To a degree, yes. Unsophisticated, blunt, pugnacious, all those things E. Burdeck (sp) covered in The Ugly American. No more hero stories. And since Hiroshima and Nagasaki something of a scarymonster in waiting. But there used to be an overall belief in Democracy, some (?) trust in our leadership and government. Offices were generally ( with corruption and political shenanigans of course) headed up by somewhat appropriate people. An overarching trend to what we have today--a step into Aristocracy approaching Kingdom--was rising. Now it is here. Democracy is passe. Truth, Justice, nd The American Way --if they ever existed, and I think they were at least ideals if not real--have gone completely. Weve gone from "Ugly America" to "Nightmare America." Unless we change that now.
People like you thinking this is a "nightmare" means we are exactly over the target.
Who’s we? You do a lot of consulting for the Trump admin. from your mom’s basement, do you?
Quit making everything about race. Your friends are calling you names and pushing you around on the streets because they think you're a jagoff, not because you're white.
Ohhh, I knew that was coming. More name calling and belittling. "quit making everything about race" is wild coming from the side who promoted BLM. You people have lost your mind. Have you ever lived in a black neighborhood in Brooklyn? It's clear you have no idea what the hell you are talking about.
You lying sack. Just a drooling liar. That's what you are and always have been. All your failures in life can be attributed to your personality flaws, including your impulsive lying whenever your precious little victimhood way of life feels fragile. You are of weak character and soul.
Main difference was energy prices. Oil was in the $70-80 range in Feb 2024. Last month, oil was in the $60-70 range. Shelter costs were up, which is not good.
2024 had very strong consumer spending which kept inflation from easing. 2025 could be a continuation of a soft landing on inflation with consumer spending pulling back a bit, but Trump's tariffs could hit hard and cause consumer spending to drop significantly without having any effect on prices or having prices continue to rise. That is stagflation and is the worst economic outcome you can have because you cannot use fiscal policy (interest rates) to get out of it.
Ahem, fiscal policy is not "interest rates." Monetary policy is tinkering with rates and trying to impact the yield curve and expectations over time. Fiscal policy is how we got here in the first place. Government overstimulus for far too long in the wake of Covid is why the Fed's preferred inflation gauge in the PCE never got back to 2%. Furthermore, if you had looked at forward looking prices paid sub-indices in the ISM PMIs, you'd know that expectations for higher prices never subsided. So, per usual, it's extremely shortsighted liberal politics to find culpability with Trump.
HAVING SAID THAT, I completely agree that tariffs and the *uncertainty* created by non-transparent and ever changing trade policy is slowing investment and growth. And, certainly, prolonged and escalating protectionism will encourage inflationary pressure. If that's what this is, rather than just a "reset" that will be softened over time. Frankly, I think Trump wants a recession. I think he knows we should've had one during the last administration with the 3 mo to 3 year curve inverted for a really long time, but reckless and irresponsible government spending (funded largely by short-term treasuries that should've been funded by long term treasuries in an inverted curve environment) artificially averted it.
Better to have a recession now, early in the term, so that we can get past it with easing monetary policy and a baton handoff from the government sector to the private sector with lower taxes to stimulate investment. It's no different than a CA fire. We can either store water for drought-ridden years and prune all of the sparse vegetation to mitigate a very damaging fire, or we can have a very damaging fire. Pruning the forest is a better long term strategy and necessary for the ecosystem. Same thing applies to economics.
Wrong. Prunes? Vegetation? All wrong. Trump's egg tariffs worked, just as he said they would. Liberals have all the eggs they could ever use from now until the height of Easter, and they still aren't satisfied. After 4 years of economic disgrace and misery under Biden, the economy is finally soaring thanks to Trump's tariffs (TTs). The US economy is firmly on tariff footing.
You have written the bolded part many times on this and other threads.
Do you have any evidence of this claim?
Do you, yourself, have such a wish?
I think it's clear that looking at human history that people have a deep need to trade freedom in exchange for security. Look at all the totalitarian governments that last for long long times with no real rebellion. People prefer to follow a strong confident man than to make decisions for themselves. Evidence? North Korea, Cuba, Iran, USSR, China, any of a number of authoritarian nations. Look at how easily men adapt to prison life with its rules and clear hierarchy. Many struggle mightily when those rules/hierarchy are taken away upon their release.
clearly women have always made having a 'protector' be part of the tradeoff they make in marriage. Women usually respond well to strong confident men. They might be susceptible to the appeal of an authoritarian on gender grounds. Men more on wanting a father figure, a boss, a great man to follow.
freedom and democracy are not natural states of man. These things are recent concepts that could fade very quickly if we aren't good enough to protect them.
So, no evidence. Just a belief that you have. Nothing wrong with that.
I would suggest that authoritarian governments are more simply explained by people's desire to survive. When someone who could kill you demands that you follow his orders, there is a tendency to follow his orders rather than get killed.
