Friday 29th of March 2024

greedy, greedy, greedy,

cover

“My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy,” declared Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. “I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States.” To the extent that Trump’s candidacy offered any positive appeal, as opposed to simple loathing for his opponent, this was it. He was a brilliant businessman, or at least starred in a television show as one, and he would set aside his lifelong pursuit of wealth to selflessly serve the greater good. This was the promise that pried just enough Obama voters away from Hillary Clinton in just enough upper-Midwest states to clinch the Electoral College.

Since Trump took office, his pledge to ignore his own interests has been almost forgotten, lost in a disorienting hurricane of endless news. It is not just a morbid joke but a legitimate problem for the opposition that all the bad news about Trump keeps getting obscured by other bad news about Trump. Perhaps the extraordinary civic unrest his presidency has provoked will be enough to give Democrats a historic win in the midterms this fall, but it is easy to be worried.
Trump’s approval rating hovers in the low 40s: lower than the average of any other president, yes, but seemingly impervious to an onslaught of scandals that would have sunk any other president, and within spitting range of reelectability
.

 

Read more:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/corruption-is-trumps-greatest-political-liability.html

private arbitration

Donald Trump has asked a federal judge to order private arbitration in a case brought by a porn actor who claimed she had an affair with him.

Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, filed papers in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday asking a judge to rule that Stormy Daniels’ case involving a non-disclosure agreement must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury. 

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been seeking to invalidate the agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election. She has offered to return the $130,000 she was paid as she tries to “set the record straight”. 

She has said she had sex with Trump once in 2006 and their relationship continued for about a year. Trump married his current wife, Melania Trump, in 2005, and their son, Barron, was born in 2006.

The White House has said Trump denies having had an affair.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/02/stormy-daniels-trump-cas...

less kiddies to play with the toys....

What happens when a society stops reproducing itself? Well, we're in the early stages of finding out. 

Toys R Us, otherwise known as heaven for us kids who grew up in the 80's and 90's, is closing all 800 of its stores' doors. One of the nation's largest and oldest toy retailers, the toy chain made the announcement last month.

In its annual filing, the company pointed to online competition like Amazon, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, as the major reasons for its bankruptcy. But Toys R Us (which also runs Babies R Us) cited another and much more troubling reason for its collapse: sagging birth rates.

"Most of our end-customers are newborns and children," writes the toy chain's management. "Our revenue [is] dependent on the birthrates in countries where we operate. In recent years, many countries' birthrates have dropped or stagnated as their population ages."

It's so obvious, most people don't even consider it. But a toy chain's business model is dependent on, well, children. One of the reasons toy retailers are dying is because their base of small customers has become...well...too small.

The U.S. fertility rate is now at an all-time low. Some experts estimate it could be nearing 1.77 children per woman, which is well below what's known as the "replacement rate"—or that number of babies each couple must have on average in order to keep the population from shrinking.

Little wonder, since according to a recent Pew Research poll, young Americans today are less likely to be married than any prior generation. In 1965, nearly 80 percent of "silent generation" members between 21 and 36 years old were married. Today, just 37 percent of Millennials that same age are married.

 

Read more:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/toys-r-us-to-close-down-record-low-fe...

 

NOT ENOUGH CATHOLIC FAMILIES BREEDING LIKE RABBITS? Well, there is the other case that the capitalistic model of Toys-R-Us was WRONG.