Maddow: President Trump Isn't Attacking Critics, He's Going After Witnesses | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
MSNBC Published on Aug 17, 2018
Rachel Maddow shows the prevalence of classified intelligence in the Trump Russia investigation and notes that the people Donald Trump is threatening with having their security clearance revoked are those who would need that clearance to testify for the investigation.
Brennan used his security clearance not to attend any briefings but to review his own intelligence files in preparation for congressional committee hearings, and interviews by staff. James Clapper and Sen. Mark Warner suggest the possibility that Trump may be opening the way to revoking the security clearances of Mueller and his team.
Related:
Trump Admits He Revoked Brennan’s Security Clearance Over “Rigged Witch Hunt” The White House claimed Brennan would spill state secrets. But the president admitted the move was intended to silence a critic. by Abigail Tracy August 16, 2018 12:08 pm Former C.I.A. Director John Brennan appears on Meet the Press in Washington, D.C. By NBC NewsWire/Contributor/Getty Images. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/trump-admits-he-revoked-brennan-security-clearance-over-rigged-witch-hunt .
‘He can’t just lie his way out of every single box’ [...] Before the Air Force One huddle, there was the episode that led to Mueller’s appointment in the first place: the firing of FBI director James Comey. p - Trump was warned by close aides that the move could be politically disastrous, but he went ahead anyway, tapping Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to draft a memo to justify the firing. p - That document focused on Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation — but Trump subsequently undermined that explanation, declaring on NBC News that he had fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. Trump then reportedly boasted in a meeting with senior Russian officials that firing Comey had taken “great pressure” off him https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=140520616 .
U.S. President Donald Trump has acted on a threat to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, citing a constitutional responsibility to protect classified information. Brennan, who served in the Obama administration, had become an increasingly sharp critic of Trump’s.
Trump says he is reviewing security clearances for nine other individuals. Some have been publicly critical of the president, while others are linked to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, which Trump calls “a witch hunt.”
A look at the 10 individuals:
JOHN BRENNAN
In a written statement, Trump cited “erratic conduct and behavior” by President Barack Obama’s CIA director as justification for revoking Brennan’s security clearance. Trump also accused Brennan of “lying” and “wild outbursts.” At a news conference last month in Finland, Trump stood alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and openly questioned U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusions that Moscow tried to influence the 2016 election in his favor. Afterward, Brennan criticized Trump’s performance as “nothing short of treasonous” and accused him of being “wholly in the pocket of Putin.”
On Wednesday, Brennan tweeted a response to Trump’s decision to revoke his security clearance: “This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.”
JAMES CLAPPER
Clapper served Obama as director of national intelligence and has held key positions in the U.S. intelligence community. He has been critical of Trump and told CNN on Wednesday that he has no plans to stop speaking out when he’s asked for his views on the Trump administration.
“If they’re saying that the only way I can speak is to be in an adulation mode of this president, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can sign up to that,” Clapper said.
JAMES COMEY
Trump fired Comey from his post as FBI director in May 2017 over the bureau’s Russia investigation. Comey had also announced in July 2016 that the FBI would not recommend charges against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her email practices as Obama’s secretary of state. Trump believes the investigation was handled unfairly because of what he alleges is political bias against him at the FBI. Comey does not have a security clearance; Trump said Comey may not be able to have it reinstated.
On Wednesday, Comey tweeted a statement that said, in part: “Once again this president is sending a message that he will punish people who disagree with him and reward those who praise him. In a democracy, security clearances should not be used as pawns in a petty political game to distract voters from even bigger problems.”
MICHAEL HAYDEN
The veteran U.S. intelligence official is a former director of the National Security Agency, principal deputy director of national intelligence and a past CIA director. He’s also been critical of the president. Hayden said last month when the White House first issued the security clearance threat that losing it wouldn’t affect what he says or writes.
He published a book this year called “The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies.”
