Presto

1 hour ago, harryviking said:

I will never take any bet on how long Trump will survive....🙄.

His diet might be a cause, right?

2 hours ago, Will B Good said:

 

 

I guess there is just a chance he is telling the truth........it is hard to see how this will progress through the courts if he continues to claim a tyre burst, for whatever reason, and no one can prove otherwise.

 

If he was negligent, drunk, on his phone, falling asleep, I hope he rots in hell. 

Burns, not rot.

Sixty years ago my father had something similar happen to him. 

He was driving behind a truck on the motorway, an object fell off, passed through the middle of the windscreen (fortunately!) and bedded itself in the rear seats.

It was part of the suspension of the truck that broke and fell off. No dash cam!

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

 

They did a great job taking down the coward. If more members of the public took things into their own hands they might think twice about carrying out such attacks.

 

Trouble is, if the coward suffered injury the Wokeists would probably want them charged with assault, or a hate crime or something. 

 

 

First: deranged minds don't think like that.

Second: that stuff about 'Wokeist' has no basis in reality. Dutch reality.

1 hour ago, chickenslegs said:

Those guys did a great job, and were very restrained once they had disarmed/pinned down the terrorist.

Yes, I noticed that too. Admirable job!

He's not necessarily a terrorist, he seemed quite off his rocker by the account of Litecia. And now I read he was known by the police.

A video (nu.nl) of how the knifeman was taken down. Litecia in the green shirt.

As you can see many people involved in this citizens arrest.

Beelden tonen hoe verdachte steekpartij Rotterdam wordt overmeesterd https://www.nu.nl/311385/video/beelden-tonen-hoe-verdachte-steekpartij-rotterdam-wordt-overmeesterd.html (via @NUnl)

2 hours ago, john donson said:

why is the stabber still alive?  if only the dude in the gym would have brought a dumbell bar to beat him with....

You don't know what you're talking about. 

Litecia is a personal trainer, he was working with a customer (1) outside, close to the river.

And he did knock the knifeman out with a squat bar, in 'Remastered', under the bridge.

20 minutes ago, jvs said:

Yes i agree and lets not forget to mention that his name does not sound

Dutch.

 

Curaçao origin probably.

5 hours ago, JoePai said:

a car abruptly overtook her twice

 

So she had to overtake the offending car once ?

That reminds me of a famous dialogue in Police Squad ...

8 minutes ago, TedG said:

 

The high interest rates are pushing up the cost to service the debt. 

First inflation rises, fuelled (at least in part) by the trillions of borrowed money pumped into the economy by Biden. Then the Fed steps in and raises interest rates, from the extremely low level it was. Than people get angry, first because it hurts their insatiable credit card use, and second because it hurts mortgages.

Make a comparison between mortgage interest in America and Western Europe, and you'll see the difference.

31 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

 

Sure, countries like Russia, China, and even Germany, are taking steps to be less exposed to American use of the dollar as a political tool. However, they can only achieve minor success in this. There is no way in human imagination that the dollar will be knocked of its top spot by China or Russia or the Euro any time soon. I trade Forex, and I can tell you even now, if the Dollar sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. All currencies are basically derived of how the Dollar is doing. 

 

There may be less influence for the dollar, but it will still be the undisputed King for a very long time.

All fine with me, my points were, that despite the cheering about Biden, with regard to the national debt, there is no difference with Trump.  We could have a discussion about how all that borrowed is spend of course, and I could go into a diatribe about the Infrastructure bill. But I won't.

Plus, it doesn't seem to bother Americans that they're paying 900 billion this year on interest, about the same as the defense budget. That interest sum is only rising, at some point American will wake up and ask themselves: for what? Interest? Nothing tangible?

How long this situation can go on, I don't know. Common sense tells me, not long, but common sense doesn't matter here I guess.

9 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

Yes, I know but not in a serious way. By "endangered" I mean, the debt rating are so bad that no country wants to buy American debt. That's nowhere near happening. 

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246420/major-foreign-holders-of-us-treasury-debt/

 

If foreign countries keep funding the American lifestyle of excess, all is well.

The thing about those downgrades is that they are for a large part unnecessary.

They are in part, caused by silly political processes like the debt ceiling and funding the government.

Processes unique to America, and politicians from whatever side have never expressed a willingness to get something sensible in place. I guess they love the annual circus, and maybe it gives them a sense of power and competence.

3 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

 

First, we’re an outlier in how small our fiscal footprint is. Compared with the rest of the world, we don’t tax and spend much. 

 

Second, raising U.S. revenue levels to the average level of our peer countries would raise the equivalent of $2.61 trillion, roughly five times the amount needed to close the fiscal gap. Importantly, places like France and the Nordic countries collect this level of high revenue while still delivering reliable growth in living standards. These rich, high-functioning countries don’t seem hampered by excess taxation.

 

https://www.epi.org/blog/could-tax-increases-alone-close-the-long-run-fiscal-gap/

I've occasionally thought about how much tax would I, or anyone else, be willing to accept. And I mean income tax and VAT. 50%? Maybe that's a psychological limit?

15 minutes ago, TedG said:

Biden had record revenue in 2022 and managed a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit. 

You should read this article. There's no difference between Trump and Biden with regard to borrowing and adding to the national debt.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobhaber/2024/08/21/americas-currency-crisis-declining-global-confidence-in-the-dollar/

16 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

Americans don't care about their deficit for one good reason. They don't need to. America is rich beyond imagination.

 

If America wanted to, they could pass corporate tax tomorrow that would wipe out the deficit. But why would they do such a thing?

 

Many economists think the budget deficit doesn't matter, apart from generational inequality. Whilst America is still the most powerful ecnonomy in the world its debt ratings are not endangered and the Dollar is still the undisputed King. Why worry about the deficit at all?

 

https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/751120.html

It's debt ratings are endangered. S&P downgraded treasuries about 10 years ago, Fitch did it last year.

You should look up the yield of government bonds by country.

Remarkably, neither party has shown much interest in the national debt, the past decades. And that includes Biden, who can't achieve a balanced budget even in a booming economy.

National debt to GDP is about 130% I believe, and no end in sight. 

Annual interest is 900 billion in 2024, apparently not a problem for the American taxpayer.

Note that 130% won't allow a country to become an EU member ...