Political Posts

[TwoCitiesCapital]

49 minutes ago, Red Lion said:

So are we going to exhume 150 years of war hero’s from Arlington cemetery and give the land back to general Lee’s descendants then? 

 

I'm not sure what about my post suggests we should exhume human remains and give land back to a traitors' descendants, but if that is what you want to take from it...

[Red Lion]

18 minutes ago, TwoCitiesCapital said:

 

I'm not sure what about my post suggests we should exhume human remains and give land back to a traitors' descendants, but if that is what you want to take from it...

 

I feel like it has everything to do with your post, but I'm not going to quibble about it. 

 

Back to your post, do you feel that erecting a statue to a traitor that lost a war is not encompassed by the first amendment?  But presumably it's OK to erect a statue to a traitor that won their war (e.g. George Washington)?

 

If their removal isn't erasing history and culture, what is it? 

[TwoCitiesCapital]

41 minutes ago, Red Lion said:

 

I feel like it has everything to do with your post, but I'm not going to quibble about it. 

 

Back to your post, do you feel that erecting a statue to a traitor that lost a war is not encompassed by the first amendment?  

 

Sure it is encompassed by the first amendment. But so are the people protesting them. And if we use our eyes to observe, the erection of statues to those who lost wars isn't common in any society/culture and isn't typical after wars - freedom of speech or not. So would generally put the onus on the side defending the losers to have a good reason for it. 

 

The removal of statues doesn't erase that it happened. Areas north of the Mason Dixon line still learn about the Civil War without Robert E. Lee blvd running out front of the building. 

 

But if that truly is your concern, I would propose changing street names and replacing statues with names and statues erected in honor of Ulysses S. Grant - so we can remember the side of righteousness and that justice won that war. 

 

But we both know that wont' satisfy most because it was never about 'remembering' the - it was about venerating the racist men who fought in it and to 'remember' a 'better' time when the white man treated themselves as superior and lived off the efforts of others. 

 

41 minutes ago, Red Lion said:

 

But presumably it's OK to erect a statue to a traitor that won their war (e.g. George Washington)?

 

If their removal isn't erasing history and culture, what is it? 

You want to show me where Brits erected statues to George Washington? Because that is the comparison you're trying to make. 

 

The only one I'm aware of was delivered as a gift from Americans to stand in front of a museum 150+ years after the war was fought....

 

Edited May 16, 2025 by TwoCitiesCapital

[Libs]

Switching subjects: Mexico.

 

As a stereotypical free market right-winger, I assumed AMLO's socialist tenure would be an economic disaster. But his successor and party are massively popular. Any one with 75% approval ratings in today's world must be doing something right. 

 

I dunno. I need to dig deeper to figure out what happened. Maybe the lesson is- "there's a lot of ruin in an economy." Or maybe I need to re-assess some long - held convictions. Like about the minimum wage.

 

Anyway, a long read, but fascinating:

 

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/what-democrats-can-learn-from-morena

[DooDiligence]

I hesitate to call this peak hypocrisy because I have faith in Agent Oranges ability to go considerably further.

 

HT to Jon Stewart.

 

 

I can't wait for the usual alt-white cult members unhinged follow-up posts.

Edited May 16, 2025 by DooDiligence

[Sweet]

2 hours ago, TwoCitiesCapital said:

 

Sure it is encompassed by the first amendment. But so are the people protesting them. And if we use our eyes to observe, the erection of statues to those who lost wars isn't common in any society/culture and isn't typical after wars - freedom of speech or not. So would generally put the onus on the side defending the losers to have a good reason for it. 

 

The removal of statues doesn't erase that it happened. Areas north of the Mason Dixon line still learn about the Civil War without Robert E. Lee blvd running out front of the building. 

 

But if that truly is your concern, I would propose changing street names and replacing statues with names and statues erected in honor of Ulysses S. Grant - so we can remember the side of righteousness and that justice won that war. 

 

But we both know that wont' satisfy most because it was never about 'remembering' the - it was about venerating the racist men who fought in it and to 'remember' a 'better' time when the white man treated themselves as superior and lived off the efforts of others. 

 

You want to show me where Brits erected statues to George Washington? Because that is the comparison you're trying to make. 

 

The only one I'm aware of was delivered as a gift from Americans to stand in front of a museum 150+ years after the war was fought....

 

Two points about George Washington status.  The Brits do have one.  Some yanks, want to their George Washington statues taken down.

[DooDiligence]

12 minutes ago, Sweet said:

Two points about George Washington status.  The Brits do have one.  Some yanks, want to their George Washington statues taken down.

