Walker88

Not sure what Chileans will think of some of their fellows giving praise to Satan, but I do get a kick out of those who embrace superstition in the US. For example, Satan is pure evil, but the old bearded guy who causes tsunamis, earthquakes, childhood cancer, etc., has a "Master Plan" or just "works in mysterious ways". Satan makes you cheat on your spouse or lie to your boss, which is nothing compared to the 2004 tsunami. Plus, neither the old man nor his kid ever had a bad word to say about humans owning other humans. Slavery was/is a real thing; casting spells is delusion. If I was to embrace a superstition, I would select someone who is honest, and doesn't try to hoodwink followers with nonsense about Master Plans. Also, if everybody's deity is omnipotent, why the hell hasn't it wiped out this Satan guy in 13.8 billion years. I think "omnipotent" has to come with an asterisk. It is quite fair and equitable, as the article noted, that some Satanic church was given legal status in the US. If "prosperity Gospel" con men can get tax exempt status, it's only fitting that religions that preach casting spells or group sex should be given the same privilege. Frankly, none should have any sort of tax exemption, unless they can provide conclusive proof that their vision of reality is 100% accurate. Absent that, tax them as one would a bar or luxury car maker.

That without "lefties", the US would be even more bankrupt than it is. Consider.... Blue States are the largest net contributors to the Federal coffers, especially CA and NY. Toss in NJ, MA and IL, and the losers in Red States get their Social Security Disability Insurance and SNAP covered, especially in the truly dumb States of WV, KY and TN. Lefties, or Democrats, are also the only Party that can say they have had serving Presidents who never presided over the start of a Recession, such as Kennedy, Roosevelt, Clinton and Obama. Many inherited Recessions, such as Biden from his predecessor, but no Repub, or 'righty' POTUS has ever NOT presided over the start of a Recession. The stock market also traditionally performs better under lefty Administrations than the supposed "Party of business". I do not have the numbers and data for 2020, but I do have the data for 2016. The winner won 85% of all US Counties, while HRC only won 15% of Counties. Still, her counties represented 62% of US GDP, while the winner's 85% of all US Counties only accounted for 38% of US GDP. Assuming the righties lack the ability to figure, those figures mean Blue Counties are 9.25 times more productive that Red Counties. Intellect might not have the strongest correlation with production, but those numbers certainly suggest which ideology captures the highest IQs---and it's not the right. Of course one only need look at 47's rallies to see the brightest bulbs are not in attendance. "I love the poorly educated" indeed. Even some of the righties know they learn better in institutions run by lefties. Bannon, Cotton and Cruz all went to one of my universities, a decidedly left-leaning institution. Nobody ever learned anything at 47's eponymous 'university', except how to get swindled. Lefties don't necessarily expect the righties to get down on their knees and be thankful, but in their heart of hearts they know progressives are what made and who funds the modern world, perhaps going all the way back to Francis Bacon, the Scientific Method, and the Renaissance. Lefties are not perfect by any stretch, but liberal and progressive is concomitant with thinking outside of the box, not hamstrung by anachronistic traditions and pining for some fantastical 'greatness' that never existed.

An aside...when I worked in intel in the Middle East, and when I was out and about in true form (not in disguise), I might be in a taxi and be asked, "Where are you from?". Never knowing when a kidnap might be in the cards, I would usually say "California". That almost always resulted in the driver saying, "Hotel California !". Perhaps the spread of American culture kept me out of harm's way.

