Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I’m talking about the number of people in the world that dislike Trump. No one cares about the cult’s voter conspiracy theories 😂
Tariffs...what to make of them.
- Thread starter Dave Taylor
- Start date
I’m talking about the number of people in the world that dislike Trump. No one cares about the cult’s voter conspiracy theories 😂
SLug
Well-Known Member
it doesn’t make sense to compare 77 mil out of the 150ish mil (Total) that voted to the other 8ish billion that didn’t vote. You have no idea how the remaining 8ish billion would have voted. 😂
I think you just like the word “cult” and put in in as many replies as possible
SmooveP
Well-Known Member
Are you suggesting we return to the gold standard? Ain't gonna happen. There's not enough gold in the world to back the size of our wealth. Gold has become a volatile commodity with price swings all over the place. The dollar's value is based on the good faith that we repay our debts and manage our country's finances in a responsible way. The current chaos severely undermines that good faith. Global markets, the stock market and businesses all function better under a climate of stability.
The national debt is a real issue. Please show me where Trump or the rest of the Republicans are doing anything to address the debt. The current version of their budget raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. They want to cut taxes and they have a whole agenda of things they want to do that will add to the budget. The spending cuts they're likely to achieve will not pay for all the stuff they want to do. They want to increase defense spending. Our defense budget is already greater than the next 8 countries combined.
I'm not an economist. Neither are you and neither is Trump. He's a real estate guy. Frankly, real estate is not a particularly sophisticated business and Trump is not exactly an innovator in that space. He's used various questionable tactics over the years to get where he is. It's one thing to do those things when you're managing a business and the risk is relatively contained. He's playing in an arena now that affects millions of people who didn't sign up for that level of risk. He's clearly out of his depth. You say the chaos is a feature, not a bug. Do you know that to be true? It seems to be the MAGA equivalent of "The Lord works in mysterious ways."
Yeah. I think this thread has gone in a very bad direction. I'm not a fan of Trump but I'm not going to call his followers some of the vile things I've seen here.
Your other post is very fair. I have some questions about human rights, the Constitution, and the Iran nuclear issue I’d ask about but I’m also on my phone and this is about as many words as I got. Maybe later.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
It’s a great word. And the only PC word I can use to describe his fan base.
SLug
Well-Known Member
Curious, if anyone who voted for trump is a follower/in a cult, does that mean anyone belongs in a cult of whoever you vote for? What’s your cult?
Hey, the more is say it, the more I like it, too
Human rights are for white men, the constitution was made to be ignored and the the Iran nuclear issue is the least of our worries right now.
SLug
Well-Known Member
This is a silly statement that’s far from the truth
How do you feel about the current administration cutting funding to universities that allow students to exercise their First Amendment rights?
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I would actually say yes, either side is basically a cult. I’m Vegan so I belong my own group of psychopaths.
SLug
Well-Known Member
Without regards to the current situation with the students, I’ve always been against private universities receiving federal funds. It boggles my mind why our taxes (which I do pay) go to colleges and universities worth hundreds of millions to billions when it’s hard for the working man to save and plan for their kids education (and then we pay even more with tuition), and retirement. the universities have huge endowments they could use for real good, but choose not to). They need to pick one…be a government university, or only use private funding. They almost surely use those government funds for research that I am ethically not ok with, as well as fraud, etc.
Every US citizen should not be hassled, penalized, jailed, fined, or whatever, for their speech. If they commit a crime while exercising the free speech, such as assault, destruction of property, intimidation, etc., they should be charged for that crime, but without regard to the speech. But if someone is punching and kicking me while screaming, “FREE MARS,” yes, they need the police to take them away for the beat down.
I’m not sure about the laws/statutes for non citizens. I’m not researching tonight 🥱
I’m not even going to go there. I’m going to refer to legal US citizens at this point.
Your response is reasonable but it misses my real point, which is the government using funding to coerce the schools to follow the party line. They’re now threatening Harvard with revoking their tax-exempt status.
