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Most of Trump's visible supporters don't have the time to go to Washington, however, Trump's real supporters are "big business" and Wall Street.

I have no problem with that. When big business and Wall Street do well, don't we all do well? After all, they provide the jobs for most of us. Like it or not, ours is a "trickle down" economy.
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4 hours ago, Underdog said:

Don't forget it's been going on since Obama got elected. Democrats have lost heavily in state and local elections for the past 3 cycles. Americans are taking their country back. Right on, David. If you know of someplace you'd be better off, by all means go away!

Send em to Clingerfornia......they can have micro aggressions together.

"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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The Guardian  /  January 23, 2017

Donald Trump will not release his tax returns even after repeated promises to do so following a supposed audit, senior presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Sunday.

The president will break a 40-year tradition and not show Americans the extent of his financial interests and obligations.

Conway said the Trump administration would do nothing about calls to release the information.

“The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns,” she said. “We litigated this all through the election.”

Conway contradicted polls that show most Americans want to see the returns when she said: “People didn’t care.

[I’m a American, and I do care to see my elected employee’s tax returns]

“They voted for him, and let me make this very clear: most Americans … are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like.”

Last week, a Washington Post-ABC poll showed that 74% of Americans, including 53% of Republicans, want to see Trump’s returns.

In October, a CNN poll found that 73% of registered voters, including 49% of Republicans, wanted to see the tax returns.

A petition on the White House website that calls for the immediate release of the returns and “all information needed to verify emoluments clause compliance” had 218,465 signatures as of Sunday afternoon.

The returns could show the breadth of Trump’s financial interests around the world, including where he does business, who his partners are and to whom he owes money.

Ethics experts fear Trump’s business liabilities could affect White House policy and how the president spends taxpayer dollars: for instance, how he may deal with banks that own hundreds of millions of his debt, treat foreign nations that curry favor or become real estate partners, or reshape domestic policy to accommodate his interests.

Earlier this month, Trump repeated his campaign contention that he would not release the returns because “they’re under audit”. No law prohibits the release of tax returns during an audit; Trump’s lawyers have said he is under audit, but they have not provided any proof that he is actually under audit.

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to release his tax returns after the supposed audit. In May, for instance, he said: “As soon as the audit ends I’ll release my returns.” He also tweeted: “I would release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!”

In October, Trump’s 1995 tax returns were published by the New York Times, which acquired the records through an anonymous source and verified them with the businessman’s former accountant.

The returns showed that Trump lost $916m in a single year and could have avoided paying federal taxes for 18 years, a charge he did not deny.

Conway insisted that Trump and his family “are complying with all the ethical rules, everything they need to do to step away from his businesses and be a full-time president”.

There is no record that Trump has stepped away from any of his businesses, which owe hundreds of millions in debts to large banks, span across the US, Europe and Asia, and which may have already put him in violation of the constitution’s prohibition against payments from foreign governments.

In a press conference earlier this month, aides refused to let reporters see documents that allegedly catalogued his efforts to separate himself from his businesses.

Trump has refused to divest or set up a blind trust, instead saying without evidence that he has handed control of his companies to his two adult sons. Ethics attorneys have repeatedly said Trump has not taken effective steps to prevent conflicts of interest.

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Ethics Group Files Lawsuit Against President Trump (But The Group Is Chaired By A Clinton Ally)

Matt Vespa
Posted: Jan 22, 2017

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics will file a lawsuit with the Southern District of New York against President Donald J. Trump over payments from foreign governments to his various businesses (via The Hill):

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced Sunday night it is bringing a suit “to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments.”

At issue is Trump’s refusal to divest from his business or place his assets into a blind trust, which would separate him entirely from his business empire. He has said his adult sons will run his business while he is in office, that they will not conduct any foreign deals and will subject any domestic deals to an ethics review.

“We did not want to get to this point. It was our hope that President Trump would take the necessary steps to avoid violating the Constitution before he took office,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said.

“He did not. His constitutional violations are immediate and serious, so we were forced to take legal action.”

Let’s take this with a grain of salt. CREW is part of Clintonite David Brock’s network, along with super PAC American Bridge and Media Matters for America. Brock has said that he intends to find ways to “kick Donald Trump’s ass.” The Clinton ally spoke with Democratic donors at Palm Beach over the inauguration weekend, where a confidential memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon appear to show a long-term strategy to defeat Trump by impeaching him.

