scourge165

Yeah, it...really is. See...the Olympics are over and you're derailing yet ANOTHER thread belaboring the same points. Wait, every 4 years you say? The Olympics? Oh...well now I guess the horse is alive again...

I can't imagine we can actually answer this. When they're all at the same RTC, you have the best of the best competing vs each other. This certainly seems to have benefited the likes of Dake, Taylor among others in their goal of just getting to that level, making the teams and then winning world or Olympic Titles. The other point, yo can focus on one athlete a bit more...I don't know how much that helps...which isn't me arguing it doesn't, it's just hard to quantify. If Brooks was at another RTC, does he take that shot late in the match? It just feels like a guess. I'd lean toward the argument that the more elite, world medalist-type athletes you have in the room...the better you're going to be, but I don't know. It didn't seem to hurt Brooks ability to game plan for DT and beat him(or did it hurt DT's ability to game plan for Brooks? Though...I wouldn't really think arguably the best Wrestler in the world...at the time would need another coach to help him game plan).

Yeah...also, they kinda were out to get us. See, Kolat, Cary.

Absolutely this. I hate how guys have to make a decision to cut 20 pounds or gain 20 pounds if they're a tweener. Also...I can't help but go back to the Australian Breakdancer. There's some added commentary here...but I feel like this is the video you need to provide to the IOC when arguing, 'really? We can't get 4 more weights? REALLY?'

Oh...cool. Another anecdote. Look...if you think the word specifically used for the caricature of a witch's laugh is not sexist...then sure. It's mental gymnastics. Remember all the times Trump, Obama, Biden had to hear about their "cackling," or their "shrill" voice? I mean, of course you do, your friend group has a vastly different lexicon than the rest of the United States and the Western World! C'mon, it's clearly reserved for women, and....to argue otherwise is just silly. As for the rest of your 50/50 diverse "friend group," I don't think I can adequately put into words how little this interests me. I'm also not arguing in anecdotes as I have an extremely diverse group of friends and I could sit here and tell you 'all the republicans I know have told me cackling is a female characteristic," and it'd hold as much meaning. None. An anecdote about a personal friend group in a biased conversation...again, could not be more pointless when discussing American Vernacular and where words come from.

The Cost of College has gotten absolutely insane. There's absolutely no doubt if you just canceled all student loan debt in the US right now, the Economy would benefit from it...tremendously. And then you'd be back in the same place in 4-5 years. I'd like to see a hybrid system put in place(this would never happen and it's poorly thought out, but I think it'd be a good idea). Every student takes a year off of school between HS and College unless they have a VERY specific field they want to get into. STEM would be an obvious one. They want to be an Engineer, cool. Otherwise, the people just going because that's the next box on their parents to check off, they could spend a year in a modern day CCC type program. You spend 3 months in California building affordable houses. You spend 3 months digging wells somewhere else. You spend 3 months just digging ditches. I'm sure I'll hear shit about this as it's not a good idea and we're on the Political thing right now, but if you do that, if you spend a year learning different real-world skills, being of SOME use to the US Gov't(you could spend 3 months working on road construction, I'm sure there's plenty of infrastructure programs to work on with the state of our country and the outdated grid, bridges among other things)... Then you're eligible for some type of grant if you choose to go to College. And I'd imagine a LOT more students would have a much better idea, not waste a year of College and get to work on an actual, degree that's going to either allow you to repay those loans as opposed to a Philosophy degree where you go and manage a Dollar General after school. I'd also be personally willing to help pay for more people to get sociology degrees. One that teaches people HOW to think for themselves. A little financial literacy would come a long way. I just talked to a VERY intelligent College-educated man, a former Wrestler, Coach, someone who's done well financially...and he didn't know what compound interest was. *That's one area I think this generation is better educated than others. There's a lot of bullshit about Crypto(some of it's not bullshit as states are not investing in it s part of pension funds) and those stupid meme stocks, but I think people understand better how to accumulate wealth via the market and long term investing. But we need to gut Higher Education in this Country and try and start over(at least state schools). It costs several times more(relative to the cost of living IIRC) for kids to go to school now than it did in the 70s, 80s, and even 90s. Maybe offer to pay for more 2 year degrees so more people get into plumbing, welding, fields that are sorely lacking skilled labor. That could be another avenue to helping solve SOME issues.

Sure. And I will stand by my synopsis of how Trump inheriting an exponentially better economy than Biden did and Trump ignoring Covid and dismantling the ENTIRE pandemic response apparatus around the WORLD is why it's lazy and ignorant to just give him a pass for the 14 TRILLION dollars Covid Cost the US Gov't. Same with the pretending to shut down all flights in and out of China without ACTUALLY doing so. Here's a number that you CANNOT deny. INCOME under Joe Biden has outpaced inflation...and now wages are catching up.

