The Atlantic - "The Mind of Donald Trump"

It absolutely does to within the margin of error. Your original statement that the percentage went up astronomically after the Bush tax cuts is completely untrue.

 

His comments are documented and have been presented to you before. Perhaps you could ask him about that.

 

You have yet to post any data whatsoever. Guess you ain't got it and are just trying yo deflect from your inadequacies.

And you continue to confuse income with wealth.

 

That is idiotic.

 

I have been mislead by no one. Stop with the puerile name-calling and rebut with coherence and logic.

Yes, there is exaggeration on both sides. But that on the Rabid Right is puerile, senseless and devoid of factual evidence. They have succeeded in having control of all three elements of governance in the US - the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial.

This last presidential election was a sham perpetrated by an illicit Electoral College. The Legislature was manipulated by their gerrymandering of districts allowing them the majority.

Both are political subversions of any true democracy ...

 

Bollocks.

How many times must I post this infographic for you to understand what has happened to wealth in America?

It is a result of the work of two economists at the the UofCal (Saez & Zucman) that he knows very well (since he has invited them to lecture at the EHESS and at the Paris School of Economics) and they were instrumental in obtaining the US data for the World Wealth and Income Database.

About the WW&ID ...

 

Your chart which you have posted literally hundreds of times is meaningless. The true measure of the increase in the standard of living is the median real household income. Distributions (which imply a zero sum wealth or income metric) are meaningless.

And you have no response to Picketty's statements that his work is being misrepresented by those who claim that wealth distribution is a useful metric of economic progress.

 

Anyone who has actually done some homework on wealth distribution knows this. The percentage of wealth held by the top 1% has been steady at ~ 25% +- 5% since the GD.

 

Distributions which imply zero sum reasoning meaning that % held by the top are "stolen" from the bottom are meaningless. The best proxy is the real median household income which indicates standard of living. The lower income quintiles benefit from increases in this metric which increases during times of economic growth proportional to the rate of that economic growth.

Wealth or income distributions are meaningless. Wealth and income are not zero sum.

 

What name am I supposed to have called you?

The Atlantic, The Guardian and several other informed left wing sources are worried that their dwindling base has "Lost Its Mind".

“The Trump era has given rise to a vast alternative left-wing media infrastructure that operates largely out of the view of casual news consumers, but commands a massive audience and growing influence in liberal America. There are polemical podcasters and partisan click farms; wild-eyed conspiracists and cynical fabulists. Some traffic heavily in rumor and wage campaigns of misinformation; others are merely aggregators and commentators who have carved out a corner of the web for themselves. But taken together, they form a media universe where partisan hysteria is too easily stoked, and fake news can travel at the speed of light.”
THE ATLANTIC, How the Left Lost Its Mind, Polemicists, conspiracists, and outright fabulists are feeding an alternative media landscape—where the implausibility of a claim is no bar to its acceptance. MCKAY COPPINS JUL 2, 2017.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/liberal-fever-swamps/530736/

They are suggesting that you snap out of it, but I am not sure I agree with them.

 

You speak in wild generalities like the sky is falling. Can you explain yourself?

"...Exaggerations on both sides?"

We all know about the Russian Collusion Illusion. What are the exaggerations by conservatives?

"The last presidential election was a sham perpetuated by an illicit Electoral College"

I have heard that, but only since last November.

What did you think about the EC in 2012, 2008 and earlier? Your writings at the time would help.


"...Gerrymandering...?

You do know that both parties have been accused of that at one time, or another?

I want you to convince me of your points. I really do.

Otherwise, I'll think you're a sore loser.

 

You think he is physically incapacitated on a medical level?

 

He is afflicted with a very bad case of "acute narcissism" - definition:

 

Trump Derangement Syndrome. ^^

 

Yes, gerrymandering is typical of most states in the US. Which is relevant only in the regard of what one might call "the fair and equitable democracy of one-person one vote". Any tinkering with that rule is undemocratic. Why is it that simple notion not understood by Americans?

