Chaos in USA

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The fermentation plan this year is apples - zider!!

[GrumpyPilot]

Yeah, he is a Russian stooge, sigh…


I wonder where those diplomats are now…I wonder if they are still smirking. This aged beautifully.

Yeah, Trump is afraid of Putin and is a Putin stooge. Trump was ridiculed by trying to force every NATO member state to meet their 2% share.

If he really was a Russian stooge and afraid of Putin, one would think he would be asking the opposite of NATO member states…sigh….

[GrumpyPilot]

* And there lies the problem. Neither Republicans nor Democrats will ever accept there could be some merit in the other's views and will never ever support them. Civil War coming.
[/quote]

Nah, not at all. Fears of a civil war are overblown and such stories are clickbait.

The American political divide resembles a bell curve. Most of us , politically, fall somewhere in the middle. The crazy political outliers are on either side of that curve.

Sure MSNBC and CNN will point to the Jan 6 rioters ,who stormed the Capitol, as representatives of the Republican Party. But that would be intellectually dishonest. These morons were outliers and the vast majority of the protestors on that day were peaceful.

FOX will point to the George Floyd protesters who used those protests as an opportunity to loot, steal and cause massive property damage (police cars, fire bombing of the Federal Building in Portland, etc) as the typical D voter. They will point to the rioters during Trumps inauguration, where police cars were fire bombed, buildings in DC were damaged etc, as the typical D voter. However, the overwhelming majority were peaceful.


I am a millennial. I live in a liberal state (booooo) and I have friends who are Democrats (booooo) and Republicans (yaaaay). My parents vote D (boooo), both my sisters vote D (booo) but my BIL’s vote R (yaaaay), my wife votes D (boooo) but her parents vote R (yaaaay).

I have seen cars with Trump stickers in uber liberal Santa Monica and no one cares. I have also seen cars with Biden stickers in conservative Newport Beach and no one is vandalizing those cars.

Empty vessels make the most noise, and unfortunately those folks get the most air time as that creates controversy and controversy creates viewership which brings in ad revenue. Most of us just want to live our lives, raise our kids, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by this country. I mean think about it, we have it so good that we are making issues out of non issues ( use of pronouns, cultural appropriation etc.). I think every American ought to spend about a month or so in a Third World country to give us a bit of perspective. We have it good!

The MSM (both left or right) is becoming irrelevant, The MSM brings on political pundits and policy experts and gives them 2 or 3 minutes to talk about a subject that would take a good hour to discuss.

This is why podcasts are gaining traction. You’ll have politicians from both sides of the aisle having a really good, in depth discussion. While I wouldn’t vote for Bernie, he has some decent, good ideas. And I know some Dems think the same way of Ted Cruz. Neither is as crazy as the left or right MSM tries to make them out to be.

I mean think about it, CNN, MSNBC, FOX have a combined prime time viewership of 2 million in a country of 330 million . That is 0.6% of the population, yet they think they have a pulse on the country. Most of us are working hard, providing for our families, spending time with loved ones and friends (D and R), and the last thing on our mind is a civil war.

Most D and R’s I know are kind to each other, and listen to each other respectfully. This is how most Americans,in the middle of the political bell curve, treat each other regardless if they are R or L.

Fox, CNN, MSNBC don’t speak for most Americans. If they did, you’d figure their viewership would be a bit higher than 0.6% of the population.

We are a large , diverse country. I have had the good fortune of seeing large swaths of it. And I have experienced mostly kindness and goodness from strangers. I’m not worried, the only ones that talk about revolution, war etc are the outliers and the MSM which caters to those outliers.

Later,
M.

[Dushan]

The Supremes rule in favour of The Don (yaaaay) and it's unanimous.

[llondel]

The Supremes rule in favour of The Don (yaaaay) and it's unanimous.

I don't think he should be President but I agree with their decision, much as I'd like him to be barred. It's also notable what they didn't say, despite some of the stuff filed by his legal team.

Now the judgement is out, I wonder how much longer Nikki Haley will persist, unless she's going to offer to stand down if he'll pick her as his running mate. Regardless of whether it's Trump or Biden, we need to be paying close attention to their VP picks because one of them might inherit the job before the end of the term. I'm sure she can lock up her principles if that's her best shot at the top job.

[Dushan]

I can see Trump picking Ramaswani. I don't think he'll pick Haley or DeSantis as he burned too many bridges with them (for no good reason). There is also the black guy from SC, can't remember his name.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Tim Scott.
If he can deliver Georgia for Trump, he'll get picked, I think.
Ramaswani will probably get Treasury.

[G-CPTN]

Biden trying to give 'State of the Union' speech while folks 'whoop' - what is wrong with these creatures?

[Dushan]

Biden reminded me of our 14-year old Old English Sheepdog who was given steroid shots in the last week of his life. He suddenly was invigorated and if you didn’t know better you’d think he was two years old. A week later we had to put him down.

