10 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

With a leader like the goon, nobody can count on the US anymore. He is far too unpredictable and unsteady. 

 

You sound childless.   BTW..this is a topic about the US Credit rating. 

11 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

 

It looks like the total electorate is hard to pin down - 245 million according to this site:

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-11-15/how-many-people-didnt-vote-in-the-2024-election

 

But despite both of us being incorrect, I was much further away from that number than you were. 

 

The number we a both in agreement about, however, is the 77.3 million who voted for Trump.

 

So the picture is actually even less impressive than I had erroneously suggested - he didn't even get a third of the electorate to back him. 

You were making up numbers.  

21 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The US deeply and richly deserves this downgrade in the credit rating, they are hugely unreliable at this point in time and cannot be trusted. They have the great misfortune of a highly unstable, fanatical and at least partially insane leader. 

 

Your usual nonsense. This downgrade has been coming for at least a decade. 

11 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

This is pure propaganda.  

 

Biden did not reduce the deficit by $ 1.4 trillion. 

 

Here is a CN fact check.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/fact-check-biden-deficit-minimum-tax

 

This is another fact check.

 

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/bidens-deficit-spin/

 

Here is the total debt added under Obama

 

$7,663,615,710,425.00

 

Here is the total debt added under Biden

 

$8,454,697,079,160.38

 

Total debt added by Trump 

 

$7,804,591,681,202.28

 

https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225

 

 

Just now, TedG said:

This is pure propaganda.  

 

Biden did not reduce the deficit by $ 1.4 trillion. 

 

Here is a CN fact check.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/fact-check-biden-deficit-minimum-tax

 

This is another fact check.

 

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/bidens-deficit-spin/

 

Here is the total debt added under Obama

 

$7,663,615,710,425.00

 

Here is the total debt added under Biden

 

$8,454,697,079,160.38

 

Total debt added by Trump 

 

$7,804,591,681,202.28

 

https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225

Deby a deficits are not the same but related. The GOP is the big credit spender, on military and deficit funding for billionaire subsidies. Cut out both.

14 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

Once everyone sells their T-bills and start trading oil in Euros and Yuan, the collapse will really kick in. Trump is a moron and it is not Bidens fault.

 

Do you really believe all this started just last week or is it that you just hate Trump?

18 minutes ago, nauseus said:

 

Do you really believe all this started just last week or is it that you just hate Trump?

It has been precarious for decades. Trump kicked over the table three months ago. He did not need to do it.

39 minutes ago, TedG said:

This is pure propaganda.  

 

Biden did not reduce the deficit by $ 1.4 trillion. 

 

Here is a CN fact check.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/fact-check-biden-deficit-minimum-tax

 

This is another fact check.

 

https://www.factcheck.org/2022/04/bidens-deficit-spin/

 

Here is the total debt added under Obama

 

$7,663,615,710,425.00

 

Here is the total debt added under Biden

 

$8,454,697,079,160.38

 

Total debt added by Trump 

 

$7,804,591,681,202.28

 

https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225

 

 

 

  From the link you provided:

 

"The primary reason for the deficit falling by $1.7 trillion under Biden was that the deficit had skyrocketed to a record high of about $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020 during the early stage of the pandemic under then-President Donald Trump."

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/fact-check-biden-deficit-minimum-tax

 

So yes, the deficit declined over certain years of the Biden fiasco.  (You may be confusing deficit with debt.  Deficit is an annual number, debt is the cumulative aggregate of multiple deficits.)  

4 minutes ago, TheAppletons said:

 

  From the link you provided:

 

"The primary reason for the deficit falling by $1.7 trillion under Biden was that the deficit had skyrocketed to a record high of about $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020 during the early stage of the pandemic under then-President Donald Trump."

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/fact-check-biden-deficit-minimum-tax

 

So yes, the deficit declined over certain years of the Biden fiasco.  (You may be confusing deficit with debt.  Deficit is an annual number, debt is the cumulative aggregate of multiple deficits.)  

Biden had nothing to do with the reduction.  The COVID spending ended.   

Just now, TedG said:

Biden had nothing to do with the reduction.  The COVID spending ended.   

 

  No one said he did.  You said, "This is pure propoganda.  Biden did not reduce the deficit by $1.4 trillion."  

 

  That wasn't propaganda - the deficit did fall during two years of the Biden Admin, as you have just admitted by using the term "reduction".

8 minutes ago, TheAppletons said:

 

  No one said he did.  You said, "This is pure propoganda.  Biden did not reduce the deficit by $1.4 trillion."  

 

  That wasn't propaganda - the deficit did fall during two years of the Biden Admin, as you have just admitted by using the term "reduction".