 

"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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Washington Free Beacon Obtains Copy Of Memo From Clinton Ally Plotting Trump’s Impeachment

Matt Vespa
Posted: Jan 21, 2017

Hillary Clinton’s stunning upset loss to President Donald J. Trump seems to have prompted some of her top allies to open another front to defeat the president through impeachment. Joe Schoffstall and Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon have obtained a confidential memo from longtime Clinton ally David Brock that alleges he will use his PAC, American Bridge, to set the wheels in motion. This will be a multi-year project, with Brock hoping that articles of impeachment against Trump will come out of their work. He also hopes to build a network of donors that rivals the right-leaning Koch Brothers:

Brock is currently at the Turnberry Isle Resort in Aventura, Fla. for a weekend conference with more than 100 major liberal donors. Attendees are mapping out a course to combat the newly sworn-in president.

According to the private and confidential memo, Brock plans to defeat Trump “through impeachment,” using American Bridge, his liberal super PAC, as the main vehicle to do so.

“No other progressive organization has the resources and assets that American Bridge has amassed over the past several election cycles to hold Trump, his administration, and the politicians accountable,” the 44-page confidential memo states.

Brock’s group claims to have more than 20,000 hours of video, 289 candidate research books, and the largest available archive of Trump research in the Democratic Party. Within weeks of the election, Bridge launched a “Trump War Room,” which has already scrutinized Trump’s transition team and will continue to watch the personnel, policies, and practices of the administration.

The “state-of-the-art Trump War Room” will strive to “uncover details of Trump’s affection for Russia and Putin.” They are tracking Trump’s foreign and domestic business partners, construction projects in foreign countries, and negotiations on potential future projects that he “could use to put personal profit ahead of our national security.”

The Beacon added that American Bridge also plans to get involved in 16-20 of the most competitive senate races for the 2018 midterms.

"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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On 1/22/2017 at 9:43 PM, Underdog said:

I have no problem with that. When big business and Wall Street do well, don't we all do well? After all, they provide the jobs for most of us. Like it or not, ours is a "trickle down" economy.

No, when big business and Wall Street engineers an environment for them to do well, do give their shareholders profits year-after-year, the American worker has not been doing well at all. In their pursuit of happiness, our once vast manufacturing industry has, aside from car assembly and Boeing, been shipped overseas. In pursuit of greater corporate profits, big business and Wall Street pushed your government to adopt NAFTA so they produce items at far greater margins for the United States market.

American industry, which at one time formed the backbone of our country's global might, has been decimated. Now, it is a mere shell of its former self.

 

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15 hours ago, 41chevy said:

Washington Free Beacon Obtains Copy Of Memo From Clinton Ally Plotting Trump’s Impeachment

Matt Vespa
Posted: Jan 21, 2017

Hillary Clinton’s stunning upset loss to President Donald J. Trump seems to have prompted some of her top allies to open another front to defeat the president through impeachment. Joe Schoffstall and Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon have obtained a confidential memo from longtime Clinton ally David Brock that alleges he will use his PAC, American Bridge, to set the wheels in motion. This will be a multi-year project, with Brock hoping that articles of impeachment against Trump will come out of their work. He also hopes to build a network of donors that rivals the right-leaning Koch Brothers:

Brock is currently at the Turnberry Isle Resort in Aventura, Fla. for a weekend conference with more than 100 major liberal donors. Attendees are mapping out a course to combat the newly sworn-in president.

According to the private and confidential memo, Brock plans to defeat Trump “through impeachment,” using American Bridge, his liberal super PAC, as the main vehicle to do so.

“No other progressive organization has the resources and assets that American Bridge has amassed over the past several election cycles to hold Trump, his administration, and the politicians accountable,” the 44-page confidential memo states.

Brock’s group claims to have more than 20,000 hours of video, 289 candidate research books, and the largest available archive of Trump research in the Democratic Party. Within weeks of the election, Bridge launched a “Trump War Room,” which has already scrutinized Trump’s transition team and will continue to watch the personnel, policies, and practices of the administration.

The “state-of-the-art Trump War Room” will strive to “uncover details of Trump’s affection for Russia and Putin.” They are tracking Trump’s foreign and domestic business partners, construction projects in foreign countries, and negotiations on potential future projects that he “could use to put personal profit ahead of our national security.”

