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1 minute ago, BarryLaverty said:

Keep attacking the minions while ignoring the guilt of the 'boss'...this guy was THERE doing Trump's dirty work, whether you think he is a 'rat' or not. You know, using mobster terminology just works so well to describe all this, always. 

:rofl:

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Was stopped by adults in the room from going forward on trying to write an EO about the illegal act of bribing other countries to do business there. He thinks it's silly. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-tried-kill-anti-bribery-130325316.html

The New York Times

Trump Tried to Kill Anti-Bribery Rule He Deemed 'Unfair,' New Book Alleges

Jeanna Smialek
The New York Times
 
 
President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump wanted to strike down a law that prohibits companies from bribing foreign officials, calling the ban “so unfair” to American companies, two Washington Post reporters recount in a new book.

In the spring of 2017, Trump was at a briefing with Rex Tillerson, then the secretary of state, and aides in the Oval Office. At the mention of a bribery allegation, Trump “perked up” and told Tillerson that he wanted his help in scrapping the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the authors write.

That law, enacted in 1977 and heavily enforced since around 2005, prohibits companies that operate in the United States from bribing foreign officials to obtain or retain business. It has become a major factor in corporate decision-making about operations abroad.

Trump said that it was “just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” according to the book, “A Very Stable Genius,” by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.

“I need you to get rid of that law,” Trump told Tillerson.

Tillerson explained to the president that he could not simply repeal the legislation, according to Rucker and Leonnig. He pointed out that Congress would need to be involved in any effort to strike it down.

Undeterred, Trump told Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser, to draft an executive action to repeal the law. Tillerson, the authors write, later caught up with Miller in the hallway, where Miller said he had some skepticism about whether that plan for unilateral executive action could work.

The anecdote meshes with the president’s past views of the anti-corruption law. In a 2012 CNBC appearance, he called it a horrible rule and said that “the world is laughing at us” for enforcing it.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department began enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act more concertedly about 15 years ago. It has led to huge fines for companies, including engineering conglomerate Siemens and Brazil’s state-owned energy company, Petrobras.

Critics of the government’s pursuit of cases under the law have argued that regulators are reading its language too expansively, holding back business.

Skeptics have included Jay Clayton, the chairman of the SEC, whom Trump nominated to the position in early 2017. Clayton was an author of a 2011 paper that argued that America’s anti-bribery policies tended “to place disproportionate burdens on U.S. regulated companies in international transactions,” hurting American competitiveness.

Despite such criticisms and Trump’s misgivings, top administration officials have pledged to uphold the law.

“We will continue to strongly enforce” anti-corruption laws, Jeff Sessions, the attorney general at the time, said in a speech in April 2017. “Companies should succeed because they provide superior products and services, not because they have paid off the right people.”

And under the current attorney general, William Barr, who was confirmed last year, enforcement actions have continued to rapidly roll in.

“The past three years have shown that very little has changed,” said Joshua Roth, a lawyer specializing in these issues at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, despite early expectations that enforcement might fall off under the Trump administration. “What some of us were forecasting really didn’t materialize.”

The administration has made other moves that dovetail with the president’s disdain for anti-bribery laws.

Early in his administration, Trump signed a measure from Congress striking down a rule from the SEC that would have required oil, gas and mining companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to disclose how much they were paying to foreign governments.

After that decision, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., and former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the lawmakers who had sponsored the original legislation directing the commission to enforce that rule, wrote that Congress and the Trump administration had “abdicated American leadership in fighting corruption around the world.”

A Republican bill that would have permanently repealed the law underlying that energy-industry rule did not come up for a vote on the House floor before Democrats took over the chamber in January 2019.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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1 hour ago, BarryLaverty said:

And, they continue to come forward confirming Trump's guilt...but, yeah, keep focusing on Adam Schiff's neck. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/lev-parnas-implicates-trump-on-the-eve-of-senate-impeachment-trial-025646046.html

Lev Parnas implicates Trump on the eve of Senate impeachment trial

David Knowles
Yahoo News
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Giuliani associate Lev Parnas implicates Trump on the eve of Senate impeachment 
2390d8f0-0596-11ea-96df-76bdcaccfb00

Lev Parnas, a key player in President Trump’s efforts to obtain a Ukrainian investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, gave a bombshell interview to MSNBC Wednesday that undercut the president’s defense just hours before the Senate was scheduled to begin his impeachment trial.