 

At first glance it seemed as if the Commonwealth of VA was just trolling the UK but...

 

https://www.military.com/history/george-washington-statue-london-british-soil.html

[Spekulatius]

21 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

Russian-Ukrinian War :

 

Reuters - World, Russian-Ukrainian War [May 16^th 2025] : Russia-Ukraine talks end after less than two hours in Turkey.

 

Christ, what a joke, after more that day and nights stallling and bluffing *BS* from Putin, as the initiator for a meeting thursdag, not today. 

 

POTUS' clownbus derailed to the ditch by Putin. Keep up your appearances!

 

 

 

 

Putin didn’t even show up, sent his C-team. This was predictable. He doesn’t want peace, he wants the entire Ukraine by outlasting the west. He knows that it doesn’t take much to outlast Trump for sure.

 

Edited May 17, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Hektor]

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/world/asia/india-rohingya-sea-deport.html

 

 

India Is Accused of Inhumanely Deporting Rohingya Refugees

The allegations, which include being pushed into the sea off Myanmar with only life jackets, have prompted a call from the United Nations for an investigation.

 

 

[John Hjorth]

15 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Putin didn’t even show up, sent his C-team. This was predictable. He doesn’t want peace, he wants the entire Ukraine by outlasting the west. He knows that it doesn’t take much to outlast Trump for sure.

 

Yes, @Spekulatius,

 

It was just the - for Putin - usual procrastination techniques. Asking [demanding] for Ukraine to pull out of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, the four regions which Russia attempted to illegally annex in 2022, as a precondition for a one month ceasefire, and thereby asking Ukraine to give up land it controls, and everything goes into deadlock.

 

I'm pretty confident that the last bit of patience among the European countries standing together in the support for and of Ukraine is exhausted, and there will be futher sanctions against Russia initiated and  imposed.

 

Again it will be the average Russian Mrs. & Mr. Ivanov who will be hit eventually, Putin will not become situated so he feels anything on his own life, or body. Those sanctions will naturally have negative ripple effects on the economies in the European countries as well.

 

I hope that POTUS does what he has said he will do to create a clear vision of Russian stance soon, and react accordingly. But POTUS says so much every day.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

It may read as a bad joke, but it isen't - I mean it's the reality : On my Iphone I have an app from the Danish TV station TV2News : Every morning I get a notification from the app : 'What Trump has said this night'!  [Great start on a new day! ]

Edited May 17, 2025 by John Hjorth

[dwy000]

Just picked up a prescription for my wife. Despite repeated assurances the drug price did NOT drop 30-80% since the last time.  Can I speak to the manager?

[Spekulatius]

Walmart told to eat the tariffs . Doesn’t sound like a yummy idea when you are in the single digit profit margin business and the Chinese obviously don’t like to eat them either.
 

Same with Amazon while ago. Seems like we are getting closer to run our economy like Xi Jinping. capitalism as long as you do in a way that pleases the chief.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-walmart-inflation-import-taxes-e2012e0d9e242b0be0b9474aa58d41fd

[changegonnacome]

The Trump folks who somehow taught they were voting in a fiscal conservative to fix the budget problem are headed for a little town outside Mar-a-Lago called Reality........DOGE might be one of the finest PR horse and pony shows in US political history.......so much noise, so much ink spilled and so little actual progress on the deficit.....David Friedberg (a real fiscal hawk) takes Trump & the GOP 'big beautiful bill' to school below.....he's exactly right and in line with what I've been saying here.....Trump is engaged in as reckless budgetary behaviour as Biden/Dems ever were.....in fact as the big picture debt-to-GDP ratio climbs ever higher one can argue its becoming increasingly reckless.....Trump pulling the poor and disenfranchised Dems into the GOP is/was a winning electoral strategy but its corrupted the fiscal conservative impulse that characterized the old GOP....and so we get this.....a Trump/GOP budget bill signing the country up to 7% annual budget deficits for as a far as the eye can see.......with the debt to GDP ratio sitting at 124%! It's a big beautiful mess Captain Chaos is going to get us in and sure Dems deserve the historical blame too.........but they ain't in charge right now so whataboutism is a pointless diversion.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2025 by changegonnacome

[Sweet]

1 hour ago, Spekulatius said:

Walmart told to eat the tariffs . Doesn’t sound like a yummy idea when you are in the single digit profit margin business and the Chinese obviously don’t like to eat them either.
 

Same with Amazon while ago. Seems like we are getting closer to run our economy like Xi Jinping. capitalism as long as you do in a way that pleases the chief.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-walmart-inflation-import-taxes-e2012e0d9e242b0be0b9474aa58d41fd

Eat the tariffs on a 3% profit margin.  Sure thing Trump.

