Midterm elections

On Rachel Maddow's show tonight there was discussion on something that may be why our community here might be having a difficult time getting  true mid-term election results.   Apparently in California,      as long as you mail in your ballot on Election Day, your vote counts.  Some of these ballots will take a week or so to get to their destination, then they need to be counted. Experts feel it may be until sometime in December until all the votes are counted.  That is 53 congressional districts in California and 2 senate seats without official results, for weeks.    

So maybe we really need to set a date in December or perhaps the  January date congress is sworn in for a truer sense of  the results.  I know a few here used a swearing in date .  Maybe that should be revisited again.

Representative Steve King, who has long expressed what many are now seeing was even being white nationalist leanings, finally facing rebuke if not outright condemnation. And from his own party.

Currently locked in the toughest reelection fight of his eighth term house career, he was rebuked in what else, a tweet, by Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, the chairman of the national Republican Congressional committee.

This came just one week before the midterm elections but well after years of racially charged comments by Mr King.

He has criticized diversity, immigration, retreated a Nazi sympathizer, and backed far-right politicians including Faith Goldy the white nationalist Fringe candidate for Toronto mayor.

He faces Democratic Challenger J.D, Scholten Iowa's 4th District where the district voted for President Trump by 27 points in 2016.

Let's see this as a sign of light finally striking through the darkness of silence or denial.

I also saw that Intel and Land of Lakes stated that they would no longer donate to Sen. King.  On another note, FedEx ended their relationship with the NRA!  Sorry, I don't have the links here to add.  It's getting a brighter!

Is the stock market being manipulated by Trump?

To obtain a better vision of the recent volatility in the market I’ve tuned into CNBC. I believe it was last Monday morning before the market opened I thought I heard the analysts talking about a request from Trump to not report the reason the market is falling so much is due to the large tax cuts given to the wealthy. I was so shocked I’m not sure I heard them right.

Last summer, July 15^ththru September 15^th, my wife and I were camping on our property we bought last year. We didn’t have access to the news on TV, no cable. We actually realized we were much happier without seeing or hearing the news. We are now in New Mexico helping my wife’s mother who is about to turn 89. Now there is no escaping the news. Previously, I would only get my news from TRMS. Now the news is in our faces and we can’t avoid it. I read the post about the market looking like a square root sign and believe it may be happening now. Just wondering why. Is it happening to help with the results of the midterms possibly?

Trump's deregulation of pretty much everything, along with the business tax cuts, created a surge in profits for big business. This surge caused the stock market to rise very fast. When the fed raised interest rates, people were pulling some of their money out of the market and getting a safer gain from higher rates. Now that the fed is continuing to raise rates it is causing some fall in the market now. Also, the midterm elections are creating fear(from investors) that if there is the blue wave as expected, there will be a halt on Trump's deregulation and possibly an introduction of new regulating legislature, depending on how the political scene turns out. Regulations cost big business money and lower their profits, thus lowering stock values. 

It is true that Trump did have a big impact on the surging market, but it was gained thru killing the planet and the middle class, so it really has no bearing on the current economics of the bottom 95%.

Agree.  Without understanding the reasons, I have felt that the market gains since Trump took office are like a cocaine high.  We all know what happens after a cocaine high. 

I don’t know what happens, can’t imagine it’s good, the way the worlds going doesn’t help my depression one bit, but it’s out of everybody’s hands

I am far from an expert on the stock market, so please chime in if I am off in what I think is happening.  Once upon a time in recent memory, pleasing companies' investors became the main focus.  If a CEO does not deliver profit or higher stocks for the investors, he is fired.  Also, to make it worse, these grossly overpaid CEOs also receive stock options.  So, companies stopped giving the workers pay raises as that makes their stocks drop and their bigwigs sad. Trump came in and gave them this huge tax cut claiming that it would trickle down to the middle class.  The companies took this windfall and bought back their own stocks, pushing already overpriced stocks higher.  Most never planned to raise wages as their stock would take a hit.  Equally frightening is the fact that these companies are carrying huge debt, yet did not use their tax cuts to pay down that debt. The middle class who fuel the economy is largely being left out.  So yes, I think Trump has been manipulating the stock market in a way, but so has big business before he was elected. Now we have tariffs added in just for fun. It is just a manner of time before this house of cards comes tumbling down.

Corporate debt is a big concern because there is both a lot of it and interest rates are starting to rise making that debt more expensive. Just one of the many factors that could derail the economy.

Darren,

Welcome! I think what we are going through is a good and necessary thing.  It is like childbirth.  We go through pain to bring new life into this world. So chin up.  We will get through this.