[llondel]

He's only got to last until December.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Midday, Jan 20th.
Kamaltoe could probably destroy the entire country in hours!

[probes]

Now that Trump has lauded Orban and vv, who's happier - after Orban has claimed Trump won't spend a penny on Ukraine? What's your guess?

[GrumpyPilot]

Trump won't abandon NATO. We are too intertwined politically and economically with NATO.

Those who think he will, are the same folks who bought the whole Russia collusion nonsense for two plus years (many on this very site).
Heck we even had that clown Adam Schiff who was the Dem House Intel Committee chair yapping how he had irrefutable evidence. It was all BS. He was going on all the uber left leaning talk shows , firing up the looney left base telling 'em how he would show the evidence...lol....now this clown is running for the US Senate..just another slimy lying professional politician. Yet the voters in my state will vote the clown in as senator...

That was Trump talking to make sure NATO members are paying their 2%. Guess what, they are definitely ponying up now.
Maybe if most of the member states were paying their 2% all along, the western Eropeans would really be talking from a position of strength wrt Russia.

[llondel]

Now that Trump has apparently failed to raise his bond money, the MAGA crowd may be about to cost him bigly.

Scenario: NY seizes a property to auction. Threats are made against potential buyers and the post-sale property, which depresses interest and so it sells for a lower price. Then the state has to go seize another property for auction. Rinse, repeat.

My understanding is that if they seek to recover $464 million, they don't just take something that is assessed to be worth that amount and consider the debt cleared, they auction it to determine its true market value and, if it raises more than the debt, the balance is given to the debtor. If it raises less then he's still on the hook for what's left.

[GrumpyPilot]

On the other hand, I believe President Trump is the only person ever to be sued under an obscure New York fraud statute that does not require any harm be done and criminalizes the practice of valuation of real estate when negotiating with banks.

Interestingly enough, NY is reassuring other developers that this statute will not be used against them.

Americans over inflating their wealth the banks. I’m shocked I tell ya. Shocked!

Even Deutsche Bank saw no problems or red flags……

https://apnews.com/article/trump-fraud- ... 2c791d29ab


“I think we expect clients-provided information to be accurate. At the same time, it’s not an industry standard that these statements be audited. They’re largely reliant on the use of estimates,” Williams said, so bankers routinely “make some adjustments.”

At times, the bank pegged Trump’s wealth at several billion dollars lower than he did, according to documents and testimony. In 2019, for example, Trump’s financial statement listed his net worth at $5.8 billion, which the bank adjusted down to $2.5 billion.”

But Williams said such differences weren’t necessarily unusual or alarming.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

NY is reassuring other developers that this statute will not be used against them.

It would appear the blindfold has fallen off Lady Justice, and I would guess the scales are heavily tilted to the Left.

It's not just Trump, Remington are moving to Georgia after over 200 years in New York State.

If I were a developer, or a businessman of any sort, I wouldn't go near the place.

If I was an illegal immigrant, however......

..but, of course, NY has money to burn

NY’s budget gaps expected to balloon to $36B by 2027: comptroller

https://nypost.com/2023/07/18/nys-state ... -dinapoli/


..and the 64,000 illegals already being housed in NYC at the moment, at $368 a day each, is another $9 bn a year.

This is one reason the Dems are desperate for Biden to win - Illinois and NY (at least) will be bankrupt before the next President's term is over, and will need a de facto Federal bailout.

[GrumpyPilot]

That's chump change for California.
We have money to spare and burn!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/ ... r-AA1mvPZA

"California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom just announced that California would begin providing health care coverage to an additional 764,000 illegal immigrants on top of the 1.1 million already in the Medi-Cal system"

OH WAIT, we have a $73 billion-dollar projected deficit....Ooops.

https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol ... -balloons/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... estimated/

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Methinks Thatcher's truism is going to be hitting them right between the eyes before 2028, and probably a lot sooner if Trump gets in.

The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

There's another side to it.
In Canada, Saskatchewan has just stopped paying the Carbon Tax to Turdeau's Feds.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if some right-of-centre US States start doing something similar.

[Dushan]

Yeah, that budget is getting harder and harder to self balance now that Moe is holding back.

[llondel]

Methinks Thatcher's truism is going to be hitting them right between the eyes before 2028, and probably a lot sooner if Trump gets in.

The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

There's another side to it.
In Canada, Saskatchewan has just stopped paying the Carbon Tax to Turdeau's Feds.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if some right-of-centre US States start doing something similar.

The trouble there is that California, on its own as one of the largest economies in the world, contributes a lot of federal funds that go towards these states, which seem incapable of generating enough money on their own and have to rely on federal bail-outs. If they decide to stop contributing towards some things, what happens if CA decides to make it fair game that it can choose not to contribute towards all these other states. They're all quick to point out that California is a high tax state with a lot of red tape, but it's working one hell of a lot better than they are. Which is not to say that it's all sweetness and light though, most definitely not perfect.