It is pure propaganda.   Biden did nothing to reduce the deficit.   I just provided two facts to prove that point.   Here is third one.   WTF is wrong with you people? 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/28/bidens-misleading-deficit-claim-earns-him-bottomless-pinocchio/

 

 

1 minute ago, TedG said:

It is pure propaganda.   Biden did nothing to reduce the deficit.   I just provided two facts to prove that point.   Here is third one.   WTF is wrong with you people? 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/28/bidens-misleading-deficit-claim-earns-him-bottomless-pinocchio/

 

 

 

  The deficit fell under Biden by $1.7 trillion.  Whether you think Biden personally did something to cause that is irrelevant, much like most of what you post.

1 hour ago, nauseus said:

 

The US dollar fall started decades ago.

Of course.  Ever since 1913, when the Fed was created.  The chart looks like a downhill ski slope.  Anyway, there's nothing to keep it from going even lower under Trump, especially since that's what he wants and because the Fed put is alive and well.  

26 minutes ago, TheAppletons said:

 

  The deficit fell under Biden by $1.7 trillion.  Whether you think Biden personally did something to cause that is irrelevant, much like most of what you post.

 

What is relevant is that this "fall" was actually a return to the previous trend after the pandemic excesses. 

If anyone is interested, the CBO projected trillion-dollar deficits over the next 10 years back in 2020.

 

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/politics/cbo-us-record-federal-deficits

Flame post removed.

 

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10. You will not post troll messages. Trolling is the act of purposefully antagonising  forum members by posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other members into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

On 5/18/2025 at 12:04 PM, dinsdale said:

Tell us. Who got more votes Trump or Harris? Who won the Electoral College votes? Who won the popular vote? Which party has the majority in the House and the Senate? Obviously the % that voted for Trump was higher than the % that voted for Harris. Your attempted spin is pitiful.  

Yep, trump won in the number of votes cast. But it is also true that many sat out the election and so he certainly won no “mandate”. Much to the chagrin of those who think in terms of yes/no … right/wrong. The world being more nuanced, both statements can be true.

On 5/18/2025 at 10:22 PM, TheAppletons said:

 

  The deficit fell under Biden by $1.7 trillion.  Whether you think Biden personally did something to cause that is irrelevant, much like most of what you post.

Again, Biden did nothing to make this happen. 

On 5/18/2025 at 10:34 AM, KhunLA said:

At this point, not really.  There's nothing outside my '15 min city' that I need, or that isn't sourced in Thailand, or even PKK province.

 

Plenty of local food grown, and surf is walking distance for protein and even drinking water, if needed.  Easy enough to desalinate, though we have 12 X 2000 L water tanks.  Don't think we'll ever be without water.

 

There's nothing outside of the village, 'downtown', province or TH that we need.  And we haven't even utilized the other two lots for anything.  Just an investment, and wife only has a few flowering plants on them.

 

We grow a few things, we can't eat fast enough, so give to neighbor, who does the same with us.  It's just a hobby for both of us, and far from using the lots' potential for growing things.   

 

If one of us had chickens, we wouldn't even have to go to the market 

 

Actually surprised how easy it would be to be completely independent, if ever needed to be.  No winter here, so a small farming village, would be easy to live year round, without any outside assistance.

 

My other neighbor is raising some beef, cows.   All we need is a pig farmer, hopefully, further down the road  

Not a bad idea to be some sort of "prepper". Like you, folks living in rural/farming aereas can better "prepare" than city folks.

 

Also: If things really turn bad, it is better to show up at the (remaining) food markets with some Silver coins, instead of a 1 kg Gold bar.

 

But not to forget, if things really turn bad, city dwellers will rush to the countryside, just looking for food. Plundering the food resources of the farmers.

 

There are the extreme Preppers: Storing essential stuff in a bunker, so they can last for 2 years or more. Only problem: The location of their bunkers are known. So it won't be long before some hungry folks will manage to blow a hole in the bunkers outer wall. The rest of the story will be nasty....

 

I personnally hope, that "the rulers of the world" manage to postpone such events during my lifetime. I would hate to go to the market with 2 Silver coins in my pocket to buy 2 potatoes.

 

On 5/19/2025 at 7:38 AM, save the frogs said:

Saudi Arabia moving away from oil only economy and investing heavily into AI.

that's why it's partnering with the US.

How? The Saudis have no trained software people. They do not actually work.

15 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

How? The Saudis have no trained software people. They do not actually work.

saudis dont work? that could be a problem

10 year US bonds hitting 5%. Getting more epensive to service the national dept. So what, many say.

 

What "the financial community" has preferred to overlook is:

 

To service the dept (interest on outstanding dept) is number 3 as part of the annual US budget deficit.

 

Let this melt on your tongue = the 3rd largest outlay of the federal budget deficit consists of paying interest on outstanding dept !!!

 

Amazingly, never making it into the "Financial News".