Lurker > antfair

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/trump-s-tax-promises-undercut-by-ceo-plans-to-reward-investors

Major companies including Cisco Systems Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. say theyll turn over most gains from proposed corporate tax cuts to their shareholders, undercutting President Donald Trumps promise that his plan will create jobs and boost wages for the middle class.

The president has held fast to his pledge even as top executives comments have run counter to it for months. Instead of hiring more workers or raising their pay, many companies say theyll first increase dividends or buy back their own shares.

Robert Bradway, chief executive of Amgen Inc., said in an Oct. 25 earnings call that the company has been actively returning capital in the form of growing dividend and buyback and Id expect us to continue that. Executives including Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer Frank DAmelio and Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer have recently made similar statements.

Well be able to get much more aggressive on the share buyback after a tax cut, Kramer said in a Nov. 16 interview.

U.S. voters disapprove of the Republican tax legislation by a two-to-one margin, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Nov. 15, and corporate promises to return any windfall to investors arent helping the White House sales effort. The Trump administration has appeared flummoxed. At a Nov. 14 speech to the Wall Street Journal CEO Council by Trumps top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, the moderator asked business leaders in the audience for a show of hands if they planned to reinvest tax cut proceeds. Few people responded.

Why arent the other hands up? Cohn asked.

Trump has insisted that the Republican tax plan cut the U.S. corporate rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. Another provision would impose an even lower tax rate on companies stockpiled overseas earnings, giving them an incentive to return trillions of dollars in offshore cash to the U.S. That money is also unlikely to spur hiring because companies are already well-capitalized and can bring on as many employees as they need, said John Shin, a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Companies are sitting on large amounts of cash. Theyre not really financially constrained, Shin, who conducted a survey of more than 300 companies asking their plans for a tax overhaul, said in an interview. Theyre still working for their shareholders, primarily."

White House officials say their coordination with business leaders has been effective, highlighting remarks by executives at companies including Broadcom Ltd. and AT&T Inc. that have explicitly linked tax cuts to job growth.

The administration has been working with business leaders and job creators from the beginning of the tax reform process, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement. We are encouraged by the strong support we continue to receive as we create a pro-growth, pro-worker and pro-American business tax system that will lead to more jobs, higher wages and a renewed competitive advantage for American companies.

hmmm
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pa39vv/eric-schmidt-says-google-news-will-delist-rt-sputnik-russia-fake-news

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chariman of Alphabet, says the company is working to ferret out Russian propaganda from Google News after facing criticism that Kremlin-owned media sites had been given plum placement on the search giants news and advertising platforms.

Were well aware of this one, and were working on detecting this kind of scenario youre describing and deranking those kinds of sites, Schmidt said, after being asked why the worlds largest search company continued to classify the Russian sites as news.

Schmidt, in an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum over the weekend, name-checked two state-owned enterprises.

Its basically RT and Sputnik, Schmidt added. Were well aware and were trying to engineer the systems to prevent it.

Both outlets are wholly owned by the Russian government. RT is the overseas television station and online outlet, while Sputnik, the online-only media network, is available in over 30 languages.

But while Schmidt was willing to take aim at those outlets, and call them out for the spread of misinformationor worse, he provided little in the way of concrete plans to lessen the state broadcasters reach on his digital properties.

The two Russian outlets have been at the centre of questions over Moscows efforts to influence politics in the West, and they have shown an adept understanding of how to expand their reach by using the internet, most notably through Google News and Alphabet-owned YouTube.

In January, a publicly released American intelligence assessment concluded that RT and Sputnik contributed to the influence campaign by serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences. Earlier this month, RT registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent.

Even still, both networks have aggressively contended that they are legitimate news organizations, and have benefitted from being recognized as a legitimate outlet under Google News. They have been displayed prominently in news alertsincluding emails and push notifications. The outlets have also enjoyed being monetized under Google AdSense, which manages ad placement for its clients and offers them a share of the revenue.

Schmidt said the Russian strategy is fairly transparent, and usually involves amplification around a message." That information can be repetitive, exploitative, false, [or] likely to have been weaponized, he said.

My own view is that these patterns can be detected, and that they can be taken down or deprioritized.

On Saturday, however, Schmidt ruled out kicking the sites off his platform altogether.