What in heaven's name are they learning in Civics Class?To wit,
* The Lack of Civics Education Has Shaped the Election
* Ignorance Does Not Lead to Election Bliss
* 50-State Comparison: Civic Education Policies - excerpt:

A key element is the third above, where students are obliged to "demonstrate proficiency through assessment in civics or social studies." The meaning of which should be they take an exam that they are obliged to pass in order to receive a diploma.

We are not there yet, and this last election shows we are not. It is necessary but not sufficient that state statutes require civic education. It's not as if a civics education was like taking a driving test in order to have permit. Driving a car in one thing - running a country competently is very much another.

We've learned a costly lesson, and the next four years are going to remind us all daily of that fact ...

 

Personal opinion of no substantive evidence.

Moving right along ...

 

More to the point is your absolute refusal to see the vivid facts (even in an infographic) and interpret them; reminding one that "Ignorance is often bliss".

Moving right a long ...

 

Your vague, partisan opinion does not pass muster.

The 25th has only ever been invoked with unanimous support and in case of physical incapacitation. That you junk he's a nasty woman doesn't mean anything.

 

Locked into a incorrect notion that wealth is a zero sum quantity and failing to realize that wealth creation is a dynamic process is the basis for placing any meaning in the meme of wealth distribution significance. It is the low income quintiles who benefit the most from maximum rates of wealth creation. Picketty clearly knows that.

 

The difficult matter to fathom is the extent to which the narcissist's bratty tweets are unseemly hysterical outbursts or calculated diversions from his failures and scandals.

It's hard to believe that the pattern does not reveal a method to his madness.

 

THE BIGGEST FEDERAL TAX BREAKS

Well, you got that right. Wealth IS a dynamic - as the infographic which I have posted a million times on this forum shows.

That dynamic is fueled by ... Income! Wow! Who wudda thot that!?!

And howzzat? By extremely low upper-income taxation that has been brought down over the past half century from 90% to anywhere below 30% that income-tax boondoggles can obtain. (See income tax level history here.)

For your edification, from Pew Research (April, 2016): The biggest U.S. tax breaks - excerpt:

Yep, count 'em. That's about $250B that escapes Uncle Sam's grabbing tax-paws and stays in the rich and super-rich bank accounts. (As if they were in dire need of it ...)

PS: Not to mention in the above infographic the very largest tax-breaks go to Health-Care insurance companies in a country that has the highest per capita health-care costs in the world ...

 

When has that ever bothered what passes for the "left" these days? Yes, The Atlantic is a left wing source.

“The most prolific of the conspiracy-mongers tend to focus on the Russia scandal, weaving a narrative so sensationalistic and complex that it could pass for a Netflix political drama. Theirs is a world where it is acceptable to allege that hundreds of American politicians, journalists, and government officials are actually secret Russian agents; that Andrew Breitbart was murdered by Vladimir Putin; that the Kremlin has “kompromat” on everyone, and oh-by-the-way a presidency-ending sex tape is going to drop any day now.


Writing recently in The New Republic, Sarah Jones identified the popularity of these notorious tweetstormers—some of whom boast followings in the hundreds of thousands—as part of a “disturbing emerging trend” on the left. “Liberals desperate to believe that the right conspiracy will take down Donald Trump promote their own purveyors of fake news,” she wrote.”

THE ATLANTIC, How the Left Lost Its Mind, Polemicists, conspiracists, and outright fabulists are feeding an alternative media landscape—where the implausibility of a claim is no bar to its acceptance. MCKAY COPPINS JUL 2, 2017.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/liberal-fever-swamps/530736/

Is The New Republic an alt.right source?

 

I've noticed some good articles from them:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

 

Yes, as the DP and the rest of what passes for a "progressive" movement in America drowns in its own Big Lies the serious informed left is trying to a line of truth at them.

The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Republic, The Nation, Reuters and others are all now injecting the occasional dose of reality into the lemmings they have stampeded toward political Buffalo Drop. Too late? Probably.

 

More meaningless statistics. Economic growth is what increases the real median household income and the standard of living. Economic growth is what progressively benefits those in the lower income quintiles and is what fuels their upward mobility into the higher income quintiles and to higher accumulated wealth over their lifetimes.