The OP is kinder and gentler than I am. I have always been a patriot. I even took the oath and worked against those who would do the US harm, such as Hezbollah, al Qaeda, ISIS, Russia, etc. I have lost faith in my fellow citizens now. Yes, democracy prevailed, but so did ignorance. On my increasingly infrequent trips back to the US, I see that few Americans even have the slightest clue as to what actual US ideals are. I have enormous respect for the brilliant people---almost all men and almost all atheists---who set up the nation some 250 years ago with a goal toward a "more perfect Union". I'm not a believer in Presentism, so I cut some slack to Jefferson and Washington and others who owned slaves. I would like to think that someone of my wealth, but with a strong moral core, would not have owned slaves and been an admirer of Frederick Douglas, but in reality I do not know. I have the luxury of being born when humanity largely accepted the immorality of owning other human beings. (By the way, religion was never so moral as to warn against slavery, not Jeebus nor those Two Corinthians, nor Yahweh nor Allah nor anyone's superstition.) The brilliance of Jefferson (and Madison) was that they knew humans are flawed, and both men seemed to have an understanding that some of their beliefs, as well as societal norms, would change over time. Thus, they wrote documents that were vague enough to allow for adjustment as social attitudes adjusted. They made the USA a perpetual work in progress toward a goal of total human equality under law. That equality under law is important, and does not mean equality in other ways, as certainly Jefferson was smart enough to know the Universe did not create all humans as equals. Under the law, however, all should be equal and free to take themselves wherever their talents and skills allow. Washington took the rare, courageous, and magnanimous step of not sticking around forever, not believing the US should in any way have anything approaching a monarchy. Democracy meant giving citizens a chance to change course if a majority agreed, and also his actions carried an assumption that change itself might be a good thing. One of the most important facets of the system laid down by the Founders was that NOBODY would be above the law. Sadly, that has now been lost. I fear the abhorrence of monarchs or autocrats has also been lost. One beauty we have seen this week is that there is one side of the political spectrum who still believes in the principles upon which the US was founded. Unlike 2020, the US will have a peaceful transfer of power. Dems accepted their defeat and conceded. No way the transfer would have gone as smoothly if Harris had prevailed. All of the (R) claims about 'rigged' and 'fraud' suddenly evaporated, which suggests even 47 did not think he would win legitimately and was thus trying to set the table for another attempted coup. After his victory, he suddenly turned into Rosanne Rosannadanna..."Never mind". (An old SNL reference to a character of Gilda Radner.) I accept the results of this week. I fear for the future, because I'm not one of those Pollyannas in Magastan who claim, "He just says stuff; he's not really serious". I believe, as Maya Angelou taught us, "When a person shows you who they are, believe them". I expect he will try to go full autocrat, particularly since there will be no guardrails---in the form of Mattis, Milley, Tillerson, Coats, Haspel, Esper, Kelly, Cohn, etc.---this time to stop him. I also know he is incompetent, is willfully ignorant, hasn't a clue how to get 'the price of bacon' down, and generally is going to eff up the economy just as he always has done with his businesses. As a former trader, I'm of the belief---gained through experience and profit---that it is usually best to fade the initial reaction. That is why I am using the current rally in asset prices to get as lean as possible and immunize myself from the calamity and carnage I have no doubt 47 will bring on. I noticed a much better trader than me---Warren Buffett---is doing the same thing. I do not look like a MAGA. I'm in top physical shape---before anyone chimes in, I look much better than the guy with the dead worm in his head, and I'm 100% 'natty'---I dress neatly, I wear no baseball cap, red or backwards or whatever, I am polite, un-tatted and clean. I certainly do not have a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt, and in fact no logos or wording of any sort. Every part of my being says non-MAGA, perhaps even non-American. Should anyone know my place or origin and ask, as the OP asked us, I will quote H.L. Mencken from 100 years ago: "On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron". It is what it is. We play the cards we are dealt, and we wear no blinders. We see the utter ugliness to come, but should we turn out wrong (highly unlikely), no harm done.

There are some who say anyone who uses the term "Deep State", and who isn't a cynical politician trying to fool his goobers to get their votes, is someone who has never even sniffed the corridors of wealth or power, because the term itself shows incredible naivete and a total lack of understanding of actual human dynamics or the machinations of those competing for wealth and power. It's the domestic equivalent of the term 'global cabal', as if leaders of nations who hate each other all wink and nod and cooperate on matters such as chemtrails and the existence of 10' shape-shifting lizard people or UFOs and aliens living amongst us. However, let me share some secrets....as a card carrying member of the Deep State, let me tell you what some of the benefits are: ---we get to shop at Titanic Duty Free --we all own time share properties in Atlantis ---we commute to work on the bathyscaphe Trieste ---we're so low, we have to look up to see down Grow up. There's no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy, either.

