Daily News Thread 3/15

He's waiting for Karla to give him the go ahead before Moscow Centre releases them.

whoops. totally forgot to do that, I'll try to remember for tomorrow.

agreed it's kinda pointless but it was huge news yesterday.
Rachel Maddow hyped up having Trump's tax returns.

Nah it makes his tirade against that form of MAT vastly self interested

Yeah, you included the thing about Trump's tax returns. Don't you know we don't care about that at all?!

W-what are you a-a liberal or something?!

Somali Pirates Demand Ransom for Release of Seized Oil Tanker

Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late Tuesday.
time.com/4701601/somali-pirate-oil-ship-ransom/

Pirates Have Hijacked a Sri Lankan-Flagged Freighter off the Somali Coast

Somali officials say pirates have hijacked a ship off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation. It is thought to be the first hijacking of a large commercial vessel there in about three years.
time.com/4700611/pirates-somalia-hijack-sri-lanka-freighter/

Over 250 Skulls Discovered in Mass Grave in Mexico

The top prosecutor in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz confirmed Tuesday that more than 250 skulls have been found in what appears to be a drug cartel mass burial ground on the outskirts of the city of Veracruz.
time.com/4701087/mexico-drug-cartel-mass-grave/

Here are some other websites news user would post OP/EDs from but I can't decide on any
truthdig.com/
daily.jstor.org/
libcom.org/
truth-out.org/
propublica.org/

What the fuck is wrong with who ever wrote the article about the Dutch socialist party. Opposing literal fucking fascism in Turkey = xenophobia. Opposing neo-liberal immigration policies = nationalism.
Trotskyism was a fucking mistake.

WSWS really turns up the rhetoric on parties they feel aren't Left enough

They could've written an actual good article with valid criticism. After all, the SP is a "socialist" party. They're not even reformists any more, just social democrats. Instead, they attack the party with fraudulent claims about their policies.

Reminder that animu pics make anything 100% less relevant.

???

that's the joke

I'm not very knowledgeable on programming but how difficult would an open-source ride share app be to produce so drivers can remove these parasites from the equation?

What a ridiculous piece. The Democrats are not going to split. SocDems always sell out their constituents to make deals with the capitalists in power, so, just like Sanders, we can count on the rest of them to knuckle under to the corporate stooges.

Thanks for the effort, user.

...

Yep, they're the best useful idiots money can buy. And they actually do it for free.

Having any form of exclusionary immigration policy is nationalism. The left advocates open borders and complete dissolution of the state. It's not as if people often go around arguing for closed borders until capitalism ends and an equilibrium of living standards is reached, at which point they're opened again.

I certainly felt lack of quality on the selection of news, but I appreciate the effort. Thanks user, keep going.

This based user never takes any breaks

Thank you for taking over, but the other newsanon had a better taste tbh. He had more international stuff and less about Trump and the USA. Still good though.

Spoiler alert: they can't. The reefs are doomed.

trots gonna trot

Y'all can contribute if you'd like

On discourse collective they had a guy on who was a member of the party to discuss the election and he bitched about how they're trying to beat Geert Wilders at his game. WSWS is shit especially​ when it comes to reporting on parties/movements that are not their own but it's not an exaggeration to say the European left especially the center-left is taking a tougher stance on migrants and Islam.

Well, the immigrants aren't very popular nowadays, so they don't have much of a choice if they want to win an election.

According to this logic we should support the EU and NAFTA in the spirit of internationalism…

thanks. I'm trying!

Thanks guys. I'll trim the fat next time. Also I noticed it too. The news feed the OG news user left me didn't really have any international stories. I guess he must've went out of his way to find those articles or I overlooked them. Either way I'll be sure to add more international stuff.

"Free Trade" deals like NAFTA are protectionist in practice. Their main function is to impose IP protections for US corporations on other countries in exchange for access to US markets. All you have to do to have actual free trade is set barriers to trade to zero.

I know it would've abnormal for her to receive jail time but how do you withhold information that you're poisoning thousands of people and just have to 'apologize' and do community service?

By that standard nearly all 20th century socialists were nationalists.

Well, the Russians basically were with Socialism in One Country.

Add all the Flint officials to the long list of rich fuckers that should be in prison or facing the wall, but instead will be kept afloat by the same government they pretend to hate with their rhetoric and policies.

N I C E
I
C
E

laws are for poor people

Plus, if anyone went to jail for the Flint situation you'd have multiple levels of government you'd be stepping on and over since pretty much everyone there from the State to the EPA knew what was happening

Bloomberg: US default a real possibility

Euphoria has been pervasive in the stock market since the election. But investors seem to be overlooking the risk of a U.S. government default resulting from a failure by Congress to raise the debt ceiling. The possibility is greater than anyone seems to realize, even with a supposedly unified government. In particular, the markets seem to be ignoring two vital numbers, which together could have profound consequences for global markets: 218 and $189 billion. In order to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (which will technically be reinstated on March 16), 218 votes are needed in the House of Representatives. The Treasury’s cash balance will need to last until this happens, or the U.S. will default.

Reaching 218 votes in favor of raising or suspending the debt ceiling might be harder than in any previous fiscal showdown. President Donald Trump almost certainly wants to raise the ceiling, but he may not have the votes. While Republicans control 237 seats in the House, the Tea Party wing of the party has in the past has steadfastly refused to go along with increases.The Republican Party is already facing a revolt on its right flank over its failure to offer a clean repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Many members of this resistance constitute the ultra-right “Freedom Caucus,” which was willing to stand its ground during previous debt ceiling showdowns. The Freedom Caucus has 29 members, which means there might be only 208 votes to raise the ceiling.

In an ideal world, all sides would come together and not play politics with the debt ceiling again. Clearly that’s not the world in which we live. America’s partisan divide may now be so wide that a default will occur. That isn’t my base case scenario, but we will probably come down to the wire

bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-15/beware-the-debt-ceiling

they are selling us the rope

Learn some basic economics, commies!

Texas economy to be hurt by proposed border taxes

The proposed border adjustment tax has been dividing U.S. lawmakers. It is also dividing companies into those who support it and those who do not, as the simplified theory of the proposal – tax imports and exempt export revenue from taxable income – is expected to create clear-cut winners and losers among U.S. businesses.Because of its physical location, adjacent to Mexico, along with its vast energy industry, Texas’ economy is a global one. Texas is the home of energy giants ExxonMobil, Valero Energy, and Phillips 66, just to name a few. In the border adjustment plan, U.S. refiners who import oil stand to lose.

According to the United States Census Bureau, state exports from Texas stood at $232.6 billion in 2016, accounting for 16 percent of all U.S. exports last year. State imports for Texas were $229.3 billion in value last year. The no.1 import commodity was crude oil. The no.1 and no.2 export commodities were also oil products. Mexico is Texas’ no.1 trade partner, both in exports and imports. Oil companies and refiners in Texas are importing crude oil, including heavy crude from Mexico. The border tax would be a hit to their business, because even if they wanted to switch to buying American-only crude oil, it is light crude and not suited for all kinds of refining processes and products.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, criticized the border adjustment tax at the end of January.
“The United States imports into our refineries a lot of the heavy crude that our refineries are outfitted to deal with. Those would all be subject to the tax. One refiner told me that they thought that might increase the cost of gasoline by 30 cents. I want to make sure we know what the consequences would be and exactly how this would work,” Cornyn said. He stressed that he supports a tax overhaul that would spur economic growth, but called for further discussion on the border tax consequences for U.S. companies.

oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-US-Border-Tax-Would-Hit-Texas-Hard.html

This is stupid. A bunch of the Democrats will vote for it even if the teatards pitch a fit. There is no danger of the bill not passing.

It's "Porky vs. Porky: One-on-One" for your Nintendo!

Retail continues to implode and consumers are getting hurt by creeping inflation

Total retail sales, including online and food services, edged up 0.1% to $474 billion in February, from January, the slowest increase in 6 months, the Commerce Department reported today. This came after an upwardly revised 0.8% jump in January. General merchandise sales and auto sales showed negative “growth.”

On a year-over-year basis, not seasonally adjusted, total retail sales in February rose by $9.5 billion, or 2.2%. Gasoline sales alone soared by $7.2 billion, or 22%, on a juicy 30.7% price increase (more in a moment). And sales at non-store retailers jumped by $3.4 billion, or 8%. Without those two factors – gasoline price increases and non-store retail sales – total retail sales would have fallen by $1.1 billion from a year ago. And this still doesn’t account for inflation.

The delay in tax refunds – the IRS has been trying to get its arms around large-scale problems of identity theft and fraudulent tax returns related to certain tax credits – can be blamed for some of that debacle. Inflation can be blamed too: As prices rise in things consumers must have, they cut back on things they don’t necessarily need to have.

here is where inflation hurts consumers the most: Services. That’s where consumers spend the majority of their money. Prices of services (less energy services) rose 3.1% year-over-year. This includes shelter, up 3.5%; medical care services, up 3.4%; and transportation services, up 3.6%.

The Fed is still way behind the curve. Its target for the fed funds rate is still low, despite three mini-rate hikes since December 2015, including today’s. At 0.75% to 1.0%, the target rate is still highly stimulative. And it has been outpaced by inflation.

savers might make a little more money as rates edge up, but that will be more than swallowed up by higher prices. Inflation will eat dividend yields. And it will eat into wages. These are income streams consumers count on for their spending money. But these income streams are not keeping up with price increases. So consumers either cut back where they can (discretionary spending), or they borrow at rising rates to fill the holes, thus building up an increasingly costly debt that will down the road raise their costs of living even further.

wolfstreet.com/2017/03/15/inflation-hits-consumers-mortgage-rates-take-off-financial-repression-for-bondholders-and-savers/

Identity theft cannot be handled by the IRS, because identity theft is not a federal crime. That combined with the fact that identity theft usually crosses state lines makes the process of catching the perpetrator damn near impossible.

As for fraudulant tax returns, the IRS is so hilariously understaffed that they literally do not have the manpower to investigate most of them. Thanks to the federal hiring freezes, they are barely able to process returns right now. Congress has made the IRS incapable of doing its job.

I don't know much about mobile publishing, but…

As I understand it, the biggest issue by far with any mobile app is getting people to know your app exists, let alone use it. Sure there are factors like marketing and shilling by friendly journos and shit, but as far as I can see, the biggest factor in the success of an app is sheer luck. Some Twitterati faggot refreshed the store page just as you published your app, he gets curious, tries it, likes it, BAM, your crap goes viral and you're set. Being in the right place at the right time and all place. Remember Flappy Bird? So the issue isn't in making a better app. In fact, there's probably dozens of them right now sitting in the stores. The difficult part is getting people to know and use it. And in this case, there's the added hurdle of direct competition against a huge brand.

We better get acquainted with jellyfish, because they'll be the dominant life form in the oceans pretty soon.

exiledonline.com/daily-inquisition-jellyfish/

There is one actually. Just came out though. Drivers make 100% of the money. Cash or BTC only payment options.

fucking imperialism one day well be the ones ruling the worlds

The entire system literally grinding to a halt

Dont really have a lot of lewd stuff saved right now, so have some commie girls instead

This tbh. We can't just be reliant on one user for a new thread. That being said, how do you do the red text?

t. relative newfag

Viola!

1 injured at IMF office in Paris from a letter bomb
this come a day after the bomb sent to Wolfgang Schaüble the german finance minister by greek leftist group

telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/16/imf-letter-bomb-one-hurt-envelope-explosion-paris-office/

why are we supposed to care about trump again?

It would be hilarious if the Democrats were stupid enough to bring the whole house crashing down. Like, you print the world reserve currency. All you have to do is not give the impression that you're going to default.