The Beacon added that American Bridge also plans to get involved in 16-20 of the most competitive senate races for the 2018 midterms.

C'mon Paul, the Washington Free Beacon is legendary for its inaccurate reporting.

As for the conflict of interest matter relating to the emoluments clause, many entities are bringing up this matter and they have a valid point.

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Reuters  /  January 23, 2017

President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed allegations in a new lawsuit by prominent constitutional and ethics lawyers that he is violating the U.S. Constitution by letting his hotels and other businesses accept payments from foreign governments.

Trump says the lawsuit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington was "without merit."

The nonprofit contended that Trump is "submerged in conflicts of interest" from his ties to countries such as China, India and potentially Russia, potentially posing a "creeping, insidious threat" to the country.

Its lawsuit seeks to stop Trump from accepting any improper payments, saying a constitutional provision known as the "emoluments" clause bans them.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

On Jan. 11, Trump said he would retain ownership of his global business empire while president, but hand off day-to-day control to his oldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr..

Trump adviser Sheri Dillon said at the time that profit generated at Trump's hotels from foreign governments would be “donated” to the U.S. Treasury.

But the lawsuit said Trump's refusal to cede ownership or set up a blind trust has resulted in conflicts of interest that leave him "poised" to violate the Constitution repeatedly while in the White House.

The emoluments clause forbids Trump and other U.S. officeholders from accepting various gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval, making payments by foreign governments for various services by Trump's companies illegal.

These include sums for the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's lease at Trump Tower in New York, stays at Trump's hotels, rounds at Trump's golf courses, and the rights to rebroadcast or create new versions of Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice."

The Constitution's framers intended to ban such payments, believing that "private financial interests can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders, and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic," the complaint said.

China, India, Indonesia, Turkey and the United Kingdom are among the countries with which Trump's companies do or plan to do business, and Trump had been trying to do business with Russia for at least three decades, the complaint said.

Meanwhile, payments for a Washington hotel booking next month by the Embassy of Kuwait for its "National Day" celebration are expected to "go directly to defendant while he is president," the complaint added.

.

 

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No, when big business and Wall Street engineers an environment for them to do well, do give their shareholders profits year-after-year, the American worker has not been doing well at all. In their pursuit of happiness, our once vast manufacturing industry has, aside from car assembly and Boeing, been shipped overseas. In pursuit of greater corporate profits, big business and Wall Street pushed your government to adopt NAFTA so they produce items at far greater margins for the United States market.
American industry, which at one time formed the backbone of our country's global might, has been decimated. Now, it is a mere shell of its former self.
 

Backing out of TPP is a good start. NAFTA will be the next negotiation. We can't have it both ways. We've been told for years it's a global economy. America can't compete with homegrown union labor, the way it used to be. Manufacturing costs are too high. If you want the good jobs to return, we have to develop a more isolationist trade status. I don't know if we can return to that.
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6 hours ago, Underdog said:


Backing out of TPP is a good start. NAFTA will be the next negotiation. We can't have it both ways. We've been told for years it's a global economy. America can't compete with homegrown union labor, the way it used to be. Manufacturing costs are too high. If you want the good jobs to return, we have to develop a more isolationist trade status. I don't know if we can return to that.

I believe, with the United States being one of the world's largest countries in size, it is inherently appropriate for us to have a self-sustainable economy.

China is successfully moving towards that now, much to our disadvantage. While they'll be relatively independent, the US will still depend on China for a great deal of manufacturing and financing. Not good. 

Having a great industrial base will indeed require some major cultural reform. There would be adjustments. Lower wages in some cases, and more expensive cars in some cases.

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36 minutes ago, kscarbel2 said:

C'mon Paul, the Washington Free Beacon is legendary for its inaccurate reporting.

As for the conflict of interest matter relating to the emoluments clause, many entities are bringing up this matter and they have a valid point.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/david-brock-donald-trump-donor-network-231588

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"OPERTUNITY IS MISSED BY MOST PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS DRESSED IN OVERALLS AND LOOKS LIKE WORK"  Thomas Edison

 “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit, what a ride!’

P.T.CHESHIRE

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  • 4 months later...
On 12/7/2016 at 0:30 PM, kscarbel2 said:

Carrier union leader says Trump's big deal is a lie

The Washington Post  /   December 6, 2016

The Secret Service agents told the Carrier workers to stay put, so Chuck Jones sat in the factory conference room for nearly three hours, waiting for president-elect Donald Trump. He'd grown used to this suspense.