That does not mean you have a wish for this (strongman) person to exist or to play the role of bully/dictator in your life. It only means that your wish to survive makes you acquiesce to his demands.
If you need the real reason for RU invading Ukraine, it's this. Poland has been on a tear economically and approaching Western levels of wealth.
No way Putin could tolerate yet another slavic nation on its border succeeding by attaching itself to the West. Ukraine wanted to follow the Polish model by leaning West so it had to die. So Russians would not feel they too could lean west and succeed by tossing Putin overboard.
Blaming NATO for RU's invasion is self-hatred.
"Poland is about to overtake Japan in GDP per capita. no one who came of age in the 1980s can comprehend this."
Poland is about to overtake Japan in GDP per capita. no one who came of age in the 1980s can comprehend this. pic.twitter.com/M2ozFGzEKo
I think it's clear that looking at human history that people have a deep need to trade freedom in exchange for security. Look at all the totalitarian governments that last for long long times with no real rebellion. People prefer to follow a strong confident man than to make decisions for themselves. Evidence? North Korea, Cuba, Iran, USSR, China, any of a number of authoritarian nations. Look at how easily men adapt to prison life with its rules and clear hierarchy. Many struggle mightily when those rules/hierarchy are taken away upon their release.
clearly women have always made having a 'protector' be part of the tradeoff they make in marriage. Women usually respond well to strong confident men. They might be susceptible to the appeal of an authoritarian on gender grounds. Men more on wanting a father figure, a boss, a great man to follow.
freedom and democracy are not natural states of man. These things are recent concepts that could fade very quickly if we aren't good enough to protect them.
So, no evidence. Just a belief that you have. Nothing wrong with that.
He presented evidence. Right after the punctuated word "Evidence?" He listed three sentences worth of evidence.
Ahem, fiscal policy is not "interest rates." Monetary policy is tinkering with rates and trying to impact the yield curve and expectations over time. Fiscal policy is how we got here in the first place. Government overstimulus for far too long in the wake of Covid is why the Fed's preferred inflation gauge in the PCE never got back to 2%. Furthermore, if you had looked at forward looking prices paid sub-indices in the ISM PMIs, you'd know that expectations for higher prices never subsided. So, per usual, it's extremely shortsighted liberal politics to find culpability with Trump.
HAVING SAID THAT, I completely agree that tariffs and the *uncertainty* created by non-transparent and ever changing trade policy is slowing investment and growth. And, certainly, prolonged and escalating protectionism will encourage inflationary pressure. If that's what this is, rather than just a "reset" that will be softened over time. Frankly, I think Trump wants a recession. I think he knows we should've had one during the last administration with the 3 mo to 3 year curve inverted for a really long time, but reckless and irresponsible government spending (funded largely by short-term treasuries that should've been funded by long term treasuries in an inverted curve environment) artificially averted it.
Better to have a recession now, early in the term, so that we can get past it with easing monetary policy and a baton handoff from the government sector to the private sector with lower taxes to stimulate investment. It's no different than a CA fire. We can either store water for drought-ridden years and prune all of the sparse vegetation to mitigate a very damaging fire, or we can have a very damaging fire. Pruning the forest is a better long term strategy and necessary for the ecosystem. Same thing applies to economics.
Wrong. Prunes? Vegetation? All wrong. Trump's egg tariffs worked, just as he said they would. Liberals have all the eggs they could ever use from now until the height of Easter, and they still aren't satisfied. After 4 years of economic disgrace and misery under Biden, the economy is finally soaring thanks to Trump's tariffs (TTs). The US economy is firmly on tariff footing.
None of what I wrote was wrong. We don't have to have a recession, but, surely better to get it out of the way well before the midterms, especially if it means we cut out the fat in government spending.
I don't understand all of you extreme ideologues, hanging on every data point. The Precious Roy's and Agip's of the world, while clearly intelligent, are constantly pounding the liberal drum and simply uttering myopic, disingenous talking points on every piece of grating news. Sounds like a couple of Stephen Colbert writers. On the other hand, no Trumpers can be bothered to acknowledge that protectionism doesn't work, isolationist politics don't work over the long haul and are a bad idea. Trump is not to blame for the CPI at the moment as so much of this was baked (Fed's target over the past four years was always 2%, we never got there), but he's surely culpable in the next few months.
But, what nobody seems to be asking, certainly not over on the far left because of their absolute hatred and vitriol for all things Trump, what if everything goes right by 2029? First time in an entire generation someone has the absolute audacity to attack the deficit and debt. To draw a firm boundary at the border. To try to negotiate with NATO such that it's not merely a US subsidiary. But, Don's a "rapist, felon, grifter, oligarch." Because, you know, Biden and the Biden crime family syndicate was so pure and morally persuasive.