Actually, the biggest losers are his cult members who are not billionaires. They just don't know it yet. When the economy and the USD collapse, the vast majority of the pain is going to fall on the poorly educated, unskilled, and expats who have USD pensions or savings. He who laughs last laughs best, and I'm getting ready for a rip-roaring chortle at all the losers who think 47 is their savior. Most of his cult---again, save for the billionaires greedy for carried interest and other tax shenanigans----lost the Birth Lottery. Creme de la creme they are not. Come back in a year. Most of his cult will be saying, "You know, that Harris woman was actually pretty good." As for scarface Megyn, still suffering from her teen acne, I doubt George Clooney or Taylor Swift gives a flying eff what Megyn thinks of them. They will do okay regardless.

Such a gentle little snowflake and girly man! Maybe you can find an echo chamber on Truth Social that will hold your hand and help you through your childish angst. I suspect 47 will be grifting coloring books and blankets containing a thread from his Georgia booking day suit just for fragile folks like yourself. And why would he do that? Because he cares so deeply about you, even more than whatever skydaddy in which you believe. Remember, it's not Jeebus or Allah or Shiva or Bokonon.....Donny Loves You! Really, he does. Some people are saying he's even more all-loving and important than that First Coming, ostensibly whelped by a virgin (I swear, Joey, god did it!). Now go buy his Chinese-made Bible and repent for your weakness and lack of faith! Personally, I think over the next 4 years, AN is going to become even more entertaining, as at first the cult will try to rationalize all of his eff-ups and vindictive retribution, as weaklings trying to live vicariously through his aggression against 'rapists and murderers'. Then, as the economy and the dollar begin to collapse, they will blame Biden or MSNBC or Hugo Chavez. Finally, they will be faced with the reality that they were hoodwinked by a conman most 5th graders would dismiss. Dashed expectations create the most suffering. Delusions die hard, but die they do. Rather than whine and weep, use this market rally to unwind positions and immunize yourself from the calamity that is to come, but if you need a long market position, go long popcorn futures, and then sit back and enjoy. Remember, he entered as 45 with a growing economy and 4.8% UE, and left with a Recession and 6.8% UE...and he achieved that carnage while still having some rational and competent people on his team. He'll only have clowns to draw from this time, so a better more egregious form of carnage can be expected. "Nobody knows more about American Carnage than me", I'm sure he has said at some point, or should have. I prepared for this possibility, given the low level of respect I have for half of my fellow citizens, and own property in a number of international locations, including farmland with its own abundant water source. Though you are Canadian, and won't necessarily become an international pariah, I think Americans might soon become pariahs, so having a second passport will come in useful. "Yanks" have often had periods when they were not exactly the favored species of human, and we're on the brink of another period of international abhorrence, so best to be ready. In particular, the US is going to make lots of enemies in the Islamic world---both Sunni and Shi'a, as 47 will surely be bombing Iran and giving Netanyahu the green light to wipe out all of Gaza (As Kushner said, imagine the development possibilities along the Mediterranean shore!), and that will make Americans targets worldwide. Don't wear khakis or Tommy Bahama shirts or white socks with sandals or MAGA hats or order a Budweiser or put down your knife and switch your fork back to your right hand after cutting your steak or have Fox on at high volume in your flat or hotel room....all those are Yank giveaways, and terrorists know whom to target. And by all means, avoid ketchup in public! If all else fails, there's always SSRIs or tricyclic antidepressants. Cowboy up, Mountie!

Ah, it was a typo. Time ran out to correct it. Tough to be as perfect as your messiah. As for my outlook, all of you are welcome to come back here in a year or two and laugh, but I suspect you'll be in the grip of financial calamity, especially the little short guy who putzes around Pattaya on a red Vespa, living off a pension paid by the US Taxpayer, and using the funds to buy women his "charms" are insufficient to get without paying a few thousand baht. That pension is either going to disappear, or be inflated into nothing. I suspect a Recession was in the cards no matter who won, as the current advance is long in the tooth and the debt buildup too severe, but the abject incompetence of the POTUS-elect guarantees that it will be much worse than it has to be. The US has been lucky, under the leadership of Biden-Harris, to avoid what has already hit the other G7 nations. US growth since 2020 has been three times the G7 average. Felonistas can argue the other G7 can catch up, but I am betting instead on the US sinking, especially as Europe is going to do worse as Russia is allowed to annex Ukraine and turn its eyes to Poland and Estonia. The equity market rally might last anywhere from a day or even shortly into his term, but it should be used as an opportunity to lay off risk to the Greater Fool. When the lemmings are running for the cliff, best to get out of their way. I like to take an occasional look at a famous haiku from Matsuo Basho, as considering its meaning served me well in my second career as a hedge fund manager: Go ahead, cricket Chirp away I know it's Autumn Always fade the fools.

