Kind of, I’m surprised to find out.
The national guard is a branch of the military….but…
Wiki- All members of the National Guard are also members of the organized militia of the United States as defined by 10 U.S.C. § 246. National Guard units are under the dual control of the state governments and the federal government.

I was unaware they counted as militia, I thought they were simply federal military reserves. I have no problem at all with national guard members being armed on duty. None at all. I would mention that even active military must surrender their weapons to the armory on base when not on duty, they don’t just keep them at all times.

A total failure to address a horrific pandemic causing years of shutdown and near a million deaths will do that.

The entire world except Venezuela must be suffering from these democratic policies then because $6 a gallon is cheap compared to most countries. Socialist Venezuela gas is almost free.

“ At $5.037 per gallon (as of June 6), gas is cheaper than in over 90 countries including Norway and China, and more expensive than in over 70 others. Gasoline prices are an unbeatable $0.084 per gallon in Venezuela, the country that boasts the biggest oil reserves in the world”

https://www.newsweek.com/how-us-gas-prices-compare-other-countries-1714242

You really need a new tag line, that old reality ignoring silliness is so stale that you sound broken. America had a traitor, now we have a leader. You would prefer Harris?

BTW, triggered much!?

It dropped precipitously because Elon was buying Twitter and would have to sell billions of stock to pay for it, just to name one self inflicted wound. The economic state should benefit Tesla, as you say, with gas at $5 and rising, ev’s are in high demand.

Gas in Canada is $6.75 US. UK is $5.75 in usd. Europe is around $5.25. But sure, it’s all Biden’s fault. Meanwhile my Exon, BP, and energy mutual funds are reporting record profits….but there’s no correlation. Hmmm.

I guess you didn’t hear Elon decided to cut his workforce by 10% anticipating a slump in sales. Elon doesn’t share your optimism.

Isn’t his major production hurdle a worldwide chip shortage, which he can do nothing about? Not sure how he’s going to ramp up production without more chips.

China isn’t the only economy in trouble….where is this unsold production supposed to go? Europe?…in trouble. US?… looking like we’re in trouble and a logistics nightmare. How much does shipping add to the price too? $5k? More?

All car manufacturers raised prices multiple times last year significantly, they all have a shortage of chips. I think it’s more likely he raised prices because he could without slowing down sales, not in order to slow sales.

Granted, ev’s are in high demand, but the big 3 are ramping up production and will outbuild Tesla in short order, as are European and Asian companies. He’s done great without competition, but some real competition is coming. The electric F150 is going to produce around 15000 this year with over 120000 (edit now 200000) reservations. They built a billion dollar factory for it alone, it will be the best selling full sized ev truck as soon as production starts. They also won’t have a chip constraint because they can take them from their huge f-150 supplies to meet production estimates.

If you want Tesla stock it’s not the worst time to invest, that was last November, but I certainly wouldn’t go all in. The PE ratio is still near 100….GAWD AWFUL. That’s called a speculative bubble….they pop. Ask Twitter.


Sorry about your dad. Mine died when I was 21. It’s never easy.

It means both, and everything in between.
Like art, the level of detail, work, or competence involved have no bearing on whether it’s cgi, only is it an image that’s been created or altered digitally. Period.
CGI is not a term reserved for multi million dollar high res photo realistic purely computer created images. Any image altered or created digitally is cgi.
I get that you disagree with the established definition. That doesn’t change it.

Removing a mole digitally is cgi.

Any image generated by a computer is cgi, including alterations. That’s what cgi means!

Still doesn’t work on my iPad, neither do embeds after the last update, 🤬 .
The link worked though, thanks.

Didn’t that guy see the “reserved” sign on the chair when he sat down?

And what is Biden plan to stop inflation?

Spend more money via Build back better. That's his plan.
The Fed reserve manages inflation. They don't cause it.
This all started at least a decade ago when government spending really went off the rails and has yet to be controlled.

Biden is the figure head and hence gets the blame.


If a bill truly helps Americans, Democrats would stop a Republican win just as much as Republican would stop a Democrat win.

You would think the Republicans would stop blocking the filling of the federal reserve board, the government body that is tasked with fighting inflation. It’s blatantly obvious they would rather lay false blame over inflation than allow any solution that Biden might get credit for (deserved or not). Another case of party over country, this time for no reason than to deny Democrats a win….at the expense of the nation.

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/15/1080890000/senate-republicans-nominations-federal-reserve-sarah-bloom-raskin-inflation

Such a whining little baby, grow up and learn something. Stop with the “I don’t know how things work, so I’ll just blame everything on whoever I hate” stupidity please.