We dont want to ban the sites. Thats not how we operate, Schmidt said. I am strongly not in favour of censorship. I am very strongly in favour of ranking. Its what we do.

Its a very legitimate question as to how we rank, A or B, right? And we do the best we can in millions and millions of rankings every day.

Facebook and Twitter have already started work to try and mitigate the potential threat posed by such news outlets. Facebook has opened the door to reporting and disclosing the origins of the political advertising on its platform. Twitter, this month, banned RT and Sputnik from advertising on their site. The social media platform said it has been paid nearly $2 million from RT alone since 2011.

This decision is restricted to these two entities based our internal investigation of their behavior, Twitter wrote.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

They sound so great
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What is this, a fair for ants?

I looked all over that top floor for him, and then got killed
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/ohio-supreme-court-justice-bill-oneill-wants-you-to-kno-1820552243

This guy fucks
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/16/working-four-day-week-hours-labour

Imagine there was a single policy that would slash unemployment and underemployment, tackle health conditions ranging from mental distress to high blood pressure, increase productivity, help the environment, improve family lives, encourage men to do more household tasks, and make people happier. It sounds fantastical, but it exists, and its overdue: the introduction of a four-day week.

The liberation of workers from excessive work was one of the pioneering demands of the labour movement. From the ashes of the civil war, American trade unionism rallied behind an eight-hour day, a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California, as Karl Marx put it. In 1890 hundreds of thousands thronged into Hyde Park in a historic protest for the same demand. It is a cause that urgently needs reclaiming.

Many Britons work too much. Its not just the 37.5 hours a week clocked up on average by full-time workers; its the unpaid overtime too. According to the TUC, workers put in 2.1bn unpaid hours last year thats an astonishing 33.6bn of free labour.

That overwork causes significant damage. Last year, 12.5m work days were lost because of work-related stress, depression or anxiety. The biggest single cause by a long way in some 44% of cases was workload. Stress can heighten the risk of all manner of health problems, from high blood pressure to strokes. Research even suggests that working long hours increases the risk of excessive drinking. And then theres the economic cost: over 5bn a year, according to the Health and Safety Executive. No wonder the public health expert John Ashton is among those suggesting a four-day week could improve the nations health.

So the renewed call for a four-day week from Autonomy Institute is very welcome. We want to shift peoples perspectives, to better work and less work, says the thinktanks Will Stronge. Indeed, a deeply unhealthy distribution of work scars our society. While some are working too much, with damaging consequences for their health and family lives, there are 3.3 million or so underemployed workers who want more hours. A four-day week would force a redistribution of these hours, to the benefit of everyone. This will be even more important if automation in sectors such as manufacturing, administration and retail creates more poorly paid work and more underemployment.

A four-day working week could also help tackle climate change: as the New Economics Foundation thinktank notes, countries with shorter working weeks are more likely to have a smaller carbon footprint. This is no economy-wrecking suggestion either. German and Dutch employees work less than we do but their economies are stronger than ours. It could boost productivity: the evidence suggests if you work fewer hours, you are more productive, hour for hour and less stress means less time off work. Indeed, a recent experiment with a six-hour working day at a Swedish nursing home produced promising results: higher productivity and fewer sick days. If those productivity gains are passed on to staff, working fewer hours doesnt necessarily entail a pay cut.
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It is heartening to see the resurrection of one of the great early causes of the labour movement. Germanys biggest union, IG Metall, is calling for a 28-hour week for shift workers and those with caring responsibilities.
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Sure, work can be a fulfilling activity for some. It strikes me, though, that few would disagree with the notion that we should spend more time with our families, watching our children grow, exercising, reading books, or just relaxing. So much of our lives is surrendered to subordinating ourselves to the needs and whims of others, turning human beings into cash cows rather than independent, well-rounded individuals.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://twitter.com/christinawilkie/status/931565054352379906

Women did get married younger back then.
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://local.theonion.com/frustrated-man-can-t-believe-he-can-still-hear-construc-1820540028

Wondering if hed even get a minute of sleep with all that racket, local man Ted Hinze told reporters Friday that he cant believe he can still hear a nearby construction worker hammering his wife at this hour. Christ, its past ten oclock and this asshole is still going at it, said an exasperated Hinze, adding that, despite the fact that hed started hours ago, it didnt sound as if the worker was even close to finishing. I mean, its nonstop. The guy doesnt even take a break. Hes already woken up my two kids. I should probably walk over and say something, but you know hes not gonna stop until hes good and ready. Hinze went on to say that the situation was far more manageable last summer, when the construction worker had pretty much finished for the day by the time he got home from work.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/detroit-police-officers-fight-each-other-in-undercover-op-gone-wrong

An internal investigation has been launched at the Detroit Police Department after two different precincts got into a turf war as they converged on an east side neighborhood.

