Trump

[billy.pilgrim]

I would love to see an educated assessment of trumper's intelligence based on his 3rd grade vocabulary. A normal thinking voter could never put someone with a below average IQ. Probably wouldn't make any difference with the current crop of trumpers, it could give him a little bump.

The only way to beat this asshole is to get on his level, or even below. The tiny hands superpac should start questioning why his hand are so tiny and unable to grasp big things immediately after he becomes the repug nominee. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to have such an ill-formed person for president shaking hands with superior hands around the world.

tiny hands are palin and simple inferior to even regular hands.

I'm not the only one
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/01/30 ... us-images/

[O Really]

I don't know how smart (or not) Trump really is, but I wouldn't think his 3rd grade vocabulary is necessarily a reflection of his intelligence. Speaking to the level of ones audience is more smart than not. So is the ability to break down complex issues into slogans that people are willing to wear on their truckers' caps. Having said that, I'm pretty sure Trump is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

[rstrong]

Huh. Trump just went full Hitler.

He told a crowd of supporters that if they happened to see protesters getting ready to lob a tomato, they should “knock the crap out of them.” "I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise. It won’t be so much ’cause the courts agree with us too."

[Vrede too]

I don't know, doesn't throwing things at a POTUS candidate come with implied risk of getting the crap knocked out of you? I'm not necessarily opposed to throwing things at speakers, though I've never done it, but there are consequences.

[rstrong]

That 'Trump Jet' You Saw 'Shooting Down Fox News' Is A Russian Su-27

This junior varsity photoshop of a “Trump fighter jet” shooting down a “Fox News passenger plane” picked up speed in today’s social media churn. Supporters sharing this seem to be ready for an America that uses Russian war machines to kill newspeople Something something free trade, I guess?

Or it could just be part of his long-running bromance with Vladimir Putin.

See also:

Trump Pulls Veterans Campaign Ad That Depicted Russian Soldiers as American

Trump ad depicts Morocco border as Mexico

Trump Gives Props To North Korea's Boy Tyrant Kim Jong Un For Being Ruthless

[billy.pilgrim]

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ad3808 ... 56e640bc0b


depp does trump

Ron Howard says that they made the movie 50 minutes because people would not be able to stand 60 minutes

worth the watch

[billy.pilgrim]

Did anyone here watch the movie

[O Really]

Thinking of Trump and his proposal to get rid of 11 million scum-bags, I have a better idea. I say we keep the Mexicans and deport the rednecks. The Mexicans work harder, are cleaner, and in many cases speak English better.

[JTA]

Thinking of Trump and his proposal to get rid of 11 million scum-bags, I have a better idea. I say we keep the Mexicans and deport the rednecks. The Mexicans work harder, are cleaner, and in many cases speak English better.

Except the ones that form criminal gangs and shit. Fuck those guys too.

Source: South Jersey.

Rednecks though, ugh...

[Vrede too]

... Except the ones that form criminal gangs and shit....

You mean rednecks that become cops?

[JTA]

... Except the ones that form criminal gangs and shit....

You mean rednecks that become cops?

Those are the absolute worst!

[Vrede too]

The Defunct Trump University Was an Education in Fleecing Students

[JTA]

I read something today, can't remember the source, that said had Trump just taken his initial starting funds and invested them in an index fund that followed the S&P, he'd be much wealthier today vs. going the business venture route. I guess what it was getting at is Trump's successful, but not as successful as supporters make him out to be.

[rstrong]

I read something today, can't remember the source, that said had Trump just taken his initial starting funds and invested them in an index fund that followed the S&P, he'd be much wealthier today vs. going the business venture route.

That depends on his real wealth - including off-shored wealth - as opposed to his declared wealth.

I recently watched a British reality TV show where a comedian took a group of businesses owners from one small town on a tour of overseas tax havens. The Isle of Man. The Cayman Islands. Bermuda. (Generally there's withholding taxes on money sent directly to the tax havens to "close" the loopholes. Which merely means that you also set up a shell company in the Netherlands as a conduit.) And he set them up to use the same tricks.

Intellectual property is a popular way to avoid taxes. An otherwise profitable Starbucks for example will transfer its name to a shell company it owns in a tax haven country. That company then charges Starbucks for use of the name. And then Starbucks purchases it's coffee beans from that company (without the beans ever travelling through that country.) And it pays them for other "miscellaneous services". That way Starbucks can report a loss - paying much lower taxes - while still reporting profits to its shareholders.

Google does the same thing. It pays licencing fees for its software to subsidiaries in tax haven countries. And no, it's not because they have programmers there.

When you need money you can "borrow" it from your tax haven shell company. And you can deduct the interest you charge yourself on your taxes.

The show had fun visiting the head offices of companies like Starbucks and Subway and ordering food. That is, at tax haven head offices, little more than a nameplate on a door of a mail-drop office shared with other tax cheats.

When you heard about Mitt Romney's Caymen Island bank accounts in 2011/2012, you can be sure that it was all perfectly legal. And I have no doubt that Trump is doing the same thing.

[JTA]

Donny T. on H1B visas:

Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.

Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed. Petitions for workers should be mailed to the unemployment office, not USCIS. USCIS.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/ ... ion-reform

Neat.

[O Really]

Most employment-based visas, other than H1B do have a "look for American first" requirement, not that it makes much difference. Post an employment notice somewhere obscure, turn down as "not qualified" the few who see it and apply, and oh woe is me, there are no qualified American workers.

But what's good about the H1B people isn't that you can pay them less. You have to pay them the same as everyone else. But you've got them in a form of indentured servitude in that they can't go anywhere else without finding a new employer sponsor. And you can send them back in they don't behave. Tends to cut down employee complaints.

[Vrede too]

If I was replaced by an H-1Ber, I would wonder where I was deficient and work to rectify it, not blame the program.

[O Really]

If I was replaced by an H-1Ber, I would wonder where I was deficient and work to rectify it, not blame the program.

That's the problem with the program. You wouldn't have to be deficient, nor would there necessarily be anything you could do. Many (not all) employers use the program to benefit themselves, not necessarily their workforce, and not necessarily related to actual workforce performance.

Actually, I'd like the program better without the employer-friendly restrictions. Once a person is in, let them be a regular employee, subject to the same conditions, rights, privileges, and protections as everybody else.

[Vrede too]

With a US workforce of 245 million or so, I'm not going to ever accuse 165 thousand H-1Bers (.07%) of being responsible for my problems. In fact, I've appreciated the diversity, work ethic, competence and different perspectives they bring to the workplace in the very few cases when I've connected with them. For example, I've thought all the Filipino nurses I've worked with were fantastic, on average better than American ones.

Also, Trump's xenophobic reasoning is fishy. He begins the section with, "Today, nearly 40% of black teenagers are unemployed. Nearly 30% of Hispanic teenagers are unemployed. For black Americans without high school diplomas, the bottom has fallen out: more than 70% were employed in 1960, compared to less than 40% in 2000."

Tragic, sure, but almost every H-1Ber has at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent, it's a near absolute mandate. Teens and the poorly educated aren't ever going to be helped by restriciting H-1Bs. It's Trump, panderer to every 'blame others' person among us. Take his "facts" and conclusions with a bucket of salt.

Somewhat related - My brother is a very accomplished computer science prof., a national award winner in his sub-specialty. He has no monetary incentive to select one grad student over another, yet he commonly finds that his Asian, mostly Chinese, applicants are objectively superior. That's a problem with our culture, policy and STEM education system, not with anything else.

[JTA]

[quote="Vrede too"

With a US workforce of 245 million or so, I'm not going to ever accuse 165 thousand H-1Bers (.07%) of being responsible for my problems. In fact, I've appreciated the diversity, work ethic, competence and different perspectives they bring to the workplace in the very few cases when I've connected with them. For example, I've thought all the Filipino nurses I've worked with were fantastic, on average better than American ones.

Also, Trump's xenophobic reasoning is fishy. He begins the section with, "Today, nearly 40% of black teenagers are unemployed. Nearly 30% of Hispanic teenagers are unemployed. For black Americans without high school diplomas, the bottom has fallen out: more than 70% were employed in 1960, compared to less than 40% in 2000."

Tragic, sure, but almost every H-1Ber has at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent, it's a near absolute mandate. Teens and the poorly educated aren't ever going to be helped by restriciting H-1Bs. It's Trump, panderer to every 'blame others' person among us. Take his "facts" and conclusions with a bucket of salt.

Somewhat related - My brother is a very accomplished computer science prof. He has no monetary incentive to select one grad student over another, yet he commonly finds that his Asian, mostly Chinese, applicants are objectively superior. That's a problem with our culture and STEM education system, not with anything else.

Yeah, Trump obviously plays the us vs. them/"think of minorities and women" card, but I can't say I disagree with him when it comes to H1Bs. Rubio wants to triple the amount of visas issued. No thanks.

I don't think H1B's should necessarily be restricted, but I agree with the reasoning they ought to be paid significantly more than their American counterparts:

Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas.

It makes sense. Get the very best and the brightest over here vs. sub-par entry level workers. Purely anecdotal, but also confirmed with others in the same profession as me and obviously differing from the nursing field, but a lot (but not all, of course) of our H1Bs (mainly India... sorry India) are simply absolutely terrible at their jobs. You get a few brilliant devs, but god damn you should see some of the code I have to deal with every day by guys with supposedly way more education and way more impressive resumes than our American employees. We bust these guys lying all the time.

I'm gonna have to side with Trump 100% on this one. I don't recall many other candidates actually looking out for, or fuck at least pandering to, white-collar workers. I think Bernie Sanders actually shares his sentiment. So good for both of them.

Bernie Sanders:

https://berniesanders.com/issues/a-fair ... on-policy/

End the Economic Exploitation of Immigrant Workers. The visa system must be fundamentally reformed to prevent employers from abusing and exploiting guest workers, especially in the context of H-2B, H1-B, and J-1 workers. Binding workers to a specific employer or not allowing their family members to work creates a situation rife for abuse and exacerbates an already unequal relationship between the employer and the employee. We must substantially increase prevailing wages that employers pay temporary guest workers. To build on Senator Sanders’ previous legislation, Senator Sanders will ensure that if there is a true labor shortage, employers must offer higher, not lower wages.

Probably just some populist rhetoric from both, but I'm 100% in agreement.