You have no clue how economies work. That’s obvious to everyone.
Every professional economist will tell you clearly, the attempted blackmail using the debt ceiling as a hostage has already cost hundreds of millions or more in lost revenue/investment, and will cost TRILLIONS if our credit rating is lowered significantly, which it will be soon.
How much of that spending was Republican spending (and unprecedented economic losses) from 2019-20?
How much did they/you care in 2017-20? ZERO…that’s how much.

The economy was doing great under Biden until over leveraged banks started failing. It’s still doing well, but could falter. The bank failures are 100% due to thoughtless deregulation by maggots.

“What the Republicans passed is fair even if Democrats dont like it.”
You don’t even know the topic now? “Whatever the maggots passed”…like trillions handed back to billionaires then claiming poverty, claiming millions to feed children bankrupted us, not TRILLIONS TO BILLIONAIRES. (Or do you mean the MAGA brainless budget proposal guaranteed to create a depression, massive unemployment, and doubling or tripling the homeless while bankrupting the nation?). You are such a silly little boy.

What they should have done is repeal the Trump handouts, reinstate reasonable corporate rates (with minimum tax rates so no company and no one making $75k pays zero), that would erase any need to raise the debt, but to your ilk that’s a non starter because those poor billionaires need that money for buying and destroying companies like Twitter.

ROTFLMFAHS!! First, Bush left two wars off those books, then crashed the economy into depression. Obama pulled it out and left the economy healthy and growing. Trump in 4 years, starting with a healthy economy and balanced budget spent as much in 4 years as Obama in 8, raising the spending levels like an rocket and lowered the income of the government by trillions, made gdp a NEGATIVE number, unemployment skyrocketing like never before in history, (and don’t forget over 1 MILLION DEAD Americans and what, 10 million disabled?)

Government has both an income and spending problem…wasting $40 billion on a fence that has INCREASED immigration rates (but refusing to increase border control spending to hire more agents)…wasting $10 billion on a border stunt by Texas that didn’t catch a single smuggler but caused shortages and gridlocks at the border and ports for weeks. Outraged at the idea of staffing the IRS enough to enforce tax laws despite it being guaranteed to make billions in recovered taxes that otherwise go unpaid. Causing billions to be spent protecting government workers and buildings from terrorist maggots and their mobs and death threats and bombs, molotovs, guns, nooses, etc.

Social security isn’t a general fund item, dummy. Cutting it doesn’t put money in the coffer, it merely lowers how much workers pay into their accounts and takes some from those who already paid in.

Bank failures are due to deregulation that allowed over investment without cash reserves so when interest rates went above zero, which was guaranteed to happen sometime, they were guaranteed to lose their shirts. Regulations were put in place to make that 100% illegal after 08, and were removed in 18 guaranteeing a repeat.

Inflation caused by 1/3 of every dollar being created out of thin air under Trump while our GDP tanked. Both caused inflation.

Yeah, sure…Trump caused the crisis, failed to properly address it exacerbating it by a factor of 10, finally started to a hundred days late and billions of dollars short. Biden turned a negative Trump gdp around to positive, fixed the unprecedented high unemployment under Trump, and got Covid under control…but it’s Biden that broke the camel’s back with his 10% contribution, not Trump’s 90%….in fact we should get Trump back and get the ball rolling downhill again. 🤦‍♂️

Blaming both sides (which you are attempting) doesn’t solve the problem. Solving the problem solved the problem, and Biden has solved many problems Trump left behind and solves more every day while Trump gets another indictment for criminally personally benefiting from mismanagement, fraud, thefts, sale of state secrets, covering for murders, vote fraud FOR HIM, etc.

Trying to blame Dark Brandon for the horrific mess Trump left does not solve the problem, it attempts to distract from it with nonsense.

Odd, the Trump unsupervised PPP “loans” that Cons all took advantage of, then had forgiven (the same rich people who fought against student loan forgiveness)….that has no impact I guess?

Yeah…the timeline says no, not really. The QE and handouts happened in 2020 and early 21 as Tesla was skyrocketing, not what made them crash. You are just blathering.
Remember, you 100% denied the insane unheard of level of QE Trump did had anything to do with inflation, proving you have 0 grasp of economics.
Pumping money into the system is the only guaranteed way to cause inflation, and Trump did it more than any other president in history. He saw it as a way to spend more off the books. In fact, it was an unapproved tax on every American in the form of massive inflation you simply blamed on Biden for years. Kind of hard to swallow your sudden realization that printing money hurts the economy when you absolutely denied it when your guy printed money….over 40% of all money ever printed was printed in 2020. Where was this bob in 2020? It’s true, the money printing by Trump and to a much lesser extent Biden increased inflation significantly…but that doesn’t account for Tesla crashing twice as bad as other car companies.

