Tax Fairness, estimates it’s 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.

Most of the money went to stock buybacks, which enrich corporate executives and wealthy stock holders because they have the effect of raising stock values. Corporations set an all-time record for buybacks in the first quarter of this year. They bought $178 billion of their own shares, up by more than 42 percent from the first quarter in 2017.

The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena way: “Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders.” So despite promises from the GOP and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers’ wages – wages that have been stagnant for decades.


Form 1945 until 1982, worker pay rose in tandem with productivity. At that time, buybacks were rare, primarily because they were deemed a forbidden manipulation of stock prices. In 1981, S&P 500 companies spent about 2 percent of profits on buybacks.

But after 1982, when the Reagan administration legalized stock buybacks, the connection between wages and productivity broke wide apart as corporate executives focused all of their efforts on increasing share value. Last year, the S&P 500 companies spent 50 percent of profits on buybacks and 41 percent on dividends to stock holders. That left a pittance – 9 percent. Corporations socked away some or all of that in overseas tax havens. Their workers, whose labor produced that profit, got virtually nothing.

CEOs self-centered focus on stock buybacks is a big part of the reason Republicans’ promised raise is illusory. But it’s not just the raise. The tax cut itself is a sham.

Workers can be excused for not noticing that big, fat tax cut in their paychecks. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year, that is those in the lowest fifth of income brackets, will get a tax cut this year totaling $60. That’s just about a dollar a week.

For those in the middle income quintile earning between $49,000 and $86,000 a year, the average tax cut is $900. That’s $17 a week. The cost of a large pizza and a Coke. Hardly earth shattering.

By contrast, the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes above $733,000 a year, will get a tax cut averaging $51,000. That’s $980 a week. So every week this year, Uncle Sam will hand the nation’s richest a tax benefit that is $80 more than the entire amount that the middle-income worker will get in a year.


Workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that big, beautiful tax break?”

While they’re searching, workers will have to pay more for cars and homes and credit card debt. That’s because the Federal Reserve increased the cost of borrowing this week for the second time this year and promised two more hikes before year’s end.

Fed officials said they did it because the tax break and additional federal spending have heated up the economy. It’s hot for corporations, alright, but not for workers.

And the real cost to workers hasn’t yet hit. The GOP’s tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

And they’re not kidding. They already tried to slash funding for food stamps, the program that feeds the poor.

And now, incredibly, Republicans are planning a second round of tax cuts. They say they want to make that $17-a-week tax break for the middle class permanent. As it is now, that tax cut disappears in 2025, while the massive break Republicans gave corporations is permanent. In addition, Republicans want to slash the capital gains tax. This, again, is a tax cut for the rich.

Now, it’s not as if workers haven’t benefitted at all under the current administration. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, estimates that the real hourly pay of middle class workers has risen 0.4 percent over the past 18 months of Republican control of Congress and the White House.

At that rate, Bernstein figures, it will take 28 years for a worker to get that promised $4,000 pay bump.

So before Republicans start trying to reward rich people again for being rich, they need to answer one question:

Where’s that $4,000 pay raise promised to the middle class?

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?
 
things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.
The very people who are pushing this Trump madness to the brink, who shows up at his Klan rallies, who support his lies, his corruption, his dismantling of our democracy are WHITE PEOPLE OF WEALTH AND MEANS. Who's pensions and retirement are secure, who's stock is bringing huge yeilds and who for the most part are immune from the day to day struggles most people in this country endures daily. The don't want change, they live in a constant fear of losing what is theirs and are willing to sacrifice this country's values in order to maintain this imaginary edge they think they have over the rest of us. And nothing will ever change those ideas they have of Trump being their guy, nothing. That is why we must in Nov. force these people to open their eyes and realize no matter how much support you give to Trump and his madness, we the people are gonna take back this country and we refuse to go back to yesterdays America!!
 
Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?

When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” all the way to the bank.

The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President’s Council of Economic Advisors assured workers.

But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.

In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

So now, workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that raise?”

It’s nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.

That’s not what Congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages.

Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group, Americans for Tax Fairness, estimates it’s 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.

Most of the money went to stock buybacks, which enrich corporate executives and wealthy stock holders because they have the effect of raising stock values. Corporations set an all-time record for buybacks in the first quarter of this year. They bought $178 billion of their own shares, up by more than 42 percent from the first quarter in 2017.

The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena way: “Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders.” So despite promises from the GOP and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers’ wages – wages that have been stagnant for decades.


Form 1945 until 1982, worker pay rose in tandem with productivity. At that time, buybacks were rare, primarily because they were deemed a forbidden manipulation of stock prices. In 1981, S&P 500 companies spent about 2 percent of profits on buybacks.