Neighbors who live on Andover on Detroit's east side will be the first to tell you this area is known for constant drug activity.

"Definitely a drug problem in our neighbor for years," said one resident, " but I don't think anyone can stop it."

On Thursday Detroit police certainly tried -- but maybe too hard.

Sources say it started when two special ops officers from the 12th Precinct were operating a "push off" on Andover near Seven Mile. That is when two undercover officers pretend to be dope dealers, waiting for eager customers to approach, and then arrest potential buyers and seize their vehicles.

But this time, instead of customers, special ops officers from the 11th Precinct showed up. Not realizing they were fellow officers, they ordered the other undercover officers to the ground.

FOX 2 is told the rest of the special ops team from the 12th Precinct showed up, and officers began raiding a house in the 19300 block of Andover. But instead of fighting crime, officers from both precincts began fighting with each other.

Sources say guns were drawn and punches were thrown while the homeowner stood and watched.

The department's top cops were notified along with Internal Affairs. Each officer involved is now under investigation as the department tried to determine what went wrong.

"You've gotta have to have more communication, I guess," said the resident. "I don't understand what happened about that - communicate."

FOX 2 is told one of the units had body camera video that detailed the entire incident. That is now part of the internal investigation and we are working to get our hands on it.

We're told top brass doesn't plan to comment on this until next week.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/930837883732287488

Note: when Roy Moore was on the AL Supreme court, they suspended this guy's license
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://twitter.com/joshjame/status/930441998368169986

Note: Mark Warner is pushing policy that would allow payday lenders to skirt existing rules and again charge exorbitant fees
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/payday-lenders-democrats_us_5a0a211ee4b0bc648a0d5325?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004
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What is this, a fair for ants?

In these divisive times, it's good to see that members of both parties are able to come together in support of legislation that, uh *checks story* deregulates payday loan companies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/payday-lenders-democrats_us_5a0a211ee4b0bc648a0d5325?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

In late July, Warner introduced the ingeniously titled Protecting Consumers Access to Credit Act of 2017. The legislation would allow payday lenders to ignore state interest rate caps on consumer loans as long as they partnered with a national bank.

Although it has been generally overlooked amid the GOPs stumbling attempt to repeal Obamacare and its aggressive plan to slash taxes for Wall Street, Warners little bill has a much better chance of making it into law than the Republican Partys marquee efforts. Companion legislation is scheduled for a vote in the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, where the bill has the backing of archconservative Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and Reps. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), liberal Democrats with a history of sympathy for the financial industry. Warners Senate version is co-sponsored by tea party darling Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).

Warners bill has drawn opposition from consumer groups including Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending and the Consumer Federation of America, along with civil rights organizations including the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In September, the groups wrote a joint letter to every member of Congress urging them to oppose the legislation, saying it wipes away the strongest available tool against predatory lending practices and will open the floodgates to a wide range of predatory actors to make loans at 300% annual interest or higher.

Dozens of states regulate payday lending through usury caps blocking loans with annual interest rates higher than a certain amount, often 36 percent. Payday loans usually take the form of a two-week advance of a few hundred dollars with a fee of a few dozen dollars. In 2013, the Pew Charitable Trusts found that a typical payday loan was about $375, with a $55 fee. Since the life of the loan is so short, in just two weeks this fee works out to an annual interest rate of over 380 percent. In practice, though, its usually much worse than that, since, according to Pew, a typical customer ends up repeatedly rolling over s payday loan, ultimately handing over about $520 in fees to pay off an initial $375 advance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has since approved standards curbing some abuses in the market, but many states remain justifiably concerned about this type of activity. Interest rate caps are a powerful tool applying to essentially all credit, not just payday loans. But national banks have a great deal of flexibility with these standards thanks to a court decision from the 1970s. They have to comply with the interest rate caps only in their home state not those of the state where the person receiving a loan lives. So payday lenders and other predatory operations sometimes ask banks in loosely regulated states to issue loans on their behalf. The payday lender quickly buys the loan after it is issued by the bank, allowing the bank to earn a commission for its service as a regulatory frontman. In 2015, a federal court prohibited this end-run around state laws in a few states. Warners bill would essentially overturn the court decision and protect cross-state rent-a-bank schemes nationwide.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2017/11/03/six-women-accuse-florida-senate-budget-chair-of-groping-sexual-harassment-115479

Six women who work in Floridas Capitol say the state Senates powerful budget chairman, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Latvala, has inappropriately touched them without their consent or uttered demeaning remarks about their bodies.

The women, who include Senate staff and lobbyists affiliated with both major parties, told POLITICO Florida they did not want to be identified for fear of losing their jobs, getting a bad reputation in the male-dominated Capitol or running afoul of an influential politician who can kill their clients issues. The incidents, they said, occurred over a period of several years, happening in the privacy of Latvalas Senate office or in public places like the Capitol rotunda, a bar or an elevator.

Latvala has denied ever sexually harassing anyone and, when asked a general question by a reporter on Thursday about whether sexual harassment is a problem in the Florida Senate, said hes never even been formally accused of it. After Latvala made his remarks, five of the six women decided to speak with POLITICO Florida to say they were harassed. Five say the harassment was physical. One woman, a Republican Senate staffer, who spoke to POLITICO Florida earlier this week, cried in recounting her story.

Latvala, in an interview on Friday with POLITICO Florida, pointed to the fact that in 16 years in the Senate he has never had a complaint filed against him.

The Senate provided you with a letter that I have never had a complaint filed against me in 16 years, said Latvala.

Im sure that you have handpicked people and you are going to let anonymous people have this kind of impact on the career of a guy who has been there for 16 years, he said. Ive never had a complaint filed against me.

Govern yourself accordingly, he told a POLITICO Florida reporter.

Known in the state Capitol for associating with a bevy of young female lobbyists in his office and at bars and restaurants, Latvala was under surveillance last spring by an undercover private investigator who snapped a photo of him kissing a lobbyist on the lips in public. In that case, Latvala and the lobbyist said the kissing was innocent and consensual.

But the women who spoke to POLITICO Florida described their physical interactions with Latvala as anything but welcomed. They said they felt degraded and demeaned when he touched their buttocks or other private areas of their bodies, or when he commented on their weight and their breast size. One woman said the legislator would audibly grunt in her ear when giving her lengthy hugs that were physically and emotionally painful and embarrassing.

You dont force your kids to hug relatives and kiss relatives, and this is why, said one of the women, a fellow Republican who has worked with Latvala in the Florida Senate, during the interview. There are other senators, male and female, who I hug and kiss on the cheek on a regular basis, but theyve never touched the places on body where only my bikini touches.

Several of the women interviewed said that, when lobbying Latvala, they understood that their issue would be viewed more favorably if they were willing to at least flirt with him. Even those who were not directly touched by Latvala speak of a cold shoulder if they didnt play along or appeared to be prudes.

They had to grin and bear it, said one longtime lobbyist who works for a Republican-led firm.

It was so disgusting and I had to just stand there, over and over again when he would do this, squeezing me hard and grunting in my ear, she said. The question isnt whether this happened to me. The question is who this didnt happen to in the capitol. Its not like its a secret that Jack is like this.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

My mom's getting him the new iPhone, and he generally likes tech-y gadget stuff, but at a certain point I think he has enough Alexa devices. There are only so many lightbulbs in the house, you know?
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-generics/u-s-states-allege-broad-generic-drug-price-fixing-collusion-idUSKBN1D0201

A large group of U.S. states accused key players in the generic drug industry of a broad price-fixing conspiracy, moving on Tuesday to widen an earlier lawsuit to add many more drugmakers and medicines in an action that sent some company shares tumbling.

The lawsuit, brought by the attorneys general of 45 states and the District of Columbia, accused 18 companies and subsidiaries and named 15 medicines. It also targeted two individual executives: Rajiv Malik, president and executive director of Mylan NV, and Satish Mehta, CEO and managing director of Indias Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

Shares of Pennsylvania-based Mylan, also named as a defendant, closed down 6.6 percent.