So here we are on the brink of having our first convicted felon as President. Here’s a few things I think we can expect as reality takes hold. (Your opinion may differ, and that is what a Forum is for. I say come back in 2 to 4 years and see who was right. Personally, I see the writing on the wall and am battening down the hatches, plus adopting whatever other cliches appropriate to the times. I did not reach my wealth status 'going with the flow', but rather seeing when the lemmings are running toward the cliff.) Internationally, there are a couple of types of people one does not want to be. The first is Ukrainian. Aid will be cut off, and Putin will have a green light to slaughter as he pleases. The Pres-elect claims he can end the war “in an afternoon”. He cannot. Wars do not end like that, especially when the aggressor side is given the green light and the victim side is trying to protect their own freedom and liberty. Ukraine will become an abattoir. Poles and Estonians are likely to become increasingly worried, because they know they are next, and there will no longer be a NATO to discourage aggressors. Neither would one want to be an innocent Palestinian, someone who had it tough enough under Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, but who are going to be just cannon fodder for an unleashed and unrestrained Netanyahu. From the frying pan under Hamas into the fire of the IDF. In some form we will hear---re Ukraine and Palestine---“Kill’em all and let god sort’em out”. Compassion is so ‘yesterday’. Terrorists are ‘manufactured’ in two ways (I spent years directly interacting with fundamental and psychopathic terrorists, so allow me to believe my opinion has some merit). One is via a warped ideology, such as the literal interpretation of some supposedly deity-dictated text or story. The second way is out of revenge for something done to a person or to people like him or her. The former always requires unpleasant means to address, as religious fantasies and superstitions are almost impossible to erase; the latter becomes its own feedback system (“We killed some terrorists today, but how many more did we just create?”). Guaranteed there will be more terrorism and more violent terrorism on a scale that will dwarf 9-11. Having dealt with the more infamous fundamentalist groups, I know among them they have some brilliant but vicious folks who studied things like biochemistry or nuclear physics at the world’s top universities. Something like a dirty bomb will be the B-team act. Bioterror weapons are what has long scared me, and the fundamentalists learned a lot from Covid, plus they have studied how to alter the protein structure of viruses to make them more lethal and faster-spreading. (I remember years ago they were working on weaponizing smallpox, an existing virus readily obtainable, but now can be altered via structural manipulation, and small pox is a virus where the vaccine really only lasts a decade or two.) The vast majority of terror attacks over the last 2 decades have been stopped because the entire free world cooperated in sharing information and intelligence from their own sources and terror group penetrations. Most of these thwarted terror attacks remain secret. That cooperation, at least with the US, will now stop, as no ally trusts that intel will be guarded under the new President. Perhaps readers will remember that an Israeli penetration of ISIS was outed and eliminated because of what then-President shared with Russian FM Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak in the Oval Office meeting just after the firing of DirFBI Comey. Also, all foreign intel services with whom the CIA has liaison relationships are well aware of the stolen documents taken to Mar-a-Lago, documents which included HCS (Human Clandestine Sources). No intel service wants to risk getting its sources compromised by someone incapable of keeping his mouth shut, and who does not take secrecy seriously. Liaison services already warned their US counterparts that a possible return of that guy to the Oval Office means sharing intel is dead. The US intel community now will have to go it alone. A corollary to this is that even within the US intel community, attrition is going to explode, as men and women who have spent their careers addressing autocratic behavior, and who have seen the consequences firsthand of what loss of freedom means, will leave the intel services, leaving mostly the dregs behind. The intel community is like any other organization, operating under the Pareto Principle (20:80). The 20% who do most everything