“It was all about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and also Rudy had a personal thing with the Manafort stuff,” Parnas said of the efforts to convince Ukraine’s government to announce an investigation of the Bidens, “but it was never about corruption, it was strictly about Burisma, which included Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.”

Lev Parnas arriving at court in New York City, Dec. 2, 2019. (Photo: Seth Wenig/AP)
Lev Parnas arriving at court in New York City, Dec. 2, 2019. (Photo: Seth Wenig/AP)

Parnas, a Soviet-born U.S. citizen who has been indicted by the Southern District of New York on campaign finance violations, turned over notes, text messages and other information to House investigators Wednesday. In his interview with Rachel Maddow, Parnas, who sat beside his lawyer, said he came forward because “I want to get the truth out because I think it’s important to the country, it’s important to me.”

Trump has sought to distance himself from Parnas and Igor Fruman, both of whom worked with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, on the efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation of the Bidens, and on the campaign to oust U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump said in October about Parnas and Fruman, despite the fact that the men had been photographed together numerous times.

“He lied,” Parnas said, adding, “He knew exactly who we were.”

Parnas said the president was fully aware that he was working with Giuliani to secure Zelensky’s cooperation in an effort to tarnish the reputation of Biden, the leading Democratic candidate to run against Trump this year.

Lev Parnas on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show on January 15, 2020. (Photo: Kelli R. Grant/Yahoo News)
Lev Parnas on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show on January 15, 2020. (Photo: Kelli R. Grant/Yahoo News)

"Trump knew exactly what was going on,” Parnas said, adding he “wouldn't do anything without consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president.”

Maddow asked Parnas about a handwritten note made during a phone conversation with Giuliani that he turned over to House investigators that included the line: “get Zalensky [sic] to announce that the Biden case will be investigated.”

“That was always the main objective," Parnas said of Trump’s motive for pressuring Ukraine’s government.

Parnas and Fruman, who has also been indicted, were given access to Ukrainian officials that Parnas, a Florida businessman with no diplomatic credentials or official post, said he would not have received otherwise.

"Why would President Zelensky’s inner circle, or Minister Avakov, or all these people, or President Poroshenko, meet with me?” Parnas told Maddow. “Who am I? They were told to meet with me. And that’s the secret that they’re trying to keep. I was on the ground doing their work.”

Parnas also said the Trump administration’s attempts to convince Ukraine to announce an investigation of the Bidens extended to Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence canceled his planned attendance at Zelensky’s inauguration as a way to further pressure him, Parnas said.

On his efforts with Giuliani to have Yovanovitch removed from office because she was not sufficiently supportive of Trump and was impeding efforts to secure the promise of an investigation into the Bidens, Parnas expressed regret.

“I don’t believe Ambassador Yovanovitch badmouthed Trump, and I want to apologize to her,” Parnas said.

The materials turned over to the House this week included text messages Parnas exchanged with a Trump campaign hanger-on named Robert Hyde. The messages referenced efforts to oust Yovanovitch, who was viewed as an obstacle to the deal Giuliani hoped to strike with Ukraine. Some of the messages had what appeared to be sinister overtones, implying that Yovanovitch was being followed and might be in danger, but Parnas downplayed that possibility to Maddow, saying he was only stringing Hyde along.

Parnas also told Maddow that Attorney General William Barr was aware of the efforts launched by Trump and Giuliani to discredit the Mueller investigation and procure an investigation of the Bidens.

“Mr. Barr had to have known everything," Parnas said, adding that he was in the room when Giuliani and others spoke with the attorney general.

_____

:sleep:

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11 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

Really, no concern about obvious corruption? I thought that Trump was a crusader against corruption, by golly! 🙄

Not at all.....none exists....it's all in the mind of the libtard author........see it in the very title....."New Book Alleges"

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He is taking credit for any good for the lower and middle class that he shouldn't, and he is ignoring the reality of how things really are, as the deficit spirals upward. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-wrong-economy-nobel-prize-joseph-stiglitz-202041681.html

Yahoo Finance

Donald Trump is ‘just wrong’ about the economy, says Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz

Max Zahn
Max Zahn Reporter
Yahoo Finance
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Jospeh Stiglitz talks Trump, wage growth & economy
 
 
 

President Donald Trump told business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland last week that the economy under his tenure has lifted up working- and middle-class Americans. In a newly released interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz sharply disagreed, saying Trump’s characterization is “just wrong.” 

“The Washington Post has kept a tab of how many lies and misrepresentations he does a day,” Stiglitz said of Trump last Friday at the annual World Economic Forum. “I think he outdid himself.”

In Davos last Tuesday, Trump said he has presided over a “blue-collar boom,” citing a historically low unemployment rate and surging wage growth among workers at the bottom of the pay scale.

“The American Dream is back — bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” Trump said. “No one is benefitting more than America’s middle class.”

In this Jan. 22, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In this Jan. 22, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University who won the Nobel Prize in 2001, refuted the claim, saying the failure of Trump’s economic policies is evident in the decline in average life expectancy among Americans over each of the past three years.

“A lot of it is what they call deaths of despair,” he says. “Suicide, drug overdose, alcoholism — it’s not a pretty picture.”

The uptick in wage growth is a result of the economic cycle, not Trump’s policies, Stiglitz said.

“At this point in an economic recovery, it’s been 10 years since the great recession, labor markets get tight, unemployment gets lower, and that at last starts having wages go up,” Stiglitz says.

“The remarkable thing is how weak wages are, how weak the economy is, given that as a result of the tax bill we have a $1 trillion deficit.”

As the presidential race inches closer to the general election in November, Trump’s record on economic growth — and whether it has resulted in broad-based gains — is likely to draw increased attention.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz gestures during the World Congress of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Mexico City, Mexico, June 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz gestures during the World Congress of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Mexico City, Mexico, June 19, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

“The middle class is getting killed; the middle class is getting crushed," former Vice President Joe Biden said in a Democratic presidential debate last month. "Where I live, folks aren't measuring the economy by how the Dow Jones is doing, they're measuring the economy by how they're doing," added Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic presidential candidate and former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Trump has criticized Democrats for tax and regulatory policies that he says will make the U.S. less competitive in attracting business investment.

“To every business looking for a place where they are free to invest, build, thrive, innovate, and succeed, there is no better place on Earth than the United States,” he said in Davos.

Stiglitz pointed to Trump’s threats last week of tariffs on European cars to demonstrate that turmoil in U.S. trade relationships may continue, despite the recent completion of U.S. trade deals in North America and China.

“He can’t help but bully somebody,” Stiglitz said.

Max Zahn is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Find him on t

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Meanwhile, the economy is not exploding into the stratosphere....just going to tease you with the headline, because I don't have a subscription to Rupert Murdoch's paper....

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-national-debt-will-rise-to-98-of-gdp-by-2030-cbo-projects-11580238089

U.S. National Debt Will Rise to 98% of GDP by 2030, CBO Projects

Deficits will exceed $1 trillion a year for at least 11 years, budget office says

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So, what happened to those who were saying we would be at 4 or 5 or even 6% growth? Are they still out there? 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/u-s-economy-growing-moderately-in-fourth-quarter-likely-missed-trumps-3-goal-in-2019-idUSKBN1ZT0CA

U.S. economy growing moderately in fourth quarter; likely missed Trump's 3% goal in 2019

 

6 MIN READ

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy likely maintained a moderate pace of growth in the fourth quarter, and probably again fell short of attaining the Trump administration’s coveted but elusive 3% annual growth target because of slumping business investment amid damaging trade tensions.

The Commerce Department’s snapshot of gross domestic product on Thursday will likely show the Federal Reserve’s three interest rate cuts in 2019 helped to keep the longest expansion in history, now in its 11th year, on track and avert a downturn.

Growth is, however, slowing as the stimulus fades from the White House and Republicans’ huge tax reductions in 2018, a package President Donald Trump had predicted would lift growth persistently above 3%. So far it has fallen short of that goal.

The report comes on the heels of the U.S. Federal Reserve deciding to keep rates unchanged. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters on Wednesday the U.S. central bank expected “moderate economic growth to continue” but also nodded to some risks, including the recent coronavirus outbreak in China.

The Trump administration’s 18-month-long trade war with China last year fueled fears of a recession. Though the economic outlook has improved with this month’s signing of a Phase 1 deal with Beijing, economists do not see a boost to the economy as U.S. tariffs remained in effect on $360 billion of Chinese imports, about two-thirds of the total.

“The economy has clearly slowed, but we are not barreling toward a recession,” said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “The economy is coming off its sugar high in 2019 so is not surprising that we are settling back into the growth rates that we saw prior to the fiscal stimulus.”