SALLY YATES
Trump fired Yates early in 2017 after she refused to enforce the new president’s ban on travel to the U.S. by residents of several mostly Muslim countries. Yates served in the Obama administration and had agreed to stay in the job under Trump. She also had informed the White House that Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, was potentially compromised because of his contacts with Russian officials. Trump allowed Flynn to keep his security clearance after Yates’ disclosure but later fired Flynn, citing misstatements he said Flynn made to Vice President Mike Pence.
Referring to Trump’s summit with Putin, Yates tweeted, “Our President today not only chose a tyrant over his own Intel community, he chose Russia’s interests over the country he is sworn to protect.” Last December she tweeted, “The FBI is in “tatters”? No. The only thing in tatters is the President’s respect for the rule of law.”
SUSAN RICE
Rice was national security adviser during Obama’s second term and has criticized Trump policies. She wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in July, saying the U.S. had “so much to lose and so little to gain” from the Trump-Putin summit — “given this very atypical US President,” she added in a tweet.
ANDREW McCABE
McCabe is a former FBI deputy director who led the investigation into Clinton’s email practices. Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe this year after FBI disciplinary officials and the Justice Department concluded he hadn’t been candid during an inspector general investigation. Trump has alleged bias in the email investigation because McCabe’s wife, Jill, ran as a Democrat for the Virginia state Senate in 2015 and accepted a campaign contribution from a longtime Clinton ally. But McCabe didn’t become involved in the Clinton probe until after his wife’s bid for elected office.
PETER STRZOK
The longtime FBI agent was recently fired from the bureau, his lawyer said this week. Strzok had worked on the Mueller investigation but was removed after anti-Trump text messages that Strzok exchanged with an FBI lawyer became public. Trump has used the text messages to buttress his claims that the FBI is biased against him.
Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement Wednesday that security clearances shouldn’t be taken away as a means of “punishing people who have criticized the President, or coercing others into silence.” He said by stripping Brennan’s clearance and threatening others with the same fate, “the President has taken us down one more step on the path toward authoritarianism.”
LISA PAGE
Page is the former FBI lawyer who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with Strzok. Trump has begun referring to Page as the “lovely Lisa Page” in his tweets about the Russia investigation.
BRUCE OHR
The Justice Department official has come under Republican scrutiny for his contacts with Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS. The opposition research firm hired former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to compile a dossier of information on Trump and his ties to Russia. Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS during the campaign — a fact Trump has tweeted about in recent days to highlight his assertions of political bias as motivation for the Russia investigation. https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-s-enemies-list-those-who-might-lose-their-security-clearance-1.6386948 .
‘Trump hasn’t just done a good job, he’s done a great job' – the view from Muncie, Indiana
"What's Behind President Donald Trump's Latest Poll Numbers? | Morning Joe | MSNBC"
Gary Younge @garyyounge
Mon 22 Jan 2018 12.45 EST Last modified on Fri 9 Feb 2018 13.35 EST
The archetypal US town ... downtown Muncie, Indiana. Photograph: AJ Mast/Getty Images
Gary Younge spent a month in the ‘archetypal’ US town before last year’s election. The people swung for Trump, but how do they feel a year on?
Griffin Timmerman, six, is a runner. Given the opportunity, the small, lively boy, who has autism and prefers to play on his own, would just keep going. He once ran into the road; this is one of the reasons why his family moved out of Muncie, Indiana, to the country, giving him more space and free rein for his energy.
The last time I saw Kelsey, he was watching the presidential election results come in with a couple of friends. As Pennsylvania fell to Trump, and Wisconsin and Michigan wavered .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/electing-donald-trump-democracy-us-politics , the nation’s self-image changed overnight – it was not the country many thought it was. When we meet again, it is Griffin’s first day back at school without a teacher’s aide. Kelsey’s wife has been awake at night worrying about it. “Trump’s win came at great personal cost to us,” says Kelsey. “It makes it tough to drive around town and see the Trump signs and bumper stickers.”
It has been a long year since Trump’s inauguration. In Muncie, a town of 70,000 in central Indiana, where I spent a month .. https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/oct/11/middletown-gary-younge-us-election-presidential-muncie-indiana .. before the last election, some things have changed. Schools have been removed from local control and taken over by the state; the leader of the local Republican party has moved to Florida; and in the town’s Kennedy library, just above the advert for a Dungeons and Dragons game day, is an advertisement for a day-long course on the subject of spotting fake news in the internet era.