are going to leave. Their skills and brains have market value meaning they have places they can go, whereas the dregs have no choice but to stay and take their US Taxpayer salary. Bottom line: the US homeland WILL experience a major terror attack in the next few years. In matters of economics, the reality of the Pres-elect’s incompetence will also evidence itself sooner rather than later. He campaigned on things over which he has no control, and not even the ‘concept of a plan’. Exactly how is he going to bring down the price of bacon? If he’s 8 years into delivering the ‘best healthcare plan ever’, and it’s still only a concept of a plan, how exactly does he plan to tame worldwide inflation? Tariffs? That isn’t going to do anything but make it worse. Deport the undocumented workers that are part of what kept inflation down, because they tend to be paid less? Well, maybe his rallygoers want to pick strawberries for a living? Work in an abattoir making bacon? As I have noted in a number of my posts, one of the seemingly intractable issues the entire world is facing today is the obviation of unskilled and/or replaceable labor. Those without marketable skills and talents are being left behind. AI will only play Pacman and move up the food chain into white collar professions. NOBODY has a solution. This isn’t like the introduction of the McCormick Combine, when displaced agricultural workers could move into the factories of the Industrial Revolution. Today, most all businesses---save for things like nail painting and eyelashes so championed by Thai women---are not human labor intensive. Displaced workers have nowhere to go. This has been happening for years, and so far it has resulted in the rise of autocrat wannabes, who make pie-in-the-sky promises they cannot deliver, but when false hope is all someone has, they still grasp it. There is no way the Pres-elect can change the reality of the modern technological world on the brink of a an even greater sea change with the advances in AI. I don’t know what happens when all those who voted for him because of false hopes come to realize he doesn’t even have a concept of a plan. Maybe we'll all just paint each other's nails. I have no doubt he will destroy the growth that happened under Biden-Harris. Yes, that growth was uneven, as it required workers to have marketable skills, but the policies the guy has stated he plans are not a solution. The post-election euphoria is going to be short lived. It will be a great, and perhaps last opportunity to cash out and get lean. Whatever asset prices do over the next week, or maybe even early into his term, will not last. A good trader always cashes out into the ‘madness of crowds’. All of the negative trends the world has been seeing over the last decade or two are going to accelerate. We’re going deeper into a dog-eat-dog world, where cross border aggression will be either accepted or ignored, where compassion will be in sparse supply, where labor continues to be obviated, and where massive debts will finally become unsustainable. The zibel (an Arabic word) is going to hit the fan. The optimism some are feeling now will be short lived. I have no doubt the planet is moving into a major period of strife, of mayhem, of oppression, of declining personal freedom, and an even further shifting of wealth into the haves and have nots. Those just getting by now are in that position because they have already become largely redundant, but government money is still there to support them. It will only get worse for them, and bad for most everybody (unless you’ve packed your bug-out bag and have an isolated residence somewhere). Those who have enjoyed the growth and prosperity since 2020 cannot become complacent. Cash out now, diversify in smart ways, and prepare for what is likely to be the ugliest time generations from the Baby Boomers onward have ever experienced. Terrorism, international strife, economic decline, social unrest and government-driven oppression are on everyone’s menu. Putting your head in the sand and thinking your messiah can save you are like the folks who screamed for their deity when the tsunami was approaching. Their screams did not fall on deaf ears, because there were no ears to hear their screams. The ears that are real, such as the new President, simply do not care, and even if he did, he has no clue how to save anyone. No doubt some will disagree and think we're on the verge of great prosperity and peace. I'm taking the other side of that bet. Come back in 2026-2028 and make me eat crow, but I bet even crows are going to be scarce.