My question is more to the point of, are you/we ok with this sort of abuse of power? As I write this I’m sure you’ll find examples of the Democrats doing the same but I’ll leave it here.
thegock
Well-Known Member
Out of habit, more than anything else, I monitor the fiancial markets regularly. My range of indices that interest me is wide and diverse.
For those of you keeping score at home, one metric of the domestic equity markets is the VTSAX. It is one of the broadest equity indexes that you can pay attention to regulary. It was up about 65% during tRUMP 2017-2021. During Biden, it rose about 54%.
Now, I will do something never seen on any forum---admitting that I made a bad decision!
I took some chips off that table in December 2016 at age 62 anticipating my first retirement. That client, one of my better ones, called me back and I did another SEC filing for them. After a year off, I did a succession of contract for three clients over a couple of years, and each year bought equities with my SEP contributions. (I am not always stupid.)
Four months before the pandemic a client asked me to do a three month project. Solid client with two rate increases day one. Usually takes weeks. That contract was extended for a total of 32 months, cuz we are slow, I guess. More importantly for us and them, it was a success. I continued to buy equities.
So now I have about 10 clams (as @SNOW FAKE used to say before he was strangled like an unwanted kitten) worth.
Since the very stable genius was reelected, VTSAX is down 13.8%. Therefore, I have only 8.62 clams. in VTSAX. The USD is off between 5-10% depending on what index you follow. Quite a bit of what America buys is imported (e.g. every bike and bike related item.) That doesn't include the prospective cost of tariffs.
If I were under 50 years old with a target retirement date of age 64, I would continue to buy equities. My viewpoint is that I don't want to die with too much supply, but am not putting more chips on the table. I want my family to appreciate what is left for them when I am gone and this is what worries me about the Felon in Chief.
For extra credit, identify the cult member below:
For those of you keeping score at home, one metric of the domestic equity markets is the VTSAX. It is one of the broadest equity indexes that you can pay attention to regulary. It was up about 65% during tRUMP 2017-2021. During Biden, it rose about 54%.
Now, I will do something never seen on any forum---admitting that I made a bad decision!
I took some chips off that table in December 2016 at age 62 anticipating my first retirement. That client, one of my better ones, called me back and I did another SEC filing for them. After a year off, I did a succession of contract for three clients over a couple of years, and each year bought equities with my SEP contributions. (I am not always stupid.)
Four months before the pandemic a client asked me to do a three month project. Solid client with two rate increases day one. Usually takes weeks. That contract was extended for a total of 32 months, cuz we are slow, I guess. More importantly for us and them, it was a success. I continued to buy equities.
So now I have about 10 clams (as @SNOW FAKE used to say before he was strangled like an unwanted kitten) worth.
Since the very stable genius was reelected, VTSAX is down 13.8%. Therefore, I have only 8.62 clams. in VTSAX. The USD is off between 5-10% depending on what index you follow. Quite a bit of what America buys is imported (e.g. every bike and bike related item.) That doesn't include the prospective cost of tariffs.
If I were under 50 years old with a target retirement date of age 64, I would continue to buy equities. My viewpoint is that I don't want to die with too much supply, but am not putting more chips on the table. I want my family to appreciate what is left for them when I am gone and this is what worries me about the Felon in Chief.
For extra credit, identify the cult member below:
thegock
Well-Known Member
This one struck me this morning. How do we feel about the White House basically doing everything they can to put a gag order on news outlets that do not promote the party line?
The White House is starting a new media policy that restricts access to the president
The White House has put forward a new media policy that sharply curtails access to Donald Trump by the news agencies that serve media outlets around the world
abcnews.go.com
As someone who likes to read/listen to all sides, is this not problematic?
This one struck me this morning. How do we feel about the White House basically doing everything they can to put a gag order on news outlets that do not promote the party line?
The White House is starting a new media policy that restricts access to the president
The White House has put forward a new media policy that sharply curtails access to Donald Trump by the news agencies that serve media outlets around the world
As someone who likes to read/listen to all sides, is this not problematic?
