trumpty plumpty

[twocoach]

Just a reminder for those that suffer from temporary Trump amnesia, when gas prices were super low during the pandemic, Trump conspired with Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil production by up to 20% because big oil was getting crushed by the drop in demand for gas. And so began the cycle of inflation.

[KUTradition]

i’m guessing the psychos and randis will either stay silent or make up some excuse (aka, a lie), about how that’s not really true

[jfish26]

There is scant evidence that - hazy memories of failed campaign promises aside - Rs are actually better stewards of the economy.

The principles sound great. Smaller government, spend less, loosen red tape.

But on the ground, probably as a result of the same kind of cronyism and patronage that would inevitably spare Trump-preferred people, places and companies of the Trump-Musk austerity measures, they simply don’t work.

There is an obvious parallel here to a controversial topic in other threads on the Pols bored.

[KUTradition]

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... b-creation

[japhy]

Gas prices are the least of anyone's worries and a dumbed down measure of economic reality. Let's start with these thought nuggets below.

But first here's a thought experiment for you.

Live within your means....sell everything you own. Your home, your car, major appliances and electronics, furniture. Cash out. An economic reset. Wow, that would be a pile of cash!

Now, buy those things back only with the cash you have on hand. No loans, no responsible borrowing which we have all done for decades. Lending which has fueled your quality of life to the highest in the world, be done with that. Spend just a few minutes and think about what you could buy back on a "cash only" austerity system.

How are we doing? Can you buy a home to live in, you had some equity in your home so that helps. If you can't don't worry corporations have bought your home and they will rent it back to you. Have you got the money to buy a car or truck? You can shop on facebook marketplace and get your apppliances at a discount. This is gonna be easy. It will hurt a little at the start but in the long run, decades most likely, you will be much better off. Access to credit is just fool's gold.

Now read the thought nuggets below and give me your thoughts.

On Friday, October 25, at a town hall held on his social media platform X, Elon Musk told the audience that if Trump wins, he expects to work in a Cabinet-level position to cut the federal government.

He told people to expect “temporary hardship” but that cuts would “ensure long-term prosperity.” At the Trump rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Musk said he plans to cut $2 trillion from the government. Economists point out that current discretionary spending in the budget is $1.7 trillion, meaning his promise would eliminate virtually all discretionary spending, which includes transportation, education, housing, and environmental programs.

Economists agree that Trump’s plans to place a high tariff wall around the U.S., replacing income taxes on high earners with tariffs paid for by middle-class Americans, and to deport as many as 20 million immigrants would crash the booming economy. Now Trump’s financial backer Musk is factoring in the loss of entire sectors of the government to the economy under Trump.

Trump has promised to appoint Musk to be the government’s “chief efficiency officer.” “Everyone’s going to have to take a haircut.… We can’t be a wastrel.… We need to live honestly,” Musk said on Friday. Rob Wile and Lora Kolodny of CNBC point out that Musk’s SpaceX aerospace venture has received $19 billion from the U.S. government since 2008.

An X user wrote: “I]f Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit—there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy…. Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy. History could be made in the coming two years.”

Musk commented: “Sounds about right[.]”

This exchange echoes the prescription of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, whose theories had done much to create the Great Crash of 1929, for restoring a healthy economy. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” he told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.”

Mellon, at least, was reacting to an economic crisis thrust upon an administration. Musk is seeking to create one.

Today the Commerce Department reported that from July through September, the nation’s economy grew at a solid 2.8%. Consumer spending is up, as is investment in business. The country added 254,000 jobs in September, and inflation has fallen back almost to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

It is extraordinarily rare for a country to be able to reduce inflation without creating a recession, but the Biden administration has managed to do so, producing what economists call a “soft landing,” rather like catching an egg on a plate. As Bryan Mena of CNN wrote today: “The US economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement.”

Both President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris have called for reducing the deficit not by slashing the government, as Musk proposes, but by restoring taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

As part of the Republicans’ plan to take the country back to the era before the 1930s ushered in a government that regulated business and provided a basic social safety net, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expects to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

At a closed-door campaign event on Monday in Pennsylvania for a Republican House candidate, Johnson told supporters that Republicans will propose “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” if they take control of both the House and the Senate in November. “Health-care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda,” Johnson said. Their plan is to take a “blowtorch to the regulatory state,” which he says is “crushing the free market.” Trump’s going to go big,” he said.” When an attendee asked “No Obamacare?” he laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare…. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”
Ending a campaign with a promise to crash a booming economy and end the Affordable Care Act, which ended insurance companies’ ability to reject people with preexisting conditions, is an unusual strategy.

[jfish26]

I was going to post that.

This should be the leading story across all political coverage: they are telling you, out loud, that they will do precisely what they have falsely accused the "globalists" of wanting to do.

This is an admission that deporting a meaningful percentage of the workforce and building tariff walls will INEVITABLY crash the economy. There is zero - zero zero zero - doubt that Trump-favored people, places and companies will be spared and even favored in this redistribution of wealth.

I do not expect both of our resident MAGAs to know exactly what country this sounds like, but, hint, Trump desperately wants to give a giant chunk of another country to it, as a reward for the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

[japhy]

And yes, I could buy back everything in cash tomorrow.

At a deeply discounted price. Cuz there will be a lot less bidders.

And when I said I think I could double my net worth in 4 years of trumpty/Eloon economics; this is wut I was anticipating.

Think about it, you are holding the gun to your own head, and it's loaded. You have been warned.

In a year the vultures could be feasting on the fetid rotting corpses of your personal economic "wealth".

Lie down on the table and get your house in order.

[KUTradition]

makes me glad we’re fairly liquid with zero debt…i’ll happily play the role of vulture should the time come

[japhy]

My debt/equity ratio sits at about .1, maybe less.

If there is to be an economic bloodbath, somebody is going to get the spoils. Might as well be me.

[Sparko]

Nothing to stop confiscation of wealth though. Those piles of gold teeth and shoes.

[japhy]

Think of it the way you would any natural order system. Things die, and when they do it is up to the scavengers to do the dirty work of picking the bones clean and putting resources back into the system.

Sometimes the distribution of those resources gets a bit unbalanced but that is the way it goes.

Learn to live on less. Create your own self imposed austerity plan. In the long run it will be to our benefit.

But here's the thing. You should start this in your 20's. If you are in your 50's, it's already too late for you. Just get used to austerity and working until you die. I decided not to take the Walmart Greeter job at the store on Colfax Avenue in Denver for fun, it can be yours.

[jfish26]

And in Proud Boys colors, no less.

[Overlander]

And in Proud Boys colors, no less.

I wonder if his song request was "It's Raining Men"?

[jfish26]

No, the apostrophe was too complicated so he skipped over it in the set list.

[KUTradition]

Trump sues CBS News for $10 billion over Harris interview



such a fucking child

[Overlander]

Trump sues CBS News for $10 billion over Harris interview



such a fucking child

I think you meant Super Badass Tough Guy

[Sparko]

They edited her interview for time. Bastards.

[KUTradition]

nothing quite says presidential like…

[Overlander]

I assume the white ring around his lips indicate a good time was had with Elon?

[jfish26]

nothing quite says presidential like…

Computer, enhance.