The states said the drugmakers and executives divided customers for their drugs among themselves, agreeing that each company would have a certain percentage of the market. The companies sometimes agreed on price increases in advance, the states added.

The states said Malik and Mehta spoke directly to one another to agree on their companies shares of the market for a delayed-release version of a common antibiotic, doxycycline hyclate.

It is our belief that price-fixing is systematic, it is pervasive, and that a culture of collusion exists in the industry, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, who is leading the case, told a news conference in Hartford.

Mylan said in a statement it had found no evidence of price-fixing by the company or any of its employees, and vowed to defend itself vigorously. Malik, the companys second-ranking official, has received more than $50 million in compensation over the past three years, last year making more than CEO Heather Bresch.

Mylan has deep faith in the integrity of its president, Rajiv Malik, and stands behind him fully, the company said.

Emcure, also a defendant in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two former executives of Emcures subsidiary Heritage Pharmaceuticals pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of conspiring to fix prices and divide up the market for doxycycline and the diabetes drug glyburide.

The two men, former Heritage president Jason Malek and former chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Glazer, reached a deal with 41 states and territories in which they each agreed to pay $25,000 and cooperate with the state probe.

Soaring drug prices from both branded and generic drug manufacturers have sparked outrage and investigations in the United States. President Donald Trump this year accused pharmaceutical companies of getting away with murder with their drug pricing.

Executives like Mylans Bresch and former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli have been called in front of Congress to defend the cost of their products.

The original complaint, filed in December, targeted Mylan, Heritage, Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc, Citron Pharma LLC, Mayne Pharma USA Inc and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.

The states are pressing a new complaint that would add Novartis AGs unit Sandoz, India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Endo International PLCs unit Par Pharmaceutical, Dr. Reddys Laboratories, Apotex Corp, Glenmark Generics Ltd, Lannett Company Inc, Alkem Laboratories Ltds unit Ascend Laboratories and Cadila Healthcare Ltds unit Zydus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Jepsen said the investigation is continuing, and that claims would likely be brought against more companies, and possibly executives, in the future.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/03/dnc-donna-brazile-hillary-clinton-barack-obama/

IN THE FALL of 2015, a year before the presidential election, the Democratic National Committee, we now know, was bought for the equivalent of a pawn shop by the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

The party organization was still deeply in debt from the 2012 campaign, owing millions to banks and vendors, burning through what little cash it had at a stunning rate of some $3 million to $4 million per month. By August 2015, the DNC was becoming unable to make payroll and approaching the equivalent of bankruptcy, according to a former senior party official, who requested anonymity, arguing that being quoted publicly criticizing the DNC in a news outlet connected to Intercept founder Glenn Greenwald, who is a critic of the DNC, would be damaging professionally.

And so the DNC, to save itself, sold everything to the only bidder. The Clinton campaign bailed out the DNC and, in exchange, effectively took it over, according to Donna Brazile, who served as the organizations acting chairperson from July 2016 to February 2017.

The agreement signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the partys finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff, Brazile wrote in an explosive excerpt of her book published Thursday in Politico. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.
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All that is fodder for a good flamewar, but walking away rather unscathed is the man who set the blaze in the first place: former President Barack Obama. Nobody wanted to out the fact that Obama had let it get so bad, said the DNC official.

Braziles reference to Marc Elias in her expos was an extra twist of the knife. Elias was the Clinton campaigns attorney and also the attorney for the DNC. A partner at Perkins Coie, Elias replaced Bob Bauer another Perkins Coie attorney when Obama brought him into the White House.

It didnt have to be this way. Obamas campaign operation, Obama for America, took small-dollar giving to never-before-seen heights and opened up the possibility of a transformation of politics. But he quickly decided to marginalize his group after the 2008 election. He renamed it Organizing for America, but ordered it to do very little organizing, worried that if grassroots activists attacked Blue Dog Democrats, they would bolt from the president and lose in 2010. Then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously told activists such a strategy was fucking [R-word]. (Most lost anyway in 2010, as the tea party wave swept them out.)