But after 1982, when the Reagan administration legalized stock buybacks, the connection between wages and productivity broke wide apart as corporate executives focused all of their efforts on increasing share value. Last year, the S&P 500 companies spent 50 percent of profits on buybacks and 41 percent on dividends to stock holders. That left a pittance – 9 percent. Corporations socked away some or all of that in overseas tax havens. Their workers, whose labor produced that profit, got virtually nothing.

CEOs self-centered focus on stock buybacks is a big part of the reason Republicans’ promised raise is illusory. But it’s not just the raise. The tax cut itself is a sham.

Workers can be excused for not noticing that big, fat tax cut in their paychecks. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year, that is those in the lowest fifth of income brackets, will get a tax cut this year totaling $60. That’s just about a dollar a week.

For those in the middle income quintile earning between $49,000 and $86,000 a year, the average tax cut is $900. That’s $17 a week. The cost of a large pizza and a Coke. Hardly earth shattering.

By contrast, the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with incomes above $733,000 a year, will get a tax cut averaging $51,000. That’s $980 a week. So every week this year, Uncle Sam will hand the nation’s richest a tax benefit that is $80 more than the entire amount that the middle-income worker will get in a year.


Workers across America are wondering, “Where’s that big, beautiful tax break?”

While they’re searching, workers will have to pay more for cars and homes and credit card debt. That’s because the Federal Reserve increased the cost of borrowing this week for the second time this year and promised two more hikes before year’s end.

Fed officials said they did it because the tax break and additional federal spending have heated up the economy. It’s hot for corporations, alright, but not for workers.

And the real cost to workers hasn’t yet hit. The GOP’s tax cut will add $1 trillion to the national debt. Even before passing the tax cut legislation, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan began saying that workers would have to pay those costs in the form of cuts to cherished safety net programs, that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

And they’re not kidding. They already tried to slash funding for food stamps, the program that feeds the poor.

And now, incredibly, Republicans are planning a second round of tax cuts. They say they want to make that $17-a-week tax break for the middle class permanent. As it is now, that tax cut disappears in 2025, while the massive break Republicans gave corporations is permanent. In addition, Republicans want to slash the capital gains tax. This, again, is a tax cut for the rich.

Now, it’s not as if workers haven’t benefitted at all under the current administration. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, estimates that the real hourly pay of middle class workers has risen 0.4 percent over the past 18 months of Republican control of Congress and the White House.

At that rate, Bernstein figures, it will take 28 years for a worker to get that promised $4,000 pay bump.

So before Republicans start trying to reward rich people again for being rich, they need to answer one question:

Where’s that $4,000 pay raise promised to the middle class?

Where’s that $4,000 Raise the GOP Promised Workers?
The bottom 47% workers of this country....GOT NOTHING!!!
 
Well for a falling empire we aren't doing bad.

There are jobs for anyone who wants one. UE is the lowest its been in decades.

Working people have more money in their pay checks.

The economy is roaring along.

More people are happy with the direction the country is moving in.

Guess you will be disappointed when the empire doesn't fall.

Oh well. Maybe next time. LOL.
First quarter growth was only 2.2%. Stocks are way below their high. Labor force participation is very low. Wages are stagnant. Deficits are skyrocketing....
 
Well for a falling empire we aren't doing bad.

There are jobs for anyone who wants one. UE is the lowest its been in decades.

Working people have more money in their pay checks.

The economy is roaring along.

More people are happy with the direction the country is moving in.

Guess you will be disappointed when the empire doesn't fall.

Oh well. Maybe next time. LOL.

Keep on living with your head in the sand.

Most people think we are going in the wrong direction.

Working people do not have more money in their pockets.

The Trump lie is about to get very real. So enjoy this short time. But when the shit hits the fan, and democrats control congress, don't blame democrats because that's what Trump is going to do.

Tomatoes are awful.
 
things are coming unhinged, socially and culturally

The rise of Trumpism, of tribalism, the celebration of stupidity.

Trump's this vulgar, grotesque dope, everything I hate in people,

I’m ashamed at what we must look like as a culture to the world

It doesn’t feel like we’ve advanced. I think you’re seeing the fall of the empire of America in real time, before your eyes; the internet has eroded the fabric of decency in our civilization,.

Basque's theme song.

 
...we the people are gonna take back this country and we refuse to go back to yesterdays America!!

Uh, We the People already did. Yesterday's America belonged to Obama & Co, after he fundamentally transformed it...'member? I don't want to go back to that either.

You must have lived outside of the country during Obama.
 

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