What the heck is Harris doing leading in Missouri and Kansas? Those were supposed to be firmly in the tiny hands of someone else. The Michigan vote so far is also a surprise, as polls showed it much closer than the early results suggest.

There is a part of me---the cynical and admittedly selfish part---that kind of wants the felon to win. I have no doubt he will eff things up as only he can do. I have enough money for 10 lifetimes, and I’m diversified enough so that no matter what havoc the felon creates, I’ll be just fine. Those who will suffer the most under his glaring incompetence, however, are the very people who think he’s the Second Coming. The world isn’t going to get any more welcoming to the kind of people---the poorly educated and those lacking marketable skills---who support him, and only a nation that has productive and “Giver” States like CA, NY, NJ and New England, can carry the forlorn and obviated. I suspect the felon will mess things up so badly, that both the West Coast and the Northeast will secede. CA, OR and WA in the west, and in the east, northern Virginia, MD, NY, DE, NJ and New England, plus maybe eastern PA, will choose to leave Magastan to its own devices. The States who are the biggest parasites, taking much more from the Federal Govt than their citizens return in taxes, will be left to simmer in their own juices. Looking at the Election Map, I see the felon is already declared the winner in some States whose largest ‘employer’ is Social Security Disability Insurance (KY, WV, TN). Who is going to pay their monthly stipend when CA and other Giver States are gone? I always laughed when the felon tossed out his racist term “Black Jobs”, something immigrants are supposedly taking. In reality, what immigrants often take---if they’re not starting companies and juicing the US GDP---is MAGA Jobs. If the felon wins, and if he implements his economic policy of tariffs and deportation of all undocumented workers (except those who work at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster), inflation is going to skyrocket, the deficit explode, the dollar collapse, rates soar, and most of MAGAstan will tumble into a level of poverty even Venezuelans would fear. Schadenfreude is not a noble emotion, but sometimes it’s kind of impishly and deliciously satisfying.

Habit? Tradition? Nostalgia for 2016?

The latest NYT/Sienna College Poll shows Harris ahead in North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin. The Des Moines Register poll shows her taking Iowa. If those materialize, Harris will not even need Michigan, Arizona or Pennsylvania to win. If she takes MI and PA to boot, it will be a landslide.

In one of his last rallies, the felon was caught lying in real time. Just after he claimed massive crowds and "we never have an empty seat", a cameraman panned the venue to show thousands of empty seats. Here's some photographs from the same rally. These sure look like empty seats. Maybe Kellyanne Conway will call it the "Silent Majority".

Of course he's going to deny the election results. He's going to whine like the petulant child he is, claim 'fraud', 'rigged' and 'stolen', file more frivolous lawsuits, and call his cult to DC to try to stop the certification two months from today. I bet he's already contracted with a sweat shop in China to produce hats with whatever the slogan is going to be this time, kind of as a going away grift to his goobers. Last time his team went full bizarro with "proof", with their silly tale of Hugo Chavez rising from the grave and writing code for an Italian satellite that could alter voting machines. Perhaps this time they'll make up something even weirder, maybe about aliens from the rogue planet Nibiru, working with George Soros, to hypnotize non-college educated losers into voting Dem. If the Repubs keep the House, he'll get the little kracker KKKristian Speaker to whip his side into not certifying, which could send the vote back to the House itself, one vote per State. If the Dems retake the House, then felon-inspired violence is his last gasp, because certification is a guarantee. The authorities will not be as kind this time. Anybody who tries to storm the Capitol will, and should, be eradicated like the vermin they are. Maybe the felon will try to schlepp logo'd body bags to his fallen cult members.

In the felon's America, if your daughter, sister, wife or girlfriend gets raped by one of those legally resident pet-eating Haitians, she will be forced to carry the zygote to birth. I can only hope all of you felonistas are ready to care for that resulting offspring, doing your part to MAGA (sic), and if it was your wife or fiance raped, love the child as if it was your own.

I can only hope the felon recognizes the will of the people when he loses again, and doesn't foment another insurrection, calling his terrorist goobers to DC again to try to attack the Capitol and stop the certification, injuring another 140 law enforcement officers and disgracing the nation. His Tweet from last time, calling his goobers with "It'll be WILD!", caused needless pain and suffering of men and women whose job was to protect the US Capitol. Should the felon do that again, and the same miscreant terrorists or their ilk try it again, let's hope the National Guard, whom only Biden, as sitting POTUS can call in (sorry little Mikey Johnson, the Speaker lacks that authority, just as 'Nikki Haley' lacked it on 6 January 2021) shows no mercy and eradicates the scum, sending the message that such anti-American displays will not become a regular action of losers. As was warned in 1776, alerting patriots to the oncoming British troops, "The red [hats] are coming, the red [hats] are coming!". Let history repeat, eliminating the aggressors.