OFA became Obamas primary campaign apparatus, supplanting the DNC, which became an afterthought handed to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who later became Clintons running mate. After the 2010 wave, Obama put Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on top of the moribund institution, a clear signal that he was uninterested in it as a central component of the party. Obamas poor relationship with Wasserman Schultz was widely known and written about, but he left her in the job for six years regardless. Part of the reason they were in this position, as it was told to me, is he just didnt wanna deal with Debbie, the party official said.

Raising money for a bland outfit like the DNC isnt easy in the best of times, but with Obama offering little to no help, and clinging to his invaluable email list, Wasserman Schultz was set up to fail, even if she would have done so on her own.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

Aren't they like, 12
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What is this, a fair for ants?

It's the Democrat
https://splinternews.com/democratic-gubernatorial-candidate-would-ban-sanctuary-1820064340

Ralph Northam, a Democrat running for governor in Virginia, reversed his position on sanctuary cities in an interview released Wednesday.

Previously Northam, who is Virginias current lieutenant governor, said he opposed sanctuary cities during a debate with Republican candidate Ed Gillespie; he declined to say whether he would sign legislation banning them, however.

During an interview with Norfolk TV station WAVY, Northam said he would indeed sign a bill banning sanctuary cities in the state.If that bill comes to my desk, I sure will, Northam said. Ive always been opposed to sanctuary cities. Referring to Gillespie, who has made banning sanctuary cities his campaigns central issue, Northam said, He knows that.

Gillespie, though, effectively coerced Northam into supporting a sanctuary city ban when his campaign released a horrifically racist ad about MS-13 in September. Ralph Northams Policies Are Dangerous, was the ads title. MS-13 is a menace, yet Ralph Northam voted in favor of sanctuary cities that let dangerous illegal immigrants back on the street, increasing the threat of MS-13, it went on to say.

As the Richmond Times Dispatch noted, Northam voted against a bill last year that would preemptively ban sanctuary cities at the local level in Virginia that bill was eventually vetoed by current Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Presently, there are no cities or counties in the state with sanctuary city laws on the books. Northam also told the Dispatch if he won the election and Virginias senate passed a similar bill when no municipalities had approved sanctuary city initiatives, he would again veto the legislation.

Gillespies campaign released a predictably snide statement in response to Northams new position. I sincerely hope that this change of heart is real, the statement read. Given his track record on this issue, Im not sure where the Lieutenant Governor stands. I hope in the days ahead he will reiterate what he said to WAVY-TV, and stand by it.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNbD0_vWsAAl1Ij.jpg:large
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://twitter.com/dhm/status/925785628318584833

lol
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/01/trump-economist-jobs-money-dow-jones-244397

President Donald Trumps top economist has an unusual idea for dealing with the problem of long-term unemployment: Just have the government hire people.

Thats a New Deal-style idea more closely associated with highly progressive Democrats. But Kevin Hassett, the conservative chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, believes some Americans are so disconnected from the workforce that the best idea to get them working again could be a federal jobs program that would ultimately lead to private-sector employment.

Weve not done a good job as a society at thinking about how do we take people who have become discouraged and reconnect them, Hassett said in the latest edition of the POLITICO Money podcast. And its such an urgent problem that government programs that directly hire people might be part of the solution.

This and other unusual ideas could emerge next year when the White House hopes to pivot from its current tax cut push to an infrastructure bill aimed both at rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges, ports and other national assets and at addressing the shrunken size of the labor force.

To Hassett, long-term unemployment often leads to family breakdown and descent into addiction and other maladies. People who have been unemployed for more than a year very often dont ever reconnect to the labor force, he said. And very often they fall into sort of downward spirals of personal despair where they end up abusing substances and have a higher risk of divorce. Some of the literature in this area is just absolutely disturbing.

But before he can turn to that, Hassett remains convinced that the tax cut bill now emerging on Capitol Hill that would slice the top corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent will in fact add at least $4,000 in increased wages per household over the next several years, a claim many progressive economists do not believe is supported by data.

Hassett called the idea iron-clad based on studies of other countries cutting their corporate rate. And he said he believes the increase could be even greater.

He argues that a lower corporate rate and more immediate expensing of capital investments will lead to greater productivity among workers and thus higher wages without big inflationary pressure.

If you have a supply-side stimulus precisely now, we can get capital deepening back to where it used to be, then you could add a percent to GDP growth, he said. And that will increase labor productivity and increase wages but not in a way thats inflationary.

