cubsfan

I really don't know where you're going with this. Whoever inherits this economy has a rough go of it. Inflation is bad. Unemployement is low, but lots of high paying jobs (like tech) are seeing layoffs. The tech startup business VC look horrible. Autos are a disaster, along with their jobs. Housing is unaffordable. The deficit is a problem. It's going to be a tough go for anyone. The Trump economy was terrific, with record low unemployment for blacks. So you see the economic news as Fox BS propaganda. I can't change that for you. Like I mentioned before - surveys of voters listed the economy as the #1 issue, where those voters felt the economy was not working them. You see a lot of brainwashed voters. I take them at their word.

Wow - you guys have such a warped perspective. You've no idea why the election was lost. You think people were brainwashed by MAGA. Simply amazing.

You guys sound like The View. 70% of Americans surveyed say the economy is in bad shape and impacted them negatively. Take the elitist hat off for once and see it from their viewpoint. They want their wages to go up, just like grocery prices and inflation. It's pretty damn simple. The reason the election was lost was because the party kept telling the middle class how wonderful life was - and they didn't believe it.

@dealraker You're a good man, one I respect - so happy to clarify for you. The open border has been a disaster - I hope you might agree. You close the border to stop crime & drugs, first of all. Then you concentrate on getting all the criminal element out of the country - the murderers & rapists that wrecked families. I hope you don't see them as collateral damage as so many Democrats do. The country is full of gang members where jails were emptied out. The crime likely doesn't impact you, but it certainly does in the inner cities. Folks in the inner cities, 50% hispanic & 20% black voted to get crime & drugs under control. At some point, you can give out work visas - which should be the right way to enforce a reasonable immigration policy. Not sure why you would want to have open borders other than you have a vested interest to make money with illegal labor? Should be real easy to make adjustments so the economy doesn't collapse like you are saying. Most Americans admire immigrants that contribute with both work & cultural assimilation into OUR country. No need to exaggerate my point.

The US has always loved immigrants. What we don't like is crime. We also prefer to see our own troubled, down-on-their luck citizens being taken care of before illegals. Immigration is a wonderful thing if it is measured and meritocratic. IF immigrants refused to assimilate into your culture - you have social division. It's not all about the money - it's about the American identity and way of life as well.

For good reason - enjoy!

It may be a derailment from the thread, but a very valuable discussion. I found the Paul Tudor Jones CNBC interview very alarming, because it seem to make so much sense when you look at the trajectory of the deficit. But I certainly do understand the plumbing, and the reserve currency topics. Many thanks.

I thought the Paul Tudor Jones interview on this debt and tax issue was along the same lines. Kicking the can down the road can't last forever. Maybe WEB agrees.

Beginning at 3:45 - there is a short 3 minute interview of an UNRWA employee discussing Hamas control of their facilities.

^^^ Awful. Artillery was the big killer in WWII combat, accounting for, I believe 60% of casualties.

Sure - you roll your tanks into another country and destroy it, killing hundreds of thousands. Putin is a great guy.

I'm not feeling trapped at all. And I totally agree. These are all perfectly legitimate questions. After all, war should always be a last resort - the very last. But a terrorist group or resistance is responsible for it's actions. Which gets you to the major point: IF the resistance group is heads and tails weaker than the opponent - then they have no business taking action or employing violence. Everyone knows they were predestined to lose. They simply could not win. So you are entering into loss of life for nothing. You are committing suicide for your group or followers. In this case, the total destruction of Gaza. The difference with Israel vs Hamas (or Hezbollah) is that the terrorists never counted on Israel to crush them with overwhelming force. There is NO way they could EVER win this war. But they rolled the dice. They gambled with the lives of their people, for whom they had no regard if Israel finally said "enough, never again".

It's a perfectly reasonable scenario. IF I understand you - there is going to be a penalty extracted from the Ukrainian partisans that forcibly use Ukrainian human shields, once they start attacking Russians. If you use human shields you are committing a war crime.

I knew you would fact-check me! Have a nice weekend @Xerxes!

In regards to schools, hospitals, charities (UNWRA), churches, mosques... For the "uninformed" this is worth the read about war crimes (Geneva Convention): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/17/can-hospitals-be-military-targets-international-law-israel-gaza-al-shifa Philip-Gay said that “if a civilian hospital is used for acts harmful to the enemy, that is the legal term used”, the hospital can lose its protected status under international law and be considered a legitimate target. Nevertheless, if there is doubt as to whether a hospital is a military objective or being used for acts harmful to the enemy, the presumption, under international humanitarian law, is that it is not.

Who is cutting off the supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza?? It's Hamas. And you believe UNRWA?? The same guys that had several UNRWA members that participated in the Oct 7th massacre. The same guys that had hordes of weapons stored in their facilities for Hamas.

Oh, so Israel wanted to undermine the PLO in 1978 AFTER the PLO massacred Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich?? You make no sense at all.

This is a silly argument. Israel is the ONLY country in the world where the army (IDF) issues WARNINGS to civilians to evacuate BEFORE they take out a building. I have never seen this done - and of course - it's much to their military disadvantage to do so. The IDF has take great pains to limit civilian casualties. And a terrorist government (Hamas) has NO regard for the life the Palestinian civilians. Who in the world would DELIBERATELY place military targets beneath civilian hospitals and schools? -- Only Hamas & Hezbollah - as they could care less about using their population as human shields. Who would steals humanitarian aid & money from their own population to construct a underground tunnel and terror network, instead of feeding and building infrastructure for the benefit of their citizens? -- Only Hamas and Hezbollah. Using your own population as Human shields is both despicable and cowardly. And then your enemy comes in to feed the population - and you steal the food. I hope you've seen the clip where Hamas is executing young Palestinian men who tried to get to the aid before Hamas did.

Let him vent. The truth will be out soon enough.

Pretty brilliant move today: Israel taking out Hezbollah banks and financial institutions on Sunday. Might make it tough for Hezbollah to make payroll. Supposely, via captured intelligence, Israel has mapped out Hezbollah's entire financial support network. Hell, if you get a run on the bank - financial collapse is possible.

Yup, we may find out. Not only has command structure been gutted, but estimated missile arsenal in Lebanon is 60-70% destroyed. Iran has to be shocked how their "investment" has been so rapidly diminished.

Oh shit that's funny!

I was unfamiliar, but had heard of UATX - thanks for bringing it to my attention. It reminds me a lot of Hillsdale College and New College of Florida. I've given plenty to Hillsdale as my former alma mater, Lawrence University in Wisconsin as taken a sharp turn to indoctrination and I stopped my giving. Teaching kids "what to think" as opposed to "how to think" has become the new mantra of higher education. We need trailblazers like Hillsdale & UATX. They will do extremely well as they demostrate real moral courage.

Very impressive and refreshing. Congratulations to you as a founder. Any higher education institution that is dedicated to the truth, as opposed to social indoctrination is bound to do very, very well in the United States. There are far more educational institutions that have shifted hard to political/social activism at the expense of truth. A large part of the country is sick of the disgusting state of higher education in America.

Kudos to you guys. This is a very worthwhile thread with some terrific ideas.