He’s correct, we will end the fossil fuel industry. Importantly he gave no timeline in your clip. Reality is under Biden oil and gas production is up….but refining capacity down. The only way he could directly effect that is nationalizing oil and gas companies and forcing them to lower their profit margins to pre pandemic levels.
Reality is you were simply lied to, again, we were not a net exporter of energy under Trump. Only during the summer, in winter we imported more than we shipped out in summer. Net importers.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-12-19/u-s-poised-to-become-net-exporter-of-crude-oil-in-2023

Since you’ve been misled, you should understand Biden only halted NEW leases of federal oil fields until the companies that want them use the leases they already have. Oil companies want to buy the fields but not drill, creating more shortages and higher prices/profits. Biden insists they make use of the land already leased before locking out tens of millions more federal acres from exploitation by their competition or any other use.

We still export oil, and import it. Our refining capabilities went down under Trump when he ok’ed the sale of the biggest refinery in America to the Saudis and they instantly cut production. In 2020, our demand went down, but not below our production.

Oil companies lost a combined $76 billion over 2020, then made over $2 trillion profits 2021 and $4 trillion 2022. Utter bullshit it’s just making their losses back. An outright bold faced lie that relies on ignorance of any facts to be believed.

Trump ok’ed the murder of American citizens by the crown prince, bragged about protecting him from murder charges. Trump gave the Saudis top secret information about dissidents in their country which they paid son in law Kushner $2 billion for then murdered them. These included people working for America.
Trump also sold the Saudis our refining capabilities without which them being pissed would make no difference if we were actually a net exporter (we aren’t, never were) and still owned our infrastructure (we don’t), the evil murderous Saudis would have no leverage at all. Duh.

Let me fix that for ya:
"The level of education and discernment of the average HUMAN in general is really depressing."

Israel and Palestine is particularly messy though, as so much power(money, violence and otherwise) is leveraged from both sides to ensure people choose a side, and choose it with no compromises allowed, purely villainizing the other and vindicating the 'right' team.

Anti-Zionism isn't anti-semitism, as you pointed out. Yet, overwhelmingly anti-zionism is also used as a code word for denying Israel's right to exist, equivalent to confederate flag marchers claiming they haven't any racist intentions...

popper versus lobber.

collective IQ of 'doh'.

not much in the way of leverage for popper's* lawyer.

*rather pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop's lawer

wonder if they are relatives?
https://gnrcentral.com/2020/12/22/blues-traveler-the-shocking-arrest-of-john-popper/

haven't heard him/them for awhile

@StukaFox, funnily enough today I was thinking of a joke I used to tell back in the day. I couldn't find just now in a 2 minute search making it less likely you've heard it before, so I'll write out a quick version. It's not the funniest or the dirtiest, but it's fun to tell.

So a guy's looking to kill himself and fortuitously comes across a sign saying 'for an interesting death enquire within.' This being a joke he decides he has to give it a go.

Inside is an absolutely huuuuge naked woman. She first instructs him to put his belt on her. He struggles, but eventually manages. "Now," she says "pull it tighter until I'm thin." With every ounce of strength and leverage he can muster he gets the belt to the last notch. Struggling for breath she says "Now eat my pussy". He's starting to suspect a scam, but he goes for it anyway. "Harder!" she gasps, grinding against him. He pushes back against her as hard as he can. "harder! HARDER!" He's pushing so hard he's struggling to breathe. He suspects she's just trying to smother him with her pussy when he feels her starting to orgasm. He pushes harder still. Her muscles tense and pulse until suddenly the belt can't take it any more - POP! Ssccchhhhlllup! And he was never seen again.

----

Bonus clean joke I saw when I searched for the one above: Don't challenge Death to a pillow fight unless you're prepared to face the reaper cushions.

Not in this climate of fear over all things Nuclear post-Chernobyl. Besides, with so much de-regulation and lack on competency & accountability, would you trust the 21st-century private Nuclear energy sector MORE than the 20th century's? We really need to leverage as much renewable energy sources like Wind/Solar/Hydro first and use nuclear as backup. Fossil based must be the dead-last option for those places that got no other viable means...

The effort to analyze the growing influence of the media maximizes the possibilities because of all functional resources involved. The certification methodologies that help us deal with the commitment between the teams, entails a process of reform and modernization information flow. Regardless of, perception of the difficulties can lead us to consider restructuring return expected long term. I would like to emphasize that the clear definition of objectives adds value to the establishment the desired indexes.

Above all, it is essential to point out that the growing influence of the media plays an essential role in shaping the desired indexes. We realized increasingly that an increased dialogue between the different productive sectors provides a better overview technique in the recycling investment.

We realized increasingly that the fair trial of eventualities provides a better overview return expected long term.

Above all, it is essential to point out that the challenging global scenario, ensures the contribution of an important group in determining postures of the governing bodies with regard to its responsibilities. We realized increasingly that an increased dialogue between the different productive sectors provides a better overview the preferred directions towards progress.