Gross domestic product probably increased at a 2.1% annualized rate in the fourth quarter as lower borrowing costs encouraged purchases of motor vehicles, houses and other big ticket items, according to a Reuters survey of economists. A smaller import bill and more government spending are also seen keeping GDP growth at the same pace logged in the third quarter.

The forecast was, however, made before Wednesday’s advance reports showing a sharp widening in the goods trade deficit in December as well as a drop in wholesale inventories. Retail inventories were unchanged last month. The data prompted some economists to cut their fourth-quarter GDP growth estimates by as much as five-tenths of a percentage point to as low as a 1.4% rate.

Growth estimates for 2019 are converging around 2.5%, which would be slower than the 2.9% notched in 2018. Economists estimate the speed at which the economy can grow over a long period without igniting inflation at around 1.8%.

 

The White House claimed that slashing the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, as well as shrinking the trade deficit would boost annual GDP growth to 3.0% on an sustainable basis. Economists have long disagreed, pointing to structural issues like low productivity and population growth. Some also argued that there was historically not a very strong relationship between corporate tax rates and business investment.

TOUGH TASK

“If you are trying to get to 3% in an economy in its 11th year of recovery that’s a tough task,” said Sung Won Sohn, business economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “There is a lot of uncertainty. Even though we have this initial trade agreement, I think there will be more trade wars after the (U.S. presidential) election.”

Fed Chair Powell also said the risks from trade tensions remained and businesses were adopting a “wait and see attitude.”

Business investment likely contracted further in the fourth quarter after declining by the most in nearly four years in the July-September period. Trade tensions have eroded business confidence and weighed on capital expenditure.

With confidence among chief executive officers remaining low in the fourth quarter after dropping to a 10-year low in the prior quarter, a rebound is unlikely soon.

Business investment is also seen pressured by Boeing’s suspension this month of the production of its troubled 737 MAX jetliner, which was grounded last March following two fatal crashes. Boeing on Wednesday reported its first annual loss since 1997.

Though growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is expected to have moderated after a brisk 3.2% rate in the third quarter, the pace was probably enough to offset the drag from business investment.

Support is also expected from a sharp drop in imports in the fourth quarter, in part because of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, which compressed the trade deficit.

 

Economists believe the smaller trade deficit probably added as much as 1.9 percentage points to GDP growth in the fourth quarter. That estimate could, however, be too high given the rebound in imports in December reported in Wednesday’s data.

But the overall decline in imports in the fourth quarter probably resulted in businesses depleting inventories in warehouses. A 40-day strike at General Motors also weighed on motor vehicle inventories.

Goldman Sachs estimates that overall business inventories increased at a $2.0 billion rate in the fourth quarter, decelerating sharply from a pace of $69.4 billion in the July-September period. That means inventory investment chopped 1.4 percentage points from GDP growth in the fourth quarter.

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So, about that wall...still think we need to go to alligators, moats and maybe throw in some lasers on tops of shark's heads. 

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-border-wall-falls-wind-035158736.html

HuffPost

Segment Of Trump's Border Wall Falls Over Into Mexico Due To Wind

HuffPost
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ad: 
 
Part of Trump's new border wall blew over into Mexico
Yahoo News Video
5e32d37b02816b4945c52e24_o_U_v2.jpg
Scroll back up to restore default view.

A segment of President Donald Trump’s signature border wall fell in California and onto some trees on the Mexican side on Wednesday amid high winds, according to footage from KYMA shared by CNN.

No one was injured in the incident at Calexico, California, about 100 miles east of San Diego.

 

PART OF WALL FALLS: The area is part of an ongoing construction project to improve existing sections of the wall. Read more: http://bit.ly/2t7HNJp 

 
Embedded video
 
 
 
 

“Luckily, Mexican authorities responded quickly and were able to divert traffic from the nearby street,” Carlos Pitones of Customs and Border Patrol told the Los Angeles Times.

He said the panels were newly installed and the concrete anchoring it in place had not yet cured.

CNN noted that winds of up to 37 mph were recorded in the area. 

A day earlier, Trump had boasted about the strength of his wall. 

And we are now building that beautiful wall,” he said at a campaign event in Wildwood, New Jersey, on Tuesday. “This powerful border wall is going up at record speed.” 

Trump made a “big beautiful wall” that extends across the entire border a key part of his 2016 campaign. He also vowed that Mexico would pay for it. 

So far, most of the wall built ― including the segment that fell Wednesday ― has replaced older barrier segments. Trump claimed this week that about 100 miles have been built so far. 

Mexico did not pay for it.

Tom Steyer, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination to run against Trump, mocked him for the wall fall on Twitter:  

Others joined in: 

 

 

Part of the border wall fell down on the Mexico side. They’re gonna make us pay for that.

 
 
 
 
 

TFW your big dumb border wall falls over while you're tweeting a racism

 
Embedded video
 
 
 
 
  • LOL! 1
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I am an educator, also, and I can't say that my salary has grown by leaps and bounds, despite Texas GOP promises, and my benefit costs, like health insurance, have certainly not decreased. Milk hasn't gotten cheaper, nor has the price of beer.

Did Trump appointing that DeVos weaken and undermine public education, at all levels? Absolutely. 

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9 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

I am an educator, also, and I can't say that my salary has grown by leaps and bounds, despite Texas GOP promises, and my benefit costs, like health insurance, have certainly not decreased. Milk hasn't gotten cheaper, nor has the price of beer.

Did Trump appointing that DeVos weaken and undermine public education, at all levels? Absolutely. 

Always some outlier that doesn't fit the data.......:rofl:

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6 minutes ago, Wild74 said:

Didn't Krugman also win this prize and he has been wrong on all his economic predictions about Trump

all the "expert" economists are Keynesian........translation: they all believe that government must be involved in the economy in some way....ergo: they are socialists......not a single Laissez Faire capitalist in the whole group......

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Hmmm, this Nobel winning economist states that Trumps policies have not helped the lower or middle class, and states it just part of the economic trend.  Joseph Stiglitz evidently  hasn't paid much attention to the economy in America since President Trump was elected.  The first thing he notes is that life expectancy decreases.  Well, he's wrong :  https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/30/us-life-expectancy-increases-for-first-time-in-4-years-109397 .  Then he goes on to state that labor markets get tight when unemployment is lower, and wages go up, yet he doesn't attribute that to President Trumps rescinding of the Obama era regulations that were harmful for businesses.  What is this clown studying ?  I think he's "resting on his laurels" and has become complacent.  

The American Dollar is stronger than it has been in years :  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-forex-poll-dollar/dollar-to-enter-2020-on-a-strong-footing-no-contender-in-sight-reuters-poll-idUSKBN1WJ021  .  That gives Americans more buying power.  

Inflation is at a modest rate of 1.8% as of last month. :  https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/ . 

Wages are increasing at 2.8% that offset the rise of inflation :  https://www.epi.org/nominal-wage-tracker/ . 

The GNP continues to rise :  https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GNP  

Gas prices in Houston dropped to $1.93 today, yet the USA Today reported they were going to rise to over $3.00 a gallon with the Iran tit for tat.  

Barry and this guy need to live in the real world.  I understand that their salaries are probably fixed, because they are professors.  That's not my problem.  They agreed to work for those wages.  As for the rest of us working Americans life is good with President Trumps policies.  The stock market keeps setting records, which if Joseph Stiglitz was such a genius with economic forces he would have invested in.  Instead, he probably went the safe route of placing his money in CD's where the yield is minimal at the current time.  https://www.bankrate.com/banking/cds/cd-rate-forecast/ .  

With his outlook and how he perceives things the Nobel Prize would have been awarded to Ebenezer Scrooge had it been around during his fictional lifespan.  Keep them poor and under Government control is their outlook.  The one thing I've noticed about these modern day Socialist/Communist/Democrats is they are pessimists to the extreme, and can't see any good with anything.  

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7 hours ago, BarryLaverty said:

I am an educator, also, and I can't say that my salary has grown by leaps and bounds, despite Texas GOP promises, and my benefit costs, like health insurance, have certainly not decreased. Milk hasn't gotten cheaper, nor has the price of beer.

Did Trump appointing that DeVos weaken and undermine public education, at all levels? Absolutely. 

Odd that you mention your salary, and I addressed that above.  You agreed to it.  Your salary will never grow while working for the "state" by leaps and bounds, but by their scheduled COL increases.  I don't know where you live, but milk is $1.85 at Aldi's.  As for beer I know it hasn't gone up in price since Trump took office unless  you drink a craft beer that those that think they are intellectuals think they must consume to appear sophisticated.  

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