Yes but to converge the two sides have to acknowledge the arguments of the other side, unfortunately I am probably not arguing well enough and Im perfectly willing to just give up.

Anyway you seem to be able to research complicated topics well, you can read up about the history and end of the gold standard and about deflation for your own sake in your own time :-)

Fighting against fiat money, reserve banks, inflation and national debt is like fighting against democracy or free speech.
Sometimes democracy gives you Trump, sometimes free speech gives you porn (or worse, Fox news), sometimes the economy gets out of hand, but mostly these things work better than their alternatives and prevent or minimize crashes, based on the experience of the last 200 years. Every time someone thought better, they made things worse.

No, the point of discussion to come to an understanding IMO, not to just argue.

You KNOW this, eh? I think you just believe that, but Ok, then where do we get a well functioning reserve bank? We certainly don’t have one now, we don’t even have a fully staffed reserve board capable of doing business. The gold standard isn’t constantly relying on a functioning fed….good thing because we haven’t had one for decades and don’t seem likely to have one anytime in the near future….by design.

Coin clipping went out with edge minting. Please. Nobody was using pieces of 8 of $20 coins.

If that’s your position I wont bother reading past sentence one.

It’s exactly the same as your other mistake, claiming a billion in goods delayed in transport is the same as a billion dollar loss.

Money not spent is not the same as money lost. It’s actual money lost vs potential expenditure delayed. It’s permanent actual jobs lost vs potential temporary construction delayed (the project as planned is cancelled, not the plan to build a pipeline SOMEWHERE, and spend a billion on it, just not through reservations and sensitive watersheds on the cheap.)

The auto manufacturers will never recoup the lost production, the oil company will build a pipeline. There are costs to delays/redesign, absolutely, but they aren’t 100% of the projected project costs or anywhere close.

Have a nice day. I’ve grown tired of the merry go round. I’m pretty sure we understand each other’s positions, and don’t see progress beyond that. You insist on not seeing similarities and differences I think are incontrovertible….like the idea that a blockade of a major city, closing it down for weeks +, is far more unacceptable and inconveniences exponentially more people and business than a blockade of a railroad out in the country, or of a pipeline on tribal land by the tribe.

That is the point of discussion, right?

I know a true gold standard is inferior to a well functioning reserve bank issuing paper money and an international exchange standard based on mutual trade agreements.

I am not sure I can explain it well or convince you, but I like you so I try.

Unfortunately the matter seems to be complicated.

The fact that something has, as you put it, "real" value is actually a bad thing, as clipping gold coins is as old as gold coins.

So let us assume gold coins are out and we are going to use some form of symbolic money...

Nope this will not fit in this thread.

I read it, nowhere did it give an estimate of what those protests cost, and it indicated there were multiple other routes for the oil to travel so didn’t even disrupt oil transportation completely, much less ALL commerce.
And it was about pipelines crossing their (or protected) land it seems, a far cry from the truckers. Yes, the validity and severity of your cause matters, just like the damage you do and to whom.

Billions worth of goods stuck temporarily…but no actual estimated cost for their delay, this cost billions in lost production and salaries that won’t be recovered.

That protest was targeted against the offending entity, not the populace. I have no issue with natives blockading their own land and preserves that feed those reservations against permanent destruction for some private profits. That’s a far cry from the truckers blockading the main border crossing for industry and tourism because they’re afraid to get a poke.

The numbers I saw were special. Hundreds of millions-billions lost (your billions in goods delayed doesn’t have a price tag). That was before the bridge was reopened. These protesters weren’t satisfied with that damage and continued to close your capitol with ever shifting demands. Since regular measures had failed, I support emergency measures, seizure, even forfeiture after trial, of any funds or tools used.

Perhaps they became only as localized (but certainly not as targeted, and localized in a city not the unpopulated country), but they had already done exponentially more damage and showed no sign of end or even demands.

Let’s ignore someone personally supporting a grass roots movement outside their country and control, please. I find it a red herring totally unconnected to how he governs.

Yes, some Floyd protests were more violent than the truckers, some weren’t, remember how they were all violently smashed, tear gassed, rubber bullets galore, run through with police trucks, unmarked vans pulling up and grabbing people crossing the streets, unmarked vans driving through towns full of police shooting tear gas at any moving body, etc? Don’t pretend the response is similar.
Also, the Floyd protests lasted a weekend in most cases (occupy Portland really wasn’t about Floyd) and went elsewhere the next march. They weren’t closing down one area for weeks intent on staying. Most lasted hours and were peaceful until police became violent, despite right wing media’s fear-mongering.

I think you’re stretching, putting on blinders, and doing insane mental gymnastics to pretend you believe that. From the actual damage caused, the idiotic reasoning behind it (quickly abandoned), the extremely uncanadianness of the self centered far right rally masquerading as protest, the international damage, the foreign involvement from planning to funding, these are unique “protests” in numerous ways.

Their idiotic beliefs are only one of many distinctions I’ve pointed out, and as I mentioned only color public opinion and the amount of patience they’re given by the public, not how the government treats them. It’s not at all honest for you to pretend that’s the entirety of my position…it’s very Bob of you, and has lost some of my respect.

Pipelines crossing sovereign territory or preserves = bad so blockading those areas to force pipeline movement = good….oil companies didn’t truck the oil out, they increased shipments from other areas by rail. Read the article you linked.

Native cultures and governments are different. Pretending an elected board for a reservation works for the people is naive in the extreme. Read about politics on reservations, who funds the people that get elected in most cases, what happens to opposing candidates…saying the board signed off while so many showed up to fight against it seems a bit at odds, no? Like maybe the board members were bribed, had ties with the oil industry, or other conflicts….just maybe?

And again, those protests didn’t cost a fraction what the truckers did from my research. Delaying delivery of a billion in goods isn’t the same as costing a billion in losses. Neither is delaying or cancelling a billion dollar project. Be adult please….don’t make such specious arguments ….please. They don’t slip by, and they make me think you are being disingenuous.

Biden nominated a full board for the federal reserve for one, a vitally important group that makes decisions on how the government might fight inflation.

If Republicans are worried about inflation, then why have Republicans refused to even show up to vote on filling the federal reserve board so it could take some real action to fight inflation, and instead decided to hold up the nominations by not even showing up to vote against nominees and are soon going on vacation….again? Easy answer, you and they aren’t actually worried about inflation, they’re worried about Biden being popular and successful so are obstructing and feigning outrage as usual. It’s the entire party platform….”nope”. Stoping Democratic victories is far more important to your ilk than the nation, the economy, or the truth.

If the dollar has no actual value…you’re sunk from the start.

Improving gdp is the only way to add value today….much easier said than done, and possible to go backwards at light speed.

Are you calling the US a developing country? Deflation isn’t a concern for most. It’s pretty rare.

If you improve the economy artificially, the bill will come due someday inconvenient and likely cause depression, not just recession.

Restarting countries didn’t all borrow, some tried to take over the world and ignore all their debts. Just saying.

If you have gold backing your dollar, even if your dollar somehow collapsed you’ve still got all the gold. That’s just one reason it’s smart. If you don’t issue dollars for every ounce of gold in reserve, you can add dollars without the risk of inflation, then remove them when possible.

You keep saying it has no advantages, I’ve listed many.

Outrageous idiotic bullshit. Gold is a commodity universally valued. Bitcoin is worse than nothing, it costs money just by existing and has absolutely no value besides what idiots will pay, that’s like basing your economy on beanie babies and saying it’s the same as physical gold. WTF man?

If youre a normal country you are always living on credit, if for no other reason, then because it is super easy and cheap to borrow. Also you have to, to make it to the next pay check (tax collection). First your subjects have to produce and sell, then you can collect taxes.

You dont base the value of the dollar on anything. You offer it as a commodity to the market. If your economy sucks or you print too much money the dollar goes down, which can help the economy. Printing money doesnt automatically help the economy though, it just creates space and time to make it possible for the economy to improve.

Improving the economy means creating more or better products and services that are in demand at a competitive cost. Governments in non-dictatorial countries cant really do that directly, they can only create the conditions for this to happen.

Moderate inflation hardly plays a part, except as a moderator (is that a pun?) of shocks. Deflation (and a strong gold standard in a developing economy IS deflation) is deadly, it makes the economy less flexible, less able to adjust.

If you never improve your ecomomy, all you will have left will be to bitch about inflation.

What is too much debt, too much inflation, too much intervention? I wish economics was a science.

Theoretically the economy can get to be so bad that the structure collapses, there are countries which have notoriously bad historical records, and yet every time they restart they have to borrow money to get things going again. Reserves in general are useless. Production, services and a functioning market, recursive production of valuable goods and services which freely and easily find customers is the only thing you can consider a reliable pillar of civilization. Currency is one of those goods and services.

If for any reason yor currency cant freely circulate (see China or the USSR errr... Russia) you can hardly be a superpower, at least not in the economic sense.

Adopting a gold standard so strong that it would destroy the international dollar standard has no advantage for the USofA or for any developed first world country. Even just having the Euro wreaks havoc in weaker European countries economies, but that is another can of worms.

A lot of what is wrong about the gold standard would apply if a country decided to adopt bitcoin as its sole currency btw.