Seven months earlier, at a campaign rally in Indianapolis, Trump had pledged to save the plant's jobs, most of which were slated to move to Mexico. Then the businessman won the election, and the 1,350 workers whose paychecks were on the line wondered if he'd keep his promise.

Jones, president of the United Steelworkers 1999, which represents Carrier employees, felt optimistic when Trump announced last week that he'd reached a deal with the factory's parent company, United Technologies, to preserve 1,100 of the Indianapolis jobs - until the union leader heard from Carrier that only 730 of the production jobs would stay and 550 of his members would lose their livelihoods, after all.

At the Dec. 1 meeting, where Trump was supposed to lay out the details, Jones hoped he would explain himself.

"But he got up there," Jones said Tuesday, "and, for whatever reason, lied his a-- off."

In front of a crowd of about 150 supervisors, production workers and reporters, Trump praised Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies. "Now they're keeping - actually the number's over 1,100 people," he said, "which is so great."

Jones wondered why the president-elect appeared to be inflating the victory. Trump and Pence, he said, could take credit for rescuing 800 of the Carrier jobs, including non-union positions.

Of the nearly 1,400 workers at the Indianapolis plant, however, 350 in research and development were never scheduled to leave, Jones said. Another 80 jobs, which Trump seemed to include in his figure, were non-union clerical and supervisory positions. (A Carrier spokesperson confirmed the numbers.)

And now, the president-elect was applauding Carrier and giving it millions of dollars in tax breaks, even as hundreds of Indianapolis workers prepared to be laid off.

"Trump and Pence, they pulled a dog and pony show on the numbers," said Jones, who voted for Hillary Clinton but called her "the better of two evils." "I almost threw up in my mouth."

Spokespeople for Trump refused to respond to the Post's request for comment.

In exchange for downsizing its move south of the border, United Technologies would receive $7 million in tax credits from Indiana, to be paid in $700,000 installments each year for a decade.

Carrier, meanwhile, agreed to invest $16 million in its Indiana operation.

United Technologies still plans to send 700 factory jobs from Huntington, Indiana, to Monterrey, Mexico.

T.J. Bray, 32, one of the workers who will keep his job, sat in the front row during the Dec. 1 meeting as Trump spoke. A corporate employee had guided him specifically to that seat, he said, so he suspected he might be part of Trump's remarks.

On Carrier's makeshift stage, Trump paraphrased the words of an unnamed Carrier employee who talked to an NBC reporter after the election. Bray was the only Carrier employee who had appeared on television that day. Apparently, he realized, Trump was saying he inspired the deal.

 "He said something to the effect, 'No, we're not leaving, because Donald Trump promised us that we're not leaving,' and I never thought I made that promise," Trump said. "Not with Carrier. I made it for everybody else. I didn't make it really for Carrier," said Trump.

In fact, Trump “did” make that commitment, and it's on video. "They're going to call me and they are going to say 'Mr. President, Carrier has decided to stay in Indiana,' " Trump had said at the April rally. "One hundred percent -- that's what is going to happen."

Last week, though, the president-elect told the Carrier crowd he hadn't meant that literally.

"I was talking about Carrier like all other companies from here on in," Trump said. "Because they made the decision a year and a half ago. But he believed that was - and I could understand it. I actually said - I didn't make it - when they played that, I said, 'I did make it, but I didn't mean it quite that way.'"

Trump asked if the employee he'd been referencing was in the audience. A woman yelled that her son was, and Trump began to compliment that son, though he hadn't spoken in the television news segment. (Bray said that a United Technologies spokesperson later told him Trump meant to single him out.)

"I was confused when he was like, 'I wasn't talking about Carrier,' " Bray said. "You made this whole campaign about Carrier, and we're still losing a lot of jobs."

Bray clapped that day, anyway, for the 800 that would remain on American soil.

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Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

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Donald Trump just insulted a union leader on Twitter. Then the phone started to ring.

The Washington Post  /  December 7, 2016

Chuck Jones uses a flip phone, so he didn’t see the tweet. His friend of 36 years called him Wednesday night and said: The president-elect is smearing you on Twitter.

Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

Jones, a union leader in Indianapolis, represents the Carrier workers whose jobs Donald Trump has pledged to save. He said the sudden attention from the country’s next leader didn’t feel real.