Please, tell me you don't know how trade wars without telling me you don't know how trade wars work?

I'm not disagreeing. I'm actually indifferent and not well-informed on the issue. I'm simply TAKING issue with the fact that when Harris does it, it's somehow...bad because she's "looking at the polling," in Nevada...but Trump did it because a waitress in Wisconsin said they're taxing too much of her tips. The program itself, how it impacts restaurants...I just spent about 3 minutes browsing a WSJ article on why SOME economists are against it. My issue was more the double standard. Harris suggests it=Bad, Trump=....crickets. Hell, whoever brought it up on here clearly didn't even know Trump proposed it. Edit-I didn't even realize, it was YOU and Scout. Trump actually came up with this one first for better or worse. He heard the women in Wisconsin talk about it, and realized how popular it was. Why are you not calling THAT out as "idiotic populism?" Or are you? Also...why is Scout nodding like a bobble head doll? https://www.ibtimes.com/how-1-waitress-got-both-trump-harris-change-tax-policy-3739606

Oh bullshit. Trump said it like a Month ago. A "lot of leftists?" I remember seeing some peripheral articles about how it would raise costs or...some other minor shit, but PLEASE don't tell me how "the left" was all up in arms about THAT Trump comment. This was roughly the same time he was telling people this would be the last election they'd ever need to vote in... BUT, it's funny, it was JUST Harris who was pandering because she "saw the polls," and knew how many people in Vegas rely on tips and that's what delegitimized it. So I pointed out Trump said the same thing and it's "well yeah but "the left." No, there are some economists who have talked about how it could lead to higher prices and...other larger economic issues, but this was not panned by "the left." I really need to understand the double standard here though. Again, Harris says it and it's pandering. Trump says it after a waitress gets up and speaks and it's....what? Somehow NOT pandering?

There. I fixed it for you. I'd keep doing this...but it's tiring and takes a lot to continually prove some of you wrong. Plus there's the old saying about don't argue with a fool...it's that much worse when it's 3-4 on one... Trump said AT THE TIME, he did a great job. Full stop. You want additional "context," to that, but when Walz puts in for his retirement 2 months before he even finds out his unit MIGHT be going to Iraq in 2004 and they don't go until 2006, the guy who spent 24 years in the National Guard and Teaching...he did something wrong despite retiring how everyone else does MINUS the political part where the right Swift Boats him like they did with Kerry. The polls are a shifting. The rest is all noise. Good luck. Hey, I hear if Trump wins, you won't ever have to vote again. I mean, what could possibly go wrong there, right! So...good luck!

Right...as opposed to the words of Trump himself! I'd just note that when the first Target started burning and the looting of that began, who was it that started that fire? Eh, not important. Detract from Trump saying what a good job, "an incredible job," Tim Walz did and calling him a "great man."

One LAST thing...and this is why it's...pretty useful to look a little deeper into the numbers. Do you think the Pandemic HELPED or hurt Wages with regard to the pandemic? That growth was disproportionately POSITIVELY impacted because so many low-wage earners were laid off in 2019. We saw the wages of high earners explode as a direct result of Covid. So...again, the bad things that happened under Covid-No blame for Trump The GOOD things...he gets credit for those as well! I won't even get into the Tariff War started under Trump...which he STILL believes is a "tax" on China rather than the American people. I mean...for a business man, you'd think he'd understand at least the business side of US History and how tariffs were what finally pushed the US into the great depression.