If you need the real reason for RU invading Ukraine, it's this. Poland has been on a tear economically and approaching Western levels of wealth.
No way Putin could tolerate yet another slavic nation on its border succeeding by attaching itself to the West. Ukraine wanted to follow the Polish model by leaning West so it had to die. So Russians would not feel they too could lean west and succeed by tossing Putin overboard.
Blaming NATO for RU's invasion is self-hatred.
"Poland is about to overtake Japan in GDP per capita. no one who came of age in the 1980s can comprehend this."
Wrong. Prunes? Vegetation? All wrong. Trump's egg tariffs worked, just as he said they would. Liberals have all the eggs they could ever use from now until the height of Easter, and they still aren't satisfied. After 4 years of economic disgrace and misery under Biden, the economy is finally soaring thanks to Trump's tariffs (TTs). The US economy is firmly on tariff footing.
None of what I wrote was wrong. We don't have to have a recession, but, surely better to get it out of the way well before the midterms, especially if it means we cut out the fat in government spending.
I don't understand all of you extreme ideologues, hanging on every data point. The Precious Roy's and Agip's of the world, while clearly intelligent, are constantly pounding the liberal drum and simply uttering myopic, disingenous talking points on every piece of grating news. Sounds like a couple of Stephen Colbert writers. On the other hand, no Trumpers can be bothered to acknowledge that protectionism doesn't work, isolationist politics don't work over the long haul and are a bad idea. Trump is not to blame for the CPI at the moment as so much of this was baked (Fed's target over the past four years was always 2%, we never got there), but he's surely culpable in the next few months.
But, what nobody seems to be asking, certainly not over on the far left because of their absolute hatred and vitriol for all things Trump, what if everything goes right by 2029? First time in an entire generation someone has the absolute audacity to attack the deficit and debt. To draw a firm boundary at the border. To try to negotiate with NATO such that it's not merely a US subsidiary. But, Don's a "rapist, felon, grifter, oligarch." Because, you know, Biden and the Biden crime family syndicate was so pure and morally persuasive.
GDP could double and we could pave the streets with gold and the media will still say the country has been destroyed.
Liberals do not care about anything other than being in power.
Wrong. Prunes? Vegetation? All wrong. Trump's egg tariffs worked, just as he said they would. Liberals have all the eggs they could ever use from now until the height of Easter, and they still aren't satisfied. After 4 years of economic disgrace and misery under Biden, the economy is finally soaring thanks to Trump's tariffs (TTs). The US economy is firmly on tariff footing.
None of what I wrote was wrong. We don't have to have a recession, but, surely better to get it out of the way well before the midterms, especially if it means we cut out the fat in government spending.
I don't understand all of you extreme ideologues, hanging on every data point. The Precious Roy's and Agip's of the world, while clearly intelligent, are constantly pounding the liberal drum and simply uttering myopic, disingenous talking points on every piece of grating news. Sounds like a couple of Stephen Colbert writers. On the other hand, no Trumpers can be bothered to acknowledge that protectionism doesn't work, isolationist politics don't work over the long haul and are a bad idea. Trump is not to blame for the CPI at the moment as so much of this was baked (Fed's target over the past four years was always 2%, we never got there), but he's surely culpable in the next few months.
But, what nobody seems to be asking, certainly not over on the far left because of their absolute hatred and vitriol for all things Trump, what if everything goes right by 2029? First time in an entire generation someone has the absolute audacity to attack the deficit and debt. To draw a firm boundary at the border. To try to negotiate with NATO such that it's not merely a US subsidiary. But, Don's a "rapist, felon, grifter, oligarch." Because, you know, Biden and the Biden crime family syndicate was so pure and morally persuasive.
there was no biden crime family syndicate. Calling it that is a right wing fantasy to excuse their electing a career criminal. 'They all do it' is the right wing motto and it's disgusting.
Anyway, I'm all for rooting out government waste. I wish DOGE well. It won't make any material difference on the debt or deficit, of course, esp when they at the same time reduce revenue by gutting the IRS and lowering income taxes and lowering economic activity. So it's sort of silly to get too impressed by a bad strategy. But sure, less waste is good. Fine.
The only thing that will make a difference on the debt/deficit is cutting entitlement spending and defense teamed by growth. If they fix those I'll applaud. Until then, this is just a dog and pony show.
And of course this trade war is absolutely stupid beyond words. And we all know that fewer illegal immigrants means the economy will suffer.
Yay Doge. Yay no immigrants. Golf clap.
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
None of what I wrote was wrong. We don't have to have a recession, but, surely better to get it out of the way well before the midterms, especially if it means we cut out the fat in government spending.