[Blake Hampton]

Who is truly more powerful: Donald or Doug?

[Blake Hampton]

Trump seems like the kind of guy who would try implementing price caps.

[John Hjorth]

7 minutes ago, Blake Hampton said:

Who is truly more powerful: Donald or Doug?

 

Unfortunately, it's not possible to have polls here on attached to posts, only available for topics. - And likely not a good idea to set such poll up in a separate topic here of CofB&F by now, unless one has an urge to get disconnected to CofB&F. 

[Hektor]

4 hours ago, dwy000 said:

Can I speak to the manager?

The manager listens to Fox. Call in your complaint 

[Xerxes]

4 hours ago, changegonnacome said:

The Trump folks who somehow taught they were voting in a fiscal conservative to fix the budget problem are headed for a little town outside Mar-a-Lago called Reality........DOGE might be one of the finest PR horse and pony shows in US political history.......so much noise, so much ink spilled and so little actual progress on the deficit.....David Friedberg (a real fiscal hawk) takes Trump & the GOP 'big beautiful bill' to school below.....he's exactly right and in line with what I've been saying here.....Trump is engaged in as reckless budgetary behaviour as Biden/Dems ever were.....in fact as the big picture debt-to-GDP ratio climbs ever higher one can argue its becoming increasingly reckless.....Trump pulling the poor and disenfranchised Dems into the GOP is/was a winning electoral strategy but its corrupted the fiscal conservative impulse that characterized the old GOP....and so we get this.....a Trump/GOP budget bill signing the country up to 7% annual budget deficits for as a far as the eye can see.......with the debt to GDP ratio sitting at 124%! It's a big beautiful mess Captain Chaos is going to get us in and sure Dems deserve the historical blame too.........but they ain't in charge right now so whataboutism is a pointless diversion.

 

 

 

 

Looks like Chamath mixed up the 3 3 3 plan. 
 

one of them was 3 mbd of additional oil production and not 3% inflation 

[changegonnacome]

5 hours ago, Xerxes said:

one of them was 3 mbd of additional oil production and not 3% inflation 

Well Chamath & Freiburg did meet Bessent….maybe he slipped them the true 3-3-3 plan

 

Of course if you’re running 7% fiscal deficits…and US real growth rate potential is only ~2%….there is a way to stop debt to gdp ratio rising….and that is to run the economy hot and get 5% inflation + 2% real growth….there you go your growing the economy 7% nominally  and borrowing 7%….debt to gdp ratio has now stabilized.

 

Given DC’s desire for easy ways out - inflation sure looks like a good option when you think about all the alternatives 

 

 

[Spekulatius]

The problem with using inflation as a tool to deflate the debt is two fold:

 

1) The population has been sensitized due to the exposure from 2021-2023 and subsequent exposure will very likely yield worse results politically , just like poisoned oak exposures.

2) Our debt stack isn’t very long duration so the upcoming maturities will suffer from higher and higher interest rates if the bond folks get the idea. the recent rise in long bond yield suggests that this happening. Going very short term with financing the deficit is against the Mar a Largo idea. Not that this means it won’t happen.

 

Another thing - people who criticize Yellen for the short maturity of the treasury debt financing stack need to realize that this was the idea behind QE. QE means that the Fed was constantly  buying treasuries and MBS to keep LT interest rates lower. If Yellen had issued long duration treasuries to finance the debt, it would have negated QE.  Not that QE really worked but the idea was at least consistent with what they tried to do together with Fed.

 

Those who still got 2.x % mortgages from 2021 can thank her for the windfall.

Edited May 18, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Hektor]

20 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

The problem with using inflation as a tool to deflate the debt is two fold:

 

1) The population has been sensitized due to the exposure from 2021-2023 and subsequent exposure will very likely yield worse results politically , just like poisoned oak exposures.

2) Our debt stock isn’t very long duration so the upcoming maturities will suffer from higher and higher interest rates if the bond folks get the idea. the recent rise in long bond yield suggests that this happening. Going very short term with financing the deficit is against the Mar a Largo idea. Not that this means it won’t happen.

If I may add a #3, this might hurt friends too. Japan and UK seem to be the top holders of US treasuries.

[Hektor]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/us/politics/biden-prostate-cancer.html

 

Biden Is Diagnosed With an Aggressive Form of Prostate Cancer

The cancer has metastasized to the bone, according to a statement from former President Biden’s personal office.

[Parsad]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-asks-us-maintain-stability-074518540.html

 

Cheers!

[Blake Hampton]

Average U.S. Congressman: