Presidential Address Tonight

[Rogar]

I'm sure he gets tons of coaching! .."...please daddy you HAVE to tone it down!"

He must have also thrown some salt over the other shoulder to appease Bannon;-)

[iris lilies]

The stock market has been a little odd considering the turmoil around his unpopularity. I shifted some of my retirement nest egg out of stocks. I hardly ever try to predict the market, but was just not feeling comfortable. Unless something in his policies changes, it's not making good dollar sense to me. Maybe we're in a speculative bubble or could be a boom, but I'm sleeping better.

I though his speech was pretty milk toast politics. I suspect he had some coaching to tone down the rhetoric and he actually listened. He really didn't say much new.

i agree with all of this. While I am gizzed up temporarily about this market, in my heart I know it will come down, and probably crashing down.

I no likee all of the Trump plans to spend money we do not have.

[jp1]

Jp1, I'm not throwing snark your way with this comment, ok? Such is not my intent. I just want to say that I don't care for Trump either and as you know I've been quite vocal about it.....I'm not buying the rumors about Trump doing cocaine. Perhaps in the past, yes, but (call me a fool if you want, I won't get offended this one time on this one issue) I'd like to believe the man is brighter than to use cocaine or any other illicit non prescribed substance while holding his current office. I sure hope I'm right on this one.....Rob

My comment was half snark, half concern that all his sniffles during the debates and behavior that lead to the assumption of coke are real. And no, I don't take it personally.

Honestly, I hope you're right. It is kind of scary to think that the man with the nuclear football (ok, we all know that there's some other dude at Mar A Lago who actually has the football and he's willing to pose for selfies, but whatever...) is using coke.

[jp1]

I no likee all of the Trump plans to spend money we do not have.

And especially on something as pointless as the military buildup he bloviates about. I mean, jesus christ, didn't we learn from the last republican administration mega military buildup that it was a waste of money? All that shit that Reagan cranked up the deficit to buy just got wasted in lying Bush's Iraq war v 2.0 the Kill Saddam Edition.

[frugal-one]

I thought it was a pretty good performance, sober, serious and yet uplifting. The extended ovation given to the widow of the Navy Seal was touching, the Democrats who spent the rest of the speech glued to their seats even stood for her.

Given that it was The Donald at the dais, I was pleasantly surprised by a dignified presentation.

Unlike you, I was appalled at the grandstanding of the new widow of the navy seal. You could see the stress of it all on her. Previously, the seal's father snubbed Trump because he thought his son died in vain. I do have to agree though that I preferred Trump's TelePrompTer speech over his usual off the cuff blabbering. I was not uplifted by it however. He said what he thought people wanted to hear. When in reality he is working in the unprecedented buildup of the military, scheduling the elimination of the EPA and Consumer Protection agencies and looking at ways to cut COLAs for seniors... just to name a few things that will not benefit individuals.

[frugal-one]

Actually I'd prefer jane's suggestion of providing enough seasonal work permits to foreigners to fill the need. Seems a better plan than destroying the American agricultural segment entirely.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.252724968972

This is done already. There are a variety of migrant workers for crops. Wages and working conditions are checked by DOL.

[frugal-one]

If he had behaved this way during the election I believe many more mainstream voters would have been more likely to vote for him. He might have lost some of the deplorable though.

As as I was listening to the speech, all I could think of was basic math. More people covered with better health insurance, more money spent in infrastructure and defense, big tax cuts. Somewhere in there things don't add up.

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Today talking about big organizations paying for "roads" and then letting them collect tolls. ...

[flowerseverywhere]

i agree with all of this. While I am gizzed up temporarily about this market, in my heart I know it will come down, and probably crashing down.

I no likee all of the Trump plans to spend money we do not have.

yes, it is concerning. Most of us try to figure out how to manage our finances, save for a rainy day and so on. It would be like overspending and expecting our heirs to foot the bill in our personal life. We would not think of it.

[flowerseverywhere]

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Today talking about big organizations paying for "roads" and then letting them collect tolls. ...

It's funny you say that. Here in Florida we have no state income tax. However there is a large hotel tax, and when people come from out of state to visit they comment on the toll roads and how expensive they are. The revenue raising is shifted to those who use these services. It actually makes for an interesting concept, unless you are the one who has to use to toll roads to get to work.

[Zoe Girl]

Some years back, we decided to see about paying a living wage to the workers at our vineyard & winery. Doing so required doubling the price of the wine.

Sales increased, perhaps because people cared, perhaps because wine has a weird market and may be a Geffen or Veblen good to some of the purchasers.

Employee retention increased, productivity per worker increased. When the dust settled, we were doing more, with fewer workers, while making more profit.

This may not be the case for lettuce producers.

Our school district raised our minimum wage and raised my salary quite a bit over the last 2 years. It used to be that the majority of our site staff working with kids needed food, housing and medical assistance programs. I was totally unable to make payments on my student loans at what I used to make. Now our new minimum wage for the district is $12 and we are keeping more of our site staff, pretty hard to keep someone in a 15 hour a week job for long with less than that. They are also making changes for people like bus drivers so over the summer they work more by good scheduling, that doesn't cost anything but keeps us drivers.