Perhaps a cult member will explain what MAGA means, and when was this better time for which all those forlorn losers pine? Was it when women were barefoot and pregnant, Blacks rode in the back of the bus and used separate water fountains, and when "uppity' Blacks offended somebody in Krackabamastan, they got lynched? The felon has plenty of time to talk about Palmer's junk, Hannibal Lecter, and sharks circling sinking electric boats, but he never really elucidates the meaning of MAGA. I think it's just a marketing slogan to fool the low IQ demographic, but that's just my opinion. I do know he wants to deport all undocumented workers, but I suspect that does not mean the ones who work at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster. He also said he wants to deport all Haitians, legal or not. Oh, and prosecute and deport SC Jack Smith, which is odd, because Smith was born in the USA. Then there's a military tribunal for non-mil private citizen who broke no law, Liz Cheney. Not sure how that equates to 'Great'. He tells us 'only I" can do it, but do what, we don't know. Frankly, things are pretty damn good right now with the booming Biden-Harris economy, the envy of the rest of the G7. I guess if anyone can ruin that, it's the guy who inherited a growing economy and 4.8% unemployment, but left Biden-Harris a Recession and 6.8% UE. Is the 'Again" in his slogan the early 1930s? The guys record closely resembles that of Herbert Hoover, but if that time was 'Great', I think we need another definition of the word.

Lots of young people in the 18-25 year old age bracket watch it. Old curmudgeons probably do not, as they're probably watching Silence of the Lambs or replays of the felon performing fellatio on a microphone. The age to vote in the US is 18. The show is nationwide, even in Red States and Swing States. Great move, Ms Harris! For the win!

Harris has a natural joy and positivism, in stark contrast to the felon. With the felon, EVERYTHING is dark and the "worst ever", unless he can take credit for something good. He speaks of the country collapsing, when the economy, jobs, the stock market, personal spending, personal savings,manufacturing, and domestic energy production are booming. Has anyone ever seen the felon laugh when he wasn't talking about violence? Personal opinion....but he's a psychopath. He has all the listed characteristics of psychopathy: ---an easy charm that fools a certain segment of people ---an inability to feel guilt ---zero empathy ---lying as easily as he breathes ---believing rules are for others, but not him

Clearly a matter of opinion. My "View" is that a clown who speaks glowingly of another man's junk, simulates fellatio on a microphone while ostensibly giving a closing campaign speech, champions fictitious serial killers and cannibals, worries about sharks circling a sinking boat, makes fun of disabled people, and now claims he never should have left the White House in 2020 when he was soundly fired by the American people, does nothing but make a fool of himself. Harris, on the other hand, has comedy and acting chops, which she might be able to use 8 years from now after her second term wraps up.

Your moniker is quite accurate. News shows used to have an equal time doctrine, but Reagan got rid of that 40+ years ago. Comedy shows have no such rule, and never did. Example: Fox

Lots of IQ talk in this thread, so I figured a graphical representation might be in order, so that visitors get up to speed on the discussion.

It's a bowl used when people meditate. The bowl is struck with what you call a pestle, and the bowl resonates for a minute or so, giving folks some sort of sensual stimulation and a focal point. It's a Buddhist thing, very common in northern Himachal Pradesh in northern India and neighboring Tibet. What struck me, rather than the bowl, is the spare tires a 31 year old is wearing. With those manboobs, too, he's on the way to looking like a 75-year old retired wet nurse.

Living in the past? Is that like "Make America Great Again"? When was that greatness? When there was more discrimination, even lynchings? When UE was 6.8%...Oooooh, that was under the guy claiming he will make America great again. He certainly failed miserably the first time, taking a growing economy and 4.8% UE and leaving Biden-Harris a Recession and 6.8% UE. Fortunately, Biden-Harris ended the Recession and have UE near 4%, record # of Americans employed, the US growing at 3 times the average rate of the other G7 nations, infrastructure being rebuilt, manufacturing jobs way up, chip plants being built after none in decades, and even the US producing more energy than it uses (plus over 9000 drilling leases approved and waiting for investors to take them.) Many people are living today, not in some fantasy past, and today is BOOMING!