I don't understand all of you extreme ideologues, hanging on every data point. The Precious Roy's and Agip's of the world, while clearly intelligent, are constantly pounding the liberal drum and simply uttering myopic, disingenous talking points on every piece of grating news. Sounds like a couple of Stephen Colbert writers. On the other hand, no Trumpers can be bothered to acknowledge that protectionism doesn't work, isolationist politics don't work over the long haul and are a bad idea. Trump is not to blame for the CPI at the moment as so much of this was baked (Fed's target over the past four years was always 2%, we never got there), but he's surely culpable in the next few months.
But, what nobody seems to be asking, certainly not over on the far left because of their absolute hatred and vitriol for all things Trump, what if everything goes right by 2029? First time in an entire generation someone has the absolute audacity to attack the deficit and debt. To draw a firm boundary at the border. To try to negotiate with NATO such that it's not merely a US subsidiary. But, Don's a "rapist, felon, grifter, oligarch." Because, you know, Biden and the Biden crime family syndicate was so pure and morally persuasive.
there was no biden crime family syndicate. Calling it that is a right wing fantasy to excuse their electing a career criminal. 'They all do it' is the right wing motto and it's disgusting.
Anyway, I'm all for rooting out government waste. I wish DOGE well. It won't make any material difference on the debt or deficit, of course, esp when they at the same time reduce revenue by gutting the IRS and lowering income taxes and lowering economic activity. So it's sort of silly to get too impressed by a bad strategy. But sure, less waste is good. Fine.
The only thing that will make a difference on the debt/deficit is cutting entitlement spending and defense teamed by growth. If they fix those I'll applaud. Until then, this is just a dog and pony show.
And of course this trade war is absolutely stupid beyond words. And we all know that fewer illegal immigrants means the economy will suffer.
Yay Doge. Yay no immigrants. Golf clap.
Why is Hunter suddenly unable to sell any of his finger paintings?
Why are 100% of leftists completely unaware of what the defense budget is? You all seem think 90% of the US budget goes to defense....
We could cut defense spending by 100% and it wouldn't even cut half the deficit.
there was no biden crime family syndicate. Calling it that is a right wing fantasy to excuse their electing a career criminal. 'They all do it' is the right wing motto and it's disgusting.
Anyway, I'm all for rooting out government waste. I wish DOGE well. It won't make any material difference on the debt or deficit, of course, esp when they at the same time reduce revenue by gutting the IRS and lowering income taxes and lowering economic activity. So it's sort of silly to get too impressed by a bad strategy. But sure, less waste is good. Fine.
The only thing that will make a difference on the debt/deficit is cutting entitlement spending and defense teamed by growth. If they fix those I'll applaud. Until then, this is just a dog and pony show.
And of course this trade war is absolutely stupid beyond words. And we all know that fewer illegal immigrants means the economy will suffer.
Yay Doge. Yay no immigrants. Golf clap.
Why is Hunter suddenly unable to sell any of his finger paintings?
Why are 100% of leftists completely unaware of what the defense budget is? You all seem think 90% of the US budget goes to defense....
We could cut defense spending by 100% and it wouldn't even cut half the deficit.
do you disagree that the only way to materially cut the deficit is by cutting entitlements and defense? Is that something you disagree with?
Russian captain just rammed a ship carrying jet fuel for the US armed forces. Not great. Russia is bent on small acts of war like this and cutting cables around Europe.
I hope cool heads prevail here.
Under arrest captain of Solong container ship involved in North Sea crash is Russian national, company says On Monday morning, about 13 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire, the Solong sailed into the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate, which was carrying fuel for the US Navy. Fires broke out on board both vessels, 36 people were rescued and one is missing presumed dead.
Putin said it was an accident, and I see no reason not to believe him.
Sound familiar ?
It is, of course, from the good ole' days when Trump still kissed Vlad's as*, but didn't spit RIGHT in the face of our allies. Ah, if only.......
there was no biden crime family syndicate. Calling it that is a right wing fantasy to excuse their electing a career criminal. 'They all do it' is the right wing motto and it's disgusting.
Anyway, I'm all for rooting out government waste. I wish DOGE well. It won't make any material difference on the debt or deficit, of course, esp when they at the same time reduce revenue by gutting the IRS and lowering income taxes and lowering economic activity. So it's sort of silly to get too impressed by a bad strategy. But sure, less waste is good. Fine.
The only thing that will make a difference on the debt/deficit is cutting entitlement spending and defense teamed by growth. If they fix those I'll applaud. Until then, this is just a dog and pony show.
And of course this trade war is absolutely stupid beyond words. And we all know that fewer illegal immigrants means the economy will suffer.
Yay Doge. Yay no immigrants. Golf clap.
Why is Hunter suddenly unable to sell any of his finger paintings?
Why are 100% of leftists completely unaware of what the defense budget is? You all seem think 90% of the US budget goes to defense....
We could cut defense spending by 100% and it wouldn't even cut half the deficit.
Most of his finger paintings have coke residue on them. No one wants them with coke residue.