“My first thought was, ‘Well, that’s not very nice,’ ” he told The Washington Post on Wednesday night. “Then, 'Well, I might not sleep much tonight.' "

Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999, told The Post on Tuesday that he believed Trump had lied to the Carrier workers last week when he visited the Indianapolis plant. On a makeshift stage in a conference room, Trump had applauded United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, for cutting a deal with him and agreeing to keep 1,100 jobs that were slated to move to Mexico in America’s heartland.

Jones said Trump got that figure wrong.

Carrier, he said, had agreed to preserve 800 production jobs in Indiana. (Carrier confirmed that number.) The union leader said Trump appeared to be taking credit for rescuing 350 engineering positions that were never scheduled to leave. Five hundred and fifty of his members, he said, were still losing their jobs. And Carrier was still collecting millions of dollars in tax breaks.

In return for downsizing its move south of the border, United Technologies would receive $7 million in tax credits from Indiana, to be paid in $700,000 installments each year for 10. Carrier, on top of that, has agreed to invest $16 million in its Indiana operation. United Technologies, meanwhile, still plans to relocate 700 factory jobs from Huntington, Ind., to Monterrey, Mexico.

Jones, who said the union wasn't involved in the negotiations, said he's working to lift his members' spirits. He said he didn't have time to worry about Trump.

“He needs to worry about getting his Cabinet filled,” he said, “and leave me the hell alone.”

Over the past two decades, the United States has lost about 4.5 million manufacturing jobs.

Jones said he has fought to keep work on U.S. soil, bargaining repeatedly with Carrier and Rexnord, another Indianapolis plant that plans to relocate jobs to Mexico.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence tweeted his support for Jones earlier this year:

Appreciate the chance to meet w/ Chuck Jones & hardworking men of Local 1999 about our efforts to save Carrier jobs pic.twitter.com/jAzV4DO4PY

— Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) March 2, 2016

Half an hour after Trump tweeted about Jones on Wednesday, the union leader's phone began to ring and kept ringing, he said. One voice asked: What kind of car do you drive? Another said: We’re coming for you.

He wasn’t sure how these people found his number.

“Nothing that says they’re gonna kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids,” Jones said later on MSNBC. “We know what car you drive. Things along those lines.”

“I’ve been doing this job for 30 years, and I’ve heard everything from people who want to burn my house down or shoot me,” he added. “So I take it with a grain of salt and I don’t put a lot of faith in that, and I’m not concerned about it and I’m not getting anybody involved. I can deal with people that make stupid statements and move on.”

Brett Voorhies, president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO, called Jones after Trump’s tweet caught his eye. Jones, he said, had just left his office in Indianapolis, where he manages the needs of about 3,000 union members.

“This guy makes pennies for what he does,” Voorhies said. “What he has to put up with is just crazy. Now he’s just got the president-elect smearing him on Twitter.”

Trump said he would save jobs at Carrier. The layoffs start July 20.

The Washington Post  /  May 24, 2017

Carrier, the company President Trump pledged to keep on American soil, informed the state of Indiana this week that it will soon begin cutting 632 workers from an Indianapolis factory. The manufacturing jobs will move to Monterrey, Mexico, where the minimum wage is $3.90 per day.

That was never supposed to happen, according to Trump's campaign promises. He told Indiana residents at a rally last year there was a "100 percent chance” he would save the jobs at the heating and air-conditioning manufacturer.

About 1,400 positions were on the chopping block, per company estimates. Over the past year, Trump has claimed he could maintain at least 1,100 of those jobs in the United States. But on Monday, the company gave official notice to Indiana officials that it would start laying off workers at the factory on July 20 and keep slashing staff until approximately 800 factory employees remain.

“This action follows a thorough evaluation of our manufacturing operations,” wrote Steven Morris, a Carrier manager in Indianapolis, in a memo Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development received Monday,“and is intended to address the challenges the business faces in a rapidly changing industry.”

The dismissals, he added, are “expected to be permanent.”

Trump’s saga with Carrier began last spring, when he declared to an Indianapolis crowd that he would stop the company from uprooting in search of cheaper labor.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Trump said at the rally. “They’re going to call me, and they are going to say, ‘Mr. President, Carrier has decided to stay in Indiana.’”

He kept going. “One hundred percent,” Trump said. “It’s not like we have an 80 percent chance of keeping them or a 95 percent. 100 percent.”

After the election, Trump took credit for rescuing the Carrier jobs, tweeting on Thanksgiving that he had called the company’s leadership to cut a deal.

United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, agreed to spare some of the positions in exchange for $ 7 million in state tax credits. (If the company outsourced any of those jobs over the next 10 years, it would have to pay back the money, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.)

A celebratory Trump visited the factory in December and announced that, thanks to his negotiating, more than 1,100 of the jobs would stay in the heartland.

“Carrier stepped it up, and now they’re keeping over 1,100 people,” Trump told an audience of cheering factory workers.

He said those numbers could go even higher, noting that United Technologies had agreed to invest roughly $16 million into updating the plant.

“And by the way, that number is going to go up substantially as they expand this area, this plant,” Trump said. “The 1,100 is going to be a minimum number.”

But later that month, Greg Hayes, chief executive of United Technologies, admitted that the $16 million investment would go toward automation. 

“What that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs,” he told CNBC's Jim Cramer.

Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents Carrier employees in Indianapolis, provided further evidence that Trump had inflated the number of jobs that would remain in Indianapolis. Only 800 Carrier employees would be able to keep their jobs — 770 factory workers plus 30 or so more employees, counting supervisors, according to the union count.

Jones told The Washington Post days later that Trump had “lied his a-- off.” He suspected the then-president-elect was including in his count design and engineering jobs that were never going to leave. Trump responded on Twitter by saying Jones had done a “terrible job” as union president.

The full extent of the layoffs emerged Monday with Carrier's announcement of 632 job losses.

The company told The Washington Post on Wednesday that “more than 1,000 jobs” will be preserved. However that figure included engineering and headquarters staff whose jobs were never scheduled to leave Indianapolis in the first place.

“Carrier will continue to manufacture gas furnaces in Indianapolis, in addition to retaining engineering and headquarters staff, preserving more than 1,000 jobs,” the company said. “We have also designated our Indianapolis facility as a Center of Excellence for gas furnace production, with a commitment to making significant investments to continue to maintain a world-class furnace factory.”

Holly Gillham, a spokesman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which was formerly led by Vice President Pence, said Monday's notice of jobs cuts was consistent with Carrier’s arrangement with the state and Trump.

“As announced in December, Carrier is fully committed to retaining more than 1,000 jobs in Indiana over the next 10 years,” she said in an email. “By choosing to maintain these Hoosier jobs, Carrier is showing confidence in Indiana’s skilled manufacturing workforce.”

According to Jones, 550 union members will be laid off, plus another 82 temporary factory staffers who were brought on to help with the transition.

“Everyone knew it was coming, they just didn’t know when, exactly. It's closure to a bad situation,” Jones said.

Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said Trump’s deal with Carrier offered a partial solution to a broader problem.

American manufacturing employment, he noted, has dwindled for decades, especially in Indiana, where a third of workers held those jobs 50 years ago; the share today is closer to 10 percent.

“I wouldn’t even call it a deal,” Strain said. “It seemed to be that Carrier was responding to political pressure and did so in a way that allowed them to make it through a political moment.”

Trump, he said, benefited from the optics.

“The president,” Strain said, “took the opportunity to position himself as a champion of American workers.”

The number of Carrier jobs that will be eliminated is twice the size of the imminent job loss at Rexnord, the ball bearing factory about a mile away from the Carrier facility. Trump has slammed that company on Twitter, too, for outsourcing work to Mexico — but the firm has stuck to its plan and is dismissing the last hundred of its 300 employees in Indianapolis this summer.

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A company has every right to close up shop if the business is unsustainable, and to relocate to a more profitable and business-friendly location. Seems a bit lopsided when it is perfectly legal for workers to say "we're not working until you agree to the union's unreasonable demands" and yet it is somehow against the law for the employer to say "we're closing up shop and moving unless the union is kicked to the curb".

If I owned a manufacturing plant and the union was trying to organize, I'd be quietly shopping for another facility. If the vote passed, the doors would be locked that night and a "for sale" sign would greet the employees the following morning as the machinery was being loaded onto trucks to move to my new facility in another state, and only states with "right to work" laws and a business friendly attitude would be in contention. You wanted the union, so let the union take care of you.

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When approaching a 4-way stop, the vehicle with the biggest tires has the right of way!
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