Democrat and organic food store owner Dave Ring is thinking of running for office in the town. Photograph: AJ Mast/Getty Images
Most people I speak to now ration their news consumption. For liberals, it is because they cannot bear it. “I have a very hard time watching the news now,” says Bea Sousa .. https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/nov/01/the-view-from-middletown-the-perfect-female-presidential-candidate-doesnt-exist , 75, the former spokeswoman for the League of Women Voters of Muncie-Delaware County. “I have to limit it. I stay informed with the radio and newspapers. I’m just not sure what hunkering down into it on TV would affect, apart from damaging my own mental health.” For conservatives, it is because they do not trust it. “He could come out of the Oval Office with a cure for cancer and CNN would be talking about ‘this crazy imperfect cure’,” says Jamie Walsh, who voted for Trump. “They’ve been on full tilt for so long everybody’s just tuned them out.”
[Insert: Umm, Jamie, you're stretching. Looks you've been suckered. Big time.]
“We’re a year down the road,” says Walsh. “I wish people would stand up, take a look at their lives and see what is so different. What have you been screaming about for a year? I struggle to find anything bad that has happened to everyday Americans and their lives.”
For most people, though, whether they live in Muncie or not, Walsh has a point. Relatively little in their daily lives has changed materially as a result of Trump’s election. Given his explosive agenda – he made 38 promises for his first 100 days alone – you might think his base would be disappointed by the lack of progress. But there are two surprising things about those who voted for Trump in Muncie.
Trump man ... executive director Ted Baker. Photograph: AJ Mast/Getty Images
Stop Calling Trump a Populist [...] Watching Trump in action, it’s hard to escape the impression that he knows very well that he’s inflicting punishment on his own base. But he’s a man who likes to humiliate others, in ways great and small. And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=142816490 ]
This particular set of Trump voters defies caricature. Some do a lot of charity work. One is spoken of highly by everyone from Bernie Sanders supporters to community activists in Whitely, the black area of town. Brad Daugherty, a small business owner who voted for Trump because he favoured less business regulation and wanted an anti-abortionist on the supreme court, carries new pairs of warm socks with him in his car in case he meets homeless people. Walsh is a working-class woman who backed Obama in 2008 and told me, shortly before she voted for Trump in 2016 .. https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/oct/27/middletown-trump-muncie-clinton : “[He is] a 70-year-old white man. He’s been supported in bigotry his entire life. He’s been validated his entire life. And people wonder why he acts like this. No wonder he acts like this.” Daugherty seriously considered voting for the Libertarian party. Nearly all made the choice to vote for Trump with a heavy heart – none could bear Hillary Clinton.
[Whoever said a vicious, in-the-most-part-false, 30-year conservative smear job didn't have an effect on millions of people.]
They seem far more generous to him at this stage of his presidency than I recall Obama voters being at the end of his first year. Arguably, that is because Obama inherited an economic crisis that had not yet reached bottom, whereas Trump inherited a strong economy on its way up. But it is also because, while Obama tried to damp down the expectations engendered by his victory, Trump has governed in the same tone as he campaigned.
They blame a lot of the negative coverage not on Trump, but on the media. They give him a pass on much of his bloviation and bluster on the grounds that “he’s not a politician”. Indeed that’s ultimately what they like about him. “President Trump is a disrupter,” says Baker. “And I felt politics needed some disruption. Now disruption’s never easy. But it is important.”
For most people, in Muncie or not, little in their daily lives has changed. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
The second surprising thing is that, with one exception, they voted for him even though they did not particularly like him. “There’s lots of things he’s said that I can’t defend,” says Daugherty, referring to Trump’s “pussy-grabbing” comments. “And I’m not going to try to.” Talking about Trump’s tweets, Daugherty says: “He just keeps opening his mouth and spews out word-vomit and I cringe, because he doesn’t have a filter. You can think things. You don’t have to put them out there.”