Hassett, speaking before the release of the latest tax bill, also criticized a proposal floated by Republicans on Capitol Hill that would limit the amount that workers could contribute with pre-tax dollars to their 401(k) retirement plans. Trump has also sharply criticized the idea, putting the White House at odds with some congressional Republicans leading the tax cut push.

I await the details on the 401(k), but I agree that 401(k)s are a very, very important part of society that help people save for retirement. And the president has said that hes very supportive of the current design of 401(k)s, and I agree with him.
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Hassett, an affable economist with friends on both side of the partisan aisle, also spoke about his often-lampooned 1999 book with James Glassman, Dow 36,000, that predicted stocks would hit that mark by 2004. Instead, the dot-com bubble burst and stocks tanked.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/925372702940188672
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What is this, a fair for ants?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnhudson/washingtons-legions-of-lobbyists-see-danger-in-special

The threat of serving hard time for failing to disclose foreign lobbying work is rattling Washingtons multi-billion dollar influence industry following Mondays 12-count indictment against Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates.

And although the charges have largely been seen as a blow to the White House, Mondays actions by special prosecutor Robert Mueller also sent shivers down the spines of Washingtons lobbyists, both Democrats and Repulicans.

Its a swampy place, and the swampy stink knows no partisan allegiance, said one senior Democratic congressional aide.

Manafort and Gates, who allegedly failed to disclose the full extent of their work on behalf of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions, are now being charged under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1930s era law aimed at curbing the influence of pro-German propaganda ahead of World War II.

In the last half century, the Justice Department has brought only a handful of enforcement actions against lobbyists for violations of FARA. That lack of prosecution resulted in a proliferation of under-the-radar lobbying. Now Washingtons cottage industry of consultants and public affairs specialists can only wonder if that era has come to an end.

The indictment of Manafort is sending shockwaves through K Street and the FARA Unit at the Department of Justice, said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a group that supports government transparency. The Justice Department largely neglected its role in the administration of FARA, which emboldened many lobbyists to ignore the law and opt to register under the weaker disclosure regime of the Lobbying Disclosure Act, if at all.

Mondays indictment cites two lobbying firms hired by Manafort and Gates to lobby on behalf of a Ukrainian party. Though it only refers to the firms as Company A and Company B, news outlets have identified them as Mercury Public Affairs, a Republican heavy firm, and the Podesta Group, a Democratic lobbying powerhouse run by Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta.

The indictment says the two firms received more than $2 million through offshore accounts linked to Manafort and Gates for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

"At the direction of Manafort and Gates, Company A and Company B engaged in extensive lobbying," the indictment charges. "They lobbied multiple members of Congress and their staffs about Ukraine sanctions, the validity of Ukraine elections, and the propriety of Yanukovychs imprisoning his presidential rival."

On Monday, Tony Podesta resigned from his firm and relinquished control of the company to CEO Kimberley Fritts, Politico reported.

...

One outcome of Muellers charges could be better compliance by Washington lobbying firms on FARA issues, said the Democratic congressional aide. The irony is that Trump may inadvertently help drain the swamp, the aide said. I hope it strikes fear into folks because this has become absurd, and its an equal opportunity problem in terms of political parties.

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What is this, a fair for ants?

They're a good band, imo
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What is this, a fair for ants?

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/357109-poll-dems-have-favorable-view-of-george-w-bush

A slim majority of Democrats in the United States holds a favorable view of former President George W. Bush, according to a new poll.

Fifty-one percent of Democrats in the Economist-YouGov survey say they have a somewhat or very favorable view of the 43rd president, while 42 percent hold a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Bush.

The results come just under one week after Bush delivered a blistering rebuke of President Trumps policies. While Bush did not mention Trump by name during the speech, he criticized foreign polices that do not combat security threats head-on and domestic policies that rebuff immigrants.

Weve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America. We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism, Bush told a crowd at a security forum in New York.
The new online poll was conducted from Oct. 22 to 24, after Bushs speech. The survey of 1,500 adults, 1,312 of whom are registered voters, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

A Gallup poll in June found that Bushs favorability rating had climbed since 2016. Forty-one percent of Democrats in that survey held a favorable view of the former president.

*Jim Halpert stares at camera face*
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While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Correct.
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While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Neat
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While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.