However, we must not forget that the consensus on the need for qualification promotes leverage postures of the governing bodies with regard to its responsibilities. All these questions, properly considered, raises doubts about whether an increased dialogue between the different productive sectors hinders the appreciation of the importance of all functional resources involved. The accumulated experience shows that the fair trial of eventualities encourages standardization normative rules of conduct. We can already glimpse the way the growing influence of the media adds value to the establishment the financial and administrative requirements.

Sorry to be the little grey raincloud on this Hate The Hedges party, but you might want to understand the implications of what just happened

Y'know that fund that's getting all attention, Melvin Capital? Yeah, fuck them, right? Fuckin' shorters all shortin' and shit -- they played, they paid!

There's a reason they were bailed out and with all due haste.

Here's the issue: they were VERY good at the shorting game. So good that they actually had to turn away business. They made money like horses makes shit. When clients couldn't get in at Melvin, they went elsewhere. That opened the door to a lot of other firms basically mirroring exactly what MC was doing, which included shorting the fuck outta GME.

Fuck those guys too, right? It's their money, so why should I care?

Let's go back a few year, shall we, to the glorious chapter in finance and economics that was the 2008 Crash. Remember when Paulson lost his shit because he realized that in about 36 hours, the basic system called Western Capitalism was going to shit the bed; the bedroom; the whole house and pretty much every surface above the ocean within a planetary radius? This is sorta like that. Only worse.

The thing about short squeezes is that the losses can be infinite, and that's exactly why WallStreetBets did what they did. They knew if they bought and held -- diamond hands -- the stock would have to rise as the shorters had to cover their bets. Melvin Capital and a shit-ton of other, smaller firms had to do that and ran out of liquidity long before GME was even at $50. For every share of stock they shorted, they need to cough up another share at a higher value -- and they HAD to actually have the higher-priced share.

And here's where things get VERY ugly.

Shorting GME was such a sure thing that a huge number of shorts were placed. In fact, more shares of GME were shorted than actually existed. Oops. But hey, SURE THING, BABY and what's the worst that can happen?

Yeeeah, y'see where this is going now?

So these firms, not only are they broke, they don't have the shares, either. They need to come up with shares, pronto, at any price, because contractual obligations are a motherfucker in the finance world. But again, more shorts than there are shares and the people who have the shares, WSB and 4chan's /biz/, aren't letting them go. The longer they hold, the higher the price will go as short after short faces having to cough up the shares they borrowed.

A lot of people are about to lose a LOT of money -- the kinda losses that have so many zeros attached that looking at the number bores the eyes.

Back to 2008: the reason the whole world almost started Mad Max LARPing back then is that a narrow number of highly-important financial institutions were a wee bit thin on liquidity because they were having to pay it out by the boatload. That's bad. What would be better is if risk were more distributed, and how could that little plan POSSIBLY go wrong? Maybe a Black Swan event involving a huge amount of money that needs to be paid out by all of them due to this annoying bird.

That's where we are now, but no one even remotely knows what that figure is going to be. Again, (potentially) infinite losses multiplied by 150% times the number of shares actually available, multiplied by the dogshit risk factor on the loans and the leveraged payouts -- your best case scenario might be a loss of about $500 billion. Someone has to come up with that money, be it the Fed or other banks/investors, but that latter group has to come up with the money themselves, which is generally accomplished by selling profitable holdings. We all know what happens when a lot of people have to sell, right?

I always wanted to live in interesting times, thus proving what an utter fuckwit I am.

What?!? How is that possible? You said he's lost it, rambles incoherently, and has no plan. Don't tell me you were W-w-w-w....w-w-w-w....wrong.

His message was vote for me because I'm not Trump. Exactly what people need. FTFY

It took Trump 3 to erase those gains and then some. Too fast.
Cut taxes and removed regulations and billionaires did great, but not average citizens who lost purchasing power and didn't see a tax cut they can notice but now owes $88000 and rising fast thanks to the exploded debt and deficit, and has seen insane cost of living increases and decreases in public services in that time....and now thanks to his failure handing the pandemic, we're teetering on great depression.

Just look at over 50000000 jobs lost, and how many businesses lost, and GDP the worst drop ever exponentially, and no investment in America but massive leveraging our assets....that's jobs lost and wages dropping.

Um...I don't want sniffy poo Trump. I guess you forget he does far more than sniff little girls with his best friend Epstein, including his underage daughter, pageant contestants, even random ten year olds he sees in public and dreams out loud of dating soon.

Every day you get more deluded, it's almost impressive you keep bringing up Trump's disgusting habits by accident....maybe it's not an accident?