Walsh says, with a smile: “He’s completely embarrassed the United States more than a handful of times. He’s like your drunk uncle at a party.”
But they weigh his boorish behaviour against what he has done and what he might do. “He wouldn’t be someone I’d want to socialise with,” says one woman who did not wish to be named. “I don’t appreciate his bad manners and his bullying. But I do appreciate his business and negotiating skills.”
[Yeah, fair enough, Trump is only one of America's business bankruptcy kings, and he really hasn't negotiated anything since elected president, but anyway...]
Walsh puts it more bluntly. “I would take an arsehole doctor who was going to fix me over a nice guy who wouldn’t. The nice guy doesn’t always get things done.”
This is new territory. As head of state, the president is a figurehead of sorts – the personification of a national aspiration and mindset in a given moment. Dwight Eisenhower’s military persona at the height of the cold war, Kennedy’s youth and glamour in the 60s, Obama’s global upbringing and multiracial identity following a period of diplomatic isolation and racial division were all carefully crafted images that chimed with the times. That these men should exhibit “character” befitting the office was considered important.
That was not unproblematic. Assumptions of what that “character” might be is loaded with a range of prejudices rooted in broader inequalities. Yet it is hard to imagine that Clinton or Obama could have had five children from three marriages and display flashes of anger, as Trump does, but still be considered viable candidates. Trump may be faithfully reflecting the belligerent, parochial mood of a deeply divided nation – but, even if that were true, many of those who appreciate him most are not impressed. Presidents are supposed to be relatable to, if not entirely.
In November, a few civic organisations in Muncie held a non-partisan programme, Candidates for the Future, to educate people about what they needed to know if they wanted to run for local office. Hoping for 30 to 35 people, they planned two weeks of radio ads to promote it. After four days, they were fully subscribed.
“We completely underestimated it,” says Mitch Isaacs, executive director of Shafer Leadership Academy, one of the groups that organised the event. “People want to make a difference. That’s the zeitgeist and we managed to tap into that.”
‘He’s completely embarrassed the United States more than a handful of times. He’s like your drunk uncle at a party,’ says Trump voter Jamie Walsh. Photograph: VIEW press/Corbis via Getty Images
Dave Ring, owner of the Downtown Farmstand, an organic food store and deli that uses locally grown produce, catered the event. One evening, he takes me to the American Legion, where Team Democrat are holding a meeting of about 30 people. These are dissident local Democrats who started a caucus within the party in 2010 to challenge what they saw as the corrupt grip of the Muncie machine. Ring, who backed Sanders in the primary .. https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/oct/20/middletown-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-muncie , is now seriously considering running for office.
He says he has been thinking about it for a while, but many Democrats I speak to have become much more politically engaged since I left. This has mostly been due to local issues. A lot of effort went into trying to prevent the state from taking over the local school board, which many fear will lead to further racial and class segregation. Others are working on gerrymandering, which has delivered Republicans a huge majority in the state house. Membership of anti-racist group Race Muncie and the League of Women Voters has swelled.
Beth Hawke, 57, who went to DC with her daughters for the Women’s March .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/06/somethings-happening-how-the-womens-march-inspired-a-new-era-of-resistance , has been making calls to defend Obamacare. “When Trump won I thought: ‘I really need to do something.’ I’ve always been active in my community over schools and things like that, but the last election I actively participated in was Gary Hart [in 1984]. The march was cathartic. I hadn’t really done things like this since my student days.”
Indiana, which leans heavily Republican, has a Democratic senator whose seat is crucial to any chance of the Democrats taking over the Senate in November. Beth’s husband, Jim, 55, has signed up to campaign for the Democrats, which is not something he contemplated in previous elections.
Also at the meeting are a few supporters of Muncie Resists, which emerged shortly after the inauguration to campaign for social justice and against the Trump agenda. About 70 people showed up to their first meeting, after which they held town hall meetings on healthcare, gerrymandering and Black Lives Matter .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/black-lives-matter-movement . Next year, they plan to orientate towards electoral work: registering voters, getting out the vote and possibly endorsing candidates.
The left is not alone in this surge of activism. At the Candidates for the Future event, participants were asked to share their political leanings on a form. Isaacs says the split was broadly 60% left and 40% right. During one interview, the Tea Party Express called, asking for a donation to “stop career politicians” in Washington. But there is already some evidence nationally that a resurgent liberal-left could have electoral consequences. In Virginia in November an increased turnout, particularly among the young, who increasingly skew Democratic, helped deliver not only the governorship but also many house seats. Similarly, in last month’s Alabama senate race, an increased black and youth turnout secured a narrow Democratic victory against Republican Roy Moore, who had been accused of child molestation .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/04/roy-moore-trump-backs-alabama-senate-candidate .
More often than not, in Muncie at least, the left’s response has emerged from a pervasive sense of psychic frailty. Most have found the past year traumatic. Morgan Aprill, who used to run the Progressive Student Alliance and, since graduating, helps with a chapter of Food Not Bombs, could not get out of bed for a week after the election; she was so down that she almost went to see a doctor. “I’m 24 years old. How sad is it that I’m this young and feel this miserable?” she says as her eyes well up.
Most refer, in some way, to managing their anxieties over a year in which every day has brought new drama and previously unimaginable presidential posturing. “He’s got everybody anxious,” says Cornelius Dollison, one of the town’s most celebrated community organisers. “Every morning we’re waking up and thinking: what did he do now?”
Very few could bring themselves to watch the inauguration. Intriguingly, in several interviews, nobody brings up Russia, Charlottesville or the Take a Knee protests, although all have opinions on them when I raise them. Most, if not all, mention North Korea, although that could be because Trump issued his “bigger button” jibe .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/03/donald-trump-boasts-nuclear-button-bigger-kim-jong-un .. at Kim Jong-un the day after I arrived. While Democrats are motivated because they lost, there seems precious little analysis of why they lost.
Indeed, Trump’s tweets and demeanour come up far more than his tax bill or his efforts at deregulation. People often relate his most egregious offences while laughing, only occasionally chilled by the knowledge that this is real. He is the man the country chose.
“I hoped that after he won he would sober up to the demands of his office, like a drunk dunking their head in the water,” says Kelsey. “But it’s just far worse than I imagined it could be and is having real consequences. Maybe we had to go through this to get to a better place. I just hope he doesn’t do too much permanent damage in the meantime.”
"What's Behind President Donald Trump's Latest Poll Numbers? | Morning Joe | MSNBC [...] The still more-Obama economy ticking ok, yet Trump's changes are starting to bite, and inflation is overriding the middle class tax cuts. Trump's tariffs starting to hit with farmer uncertainty building, and Harley Davidson (Wisc.) jobs a problem. Trump tweet attacking HD a pain-in-the-azz for Republican candidates there. . Suburbia has problems with Trump. His con is unraveling. Healthcare premiums possibly up 30-50% in late Sept./early Oct. Trump's administration seen as irresponsible on the fiscal front, corrupt and cruel in the social arena. Even with Obama's (still more than not) ticking along Trump hits 39% in latest Gallop. Not good historically. Suburbia drifting from Donald. No Hillary to bully and lie about. Who could be slipped into a jail him/her chant ever again. It was boring as hell anyway. What scurrilous, nasty, irresponsible action(s) will Donald and his corrupt administration come up with before the mid-terms?"
By Paul Krugman March 1, 2018
p President Trump with the just-signed tax law in December.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
So you go out for dinner with a wealthy acquaintance. “I’ll take care of everything,” he says, and orders you a hamburger. Then he orders himself an expensive steak and a bottle of wine, which he doesn’t share. And when the waiter comes with the check, he points at you and says, “Charge it to his credit card.”
Now you understand the essence of the Trump tax cut, signed into law a little over two months ago.
The key thing you need to know is that right now the U.S. government has no business cutting taxes. We need more revenue, not less.
Why? The federal government, as an old line says, is a giant insurance company with an army. Most of its costs come from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — and all three programs are becoming more expensive as ever more baby boomers reach retirement age .. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPPOPDPNDOLUSA . This means that unless we cut back sharply on benefits that middle-class Americans count on, we will need to raise more revenue than in the past.
Yet even before the tax cut, federal tax receipts were looking weak .. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S .. for an economy with low unemployment and a rising stock market — for example, far lower as a percentage of G.D.P. than the tax take during the Clinton boom of the 1990s, and even a bit lower than they were at the end of the Bush-era expansion. The tax cut will push them lower still. Something will have to give.
And we already know what will give, if Republicans get their way: programs that benefit working Americans. In fact, the usual suspects like Paul Ryan were talking about the need for “entitlement reform .. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/363642-ryan-pledges-entitlement-reform-in-2018 ” — meaning cuts in Medicare and Medicaid — to reduce deficits even as they were passing a huge tax cut that will make those deficits much worse.
Hence my analogy about the guy who “gives” you a hamburger, then bills it to your credit card. Ryan celebrated the tax cut with a tweet about a teacher .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/03/paul-ryan-celebrated-the-tax-cut-with-a-tweet-about-a-secretary-saving-1-50-a-week/?utm_term=.28153c79a887 .. saving $1.50 a week on her taxes; that’s like saying you should feel grateful for a “gift” that’s actually being charged to your own credit card. How’s that $75-a-year saving going to look when the teacher finds out that, partly because of that tax cut, her mother’s Medicare plan has been converted into an inadequate voucher system and Medicaid won’t pay for her father’s nursing home care?
Meanwhile, about your companion’s steak dinner: Most of the tax cut actually consisted of huge tax breaks for corporations, which is in effect a big tax cut for stockholders. And while many Americans own a bit of stock via their retirement accounts, even if you include these indirect holdings, more than 80 percent of stocks .. http://www.nber.org/papers/w20733.pdf .. are owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of the population. So on the face of it, the wealthy are giving themselves a big gift, and sending the bill to the middle class.
Now, the tax cut’s defenders insist that it won’t really work that way, that the benefits of lower corporate taxes will trickle down to workers instead. How’s that supposed to happen?
Well, the theory is that lower corporate taxes will draw in lots of money from overseas, which corporations will invest in new plants and equipment, which will drive up the demand for labor, which will raise wages. And to be fair, there’s probably something to this theory — something, but not very much.
First of all, even if the process were to work as advertised, it would take a long time — probably decades. Even the most optimistic analyses suggest that there would be little effect on wages for the first few years, which means that for now what looks like a tax break for the wealthy is, in fact, a tax break for the wealthy.
Second, the story relies on a long chain of events with multiple weak links. For example, corporations with monopoly power won’t see lower taxes as a reason to invest more; they’ll just take the money. Meanwhile, there’s growing evidence that big employers are using their power to suppress wages .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/opinion/corporate-america-suppressing-wages.html ; cutting their taxes won’t change that fact. So even in the long run we shouldn’t expect a lot of trickle-down.
But wait — weren’t there a lot of stories about companies using the tax cut to give their workers bonuses? Yes, there were — but only because the news media let themselves get played. Most of those bonuses would have happened anyway: In an economy with low unemployment, there are always some companies deciding to pay a bit more to attract workers. But companies had every incentive to pretend that the tax cut was responsible, if only to curry favor with the Trump administration.
And in any case the bonus hype was out of all proportion to the reality. So far, we’ve seen about $6 billion in bonuses .. http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/16/investing/stock-buybacks-tax-law-bonuses/index.html .. versus more than $170 billion in stock buybacks, that is, handing money to wealthy stockholders. And money spent on buybacks is money that isn’t being invested in plants and equipment, the supposed point of the tax cut.
So the message to middle-class taxpayers is, if you think you were helped by the tax cut, think again. Donald Trump and his allies pretended to give you a gift, but they gave themselves and their wealthy patrons much bigger gifts — and they’re going to stick you with the bill. You’ve been scammed.
Stop Calling Trump a Populist [...] Watching Trump in action, it’s hard to escape the impression that he knows very well that he’s inflicting punishment on his own base. But he’s a man who likes to humiliate others, in ways great and small. And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=142816490
Market Data 
Markets 
p 
AI