He might, the fix is overwhelmingly in on uncountable fronts and I won't underestimate the stupidity of the American voter again. If he manages to steal enough votes through his many schemes, he just might win the electoral college again....he's never won an election in 4 tries.
🤦‍♂️

The actual letter-

Dear Senator Schumer:

Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way.

As you are aware, Vice President Pence is in charge of the Task Force. By almost all accounts, he has done a spectacular job.

The Defense Production Act (DPA) has been consistently used by my team and me for the purchase of billions of dollars’ worth of equipment, medical supplies, ventilators, and other related items. It has been powerful leverage, so powerful that companies generally do whatever we are asking, without even a formal notice. They know something is coming, and that’s all they need to know.
A “senior military officer” is in charge of purchasing, distributing, etc. His name is Rear Admiral John Polowczyk. He is working 24 hours a day, and is highly respected by everyone. If you remember, my team gave you this information, but for public relations purposes, you choose to ignore it.

We have given New York many things, including hospitals, medical centers, medical supplies, record numbers of ventilators, and more. You should have had New York much better prepared than you did, and as Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said yesterday, New York was very late in its fight against the virus. As you are aware, the Federal Government is merely a back-up for state governments. Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.

If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the “invisible enemy.” No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary. If they did, they would likely win.

Fortunately, we have been working with your state and city governments, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill DeBlasio, to get the job done. You have been missing in action, except when it comes to the “press.” While you have stated that you don’t like Andrew Cuomo, you ought to start working alongside him for the good of all New Yorkers.

I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York, until I became President.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call. Or, in the alternative, call Rear Admiral Polowczyk.

Sincerely yours,

Donald J. Trump


So, not the time to play politics, eh? Hilarious letter, eh? Hilarious in it's self centered ignorance, self congratulatory message, complete lack of self awareness, and total lack of anything helpful or useful, just more Don the Con whining that bad man make little Donny cry hurt and firing tactless political shots. It would be hilarious if tens of thousands of lives weren't at risk because of this narcissistic idiocy.
Remember, Trump said those who aren't nice enough to him won't get their calls answered, and publicly instructed Pence to follow suit.
Con man Don told Schumer that he had written this "very nasty letter" (Donny's words) but would try to keep it from being sent and publicly apologize if it was, then Trump's office released it to the media.
Not the time for politics....yep. *facepalm

Bakker is a loon but the video cuts off before he makes his point. I can only assume RWW shortened it to meet some agenda point.

However, don't let this get in the way of some good'ol'fashioned Christian bashing.

BTW, Churches are tax-exempt because they are nonprofits. However, they receive higher scrutiny from the IRS than other nonprofits and must provide more detail than other nonprofits to keep the status. Most rich preachers leverage their nonprofit fame to generate income in for-profit taxed ventures (books, videos, etc.). It's deplorable and immoral (IMHO) but not illegal.

That's why you and Trump are leveraging everything you own and buying up cheap coastal properties that will jump exponentially in value right after this fraud is exposed, or when the sea doesn't rise....no? Why not? If you believed what you spout, it's an absolute no brainer, the fact you (and others like you) don't act on it is proof that you don't believe your own position yourself.

Perhaps it's because the people who tell you there's a vast scientific conspiracy perpetrated for the sole purpose of milking that sweet sweet research money are paid by fossil fuel industries. Perhaps it's because the Pentagon agrees with the science and even Trump agrees when his money is on the line. Perhaps because of the hottest 18 years ever recorded, 17 occurred after 2000. Perhaps it's because these immigrants you are so afraid of are migrating in part due to climate change already. Perhaps it's because numerous Pacific islands are disappearing. No matter why, it's clear you really do believe in climate change, or you would own a huge chunk of Florida coast already.
Pathetic, Bob.


*nochannel
*politics
*nature
*science

Cheers for the interjection. I always appreciate a well-formed argument that challenges my beliefs.

I wasn't aware of the exposure of undercover agents. That does at least partly counter my first point. I do still think the public interest aspect is very significant, although as I'm not American I see it more from more of a global point of view.

As for the second point, I was referring to the statements in the video, specifically its 'leveraging of anti-Trump sentiment', rather than the prosecution itself.

I still believe that my general point holds: that the statements in the video are generally correct, and that the approach the US has taken (under both Trump and Obama) will have - and is designed to have - a chilling effect on the publishing of information that shows the state acting in what many would describe as an evil manner.

Glen Greenwald 's Intercept has long had bias here. It doesn't surprise me they are trying to spin this a a free speech issue . I give him extra points for attempting to leverage anti Trumpian sentiment in order to further Trump/Putin's agenda.

Putin's propagandists couldn't have written this better.

Oh wait......

So, I get that you need the leverage, but the point of the Winchester 1873 lever arm cocking lever was that you didn't need to take it off your shoulder to cock it...that's a firearm and that short a throw would never work for a crossbow...but...why bother with a magazine?