It's beyond exhausting all the "but Covid," shit. Yeah, and then who took over the Covid problems? BUT, since we just want to ignore and dismiss what Covid did to the Economy under Biden, lets talk about what Trump DIDN'T do with regard to Covid. He DIDN'T ban travel...though he'd have you believe he did. In the first two months after he SAID he banned travel, 40,000 people traveled too and from China. What he did was ban the issuing of new Passports(because there was a massive demand for people wanting to go to check out China at that point, right?)-that's it. How about just being prepared for Covid? Did he have to assemble an entire team with hundreds of infectious disease specialists and then place them around the world and then have a plan in place for the next pandemic so the US, the GLOBAL LEADERS could help prevent it? Nope. That was already in place. Over 40 infectious disease specialists were ALREADY-IN-WUHAN when Trump took over. He called them back, he dismantled the Pandemic response team, the ONE item that Obama said he expressed the importance of. And he just...like most things, if Obama did it, no matter how good or bad it was, he just was rid of it. Then in a REAL measure of leadership, what did he do when asked about it? The Buck stops with me, right? That was Truman IIRC...because you're the President and the leader of the free world. Trump? Eh...not so much. With regard to wages, again, if you're going to cite inflation AND say there was negative wage growth, it's like saying someone got punched in the face AND hit in the face. It's NOT negative wage growth. It's not great wage growth(though it's increasing and now outpacing inflation)...but the negative wage growth is RELATIVE to inflation. And WHAT is that a result of? I know people love to just say "Biden." What causes inflation? Supply line issues, tariffs, massive spending...so remind me, what was happening when Biden took office? He was RIGHT in the middle of the Covid pandemic. There's always an * associated with Trump and HIS economy...like it's just soo unfair to him personally that Covid came along, but what type of economy did he inherit? A booming economy left behind by Obama. And what did Trump leave Biden? An absolute shit show. So yes, the Pandemic REALLY happened. It was REALLY still happening when Biden was President and it should have NEVER been NEARLY as bad as it was with a competent Government in place. Trump just ignored it for 5+ months. Then when he couldn't, he said it'll just "magically be gone." You cannot minimize Trump's economy, excuse it because of the Pandemic and then just ignore how he did NOTHING to mitigate the Pandemic. Actually, WORSE than nothing, he rolled back the safeguards we had in place. Then he has the balls to say China lied to him, they weren't honest...and I don't know, the CCP is the CCP, there's no confusion over the type of people who run China, but wouldn't that be a GOOD reason to have your OWN people in place? But finally, lets just go with one last thing you said; THEN WHY ARE YOU ASKING WHY THERE IS INFLATION! LMFAO....what do people NOT get!!! -14 Trillion dollars -Keeping the interest rates EXTREMELY low for FAR too long(which...it should be very-very troubling for anyone who's following what Trump is talking about that he wants the Fed to report to him rather than be independent...that is among the dumbest ideas I've ever heard and could have disastrous consequences...they absolutely MUST remain independent. I'm quite sure Biden would have had Powell cut by 75 basis points if he was in charge). -Gov't spending And this one is real neat. There's this myth that it's the Democrats who spend too much...despite repeatedly coming in and taking over terrible economic conditions(particularly the last two, Obama and Biden). Here's the REALITY of the situation; Reagan-Took the deficit from 70B to 175B. Pennies, but still amazing. He did start to tax social security after cutting taxes and he was about as erratic as Tiger Blood Charlie Sheen when it came to tax cuts and tax hikes, but all the same. Bush took it up to 300B-In his defense, he tried to raise taxes to pay down the debt and lost the election...though not because of Ross Perot as many(including myself) were led to believe. Clinton...what did he do? He got the deficit back to ZERO. We had a SURPLUS under Clinton. Bush Jr? 0 to 1.2 Trillion. Obama, despite coming in under the housing crisis, much like Biden with the Pandemic, he cut it back from 1.2 Trillion to 600B. In fact, I remember all the hand-wringing because he froze spending in order to do so. Trump...almost immediately ran the deficit back up to 1 Trillion in 2019. So we won't count 2020 because...it's apparently not fair. It's an amusing perspective to me, to NOT count the bad things that happen under a President because...he can't help them, but then turn around and hand that same blame to the next President coming in, but I understand, there's a narrative and we have to stick with it. So BOTH Parties spend too much. One party...going back ~45 years, they're significantly more responsible for the deficit. Either way, 14 TRILLION it cost the US Economy(you can never actually know the full extent as it's not possible to quantify all of the problems)...and then people ask why we had inflation AFTER that! It's amazing. All I know is SOMEHOW none of it was ever at all Trump's fault. He had ZERO responsibility to do anything, right?

Who is "they?" Both candidates are for it. And...I don't really give a shit about tips, but that's probably because it doesn't affect me. BUT...maybe the difference is that Janitors aren't paid 2.50 or 3 bucks an hour. They're not paid below minimum wage with the assumption being they'll make up the difference. Again, BOTH candidates are for this, I don't really see why people would be against it. It's just limiting the size of the IRS. Does ANYONE believe Waitresses or Bartenders are keeping track of the money they make in tips and paying tax on it now? Less Government! I thought this was a good thing! LOL...

That's ironic? Cackling...a "witches" laugh. There a lot of male witches? They use the term with men a lot? Or was the last time this was actually used in a campaign...SHOCKINGLY when Hillary ran. Small minds. Clever bit though. If I can observe something is lazy sexism then I must need a "safe space," right bud! Oooh...you're a clever one...

Ok...so John Kelly is lying? The man literally came out and confirmed that among other things. We heard the man say John McCain isn't a hero with the 'I like people who weren't captured.' https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-called-military-veterans-suckers-154132839.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall As for the "type," of person you're talking about...again, just a bunch of noise. Spent 24 years serving, retired a couple months before he even knew he was going to Iraq, they weren't deployed to Iraq for another...what year? He DID attain the rank, that's BS, he didn't continue with the qualifications AFTER getting promoted and he retired at a lower one. But it's amazing he's the type of person to think that DESPITE a decorated General having SAID Trump said that(as well as his former Chief of staff). Not to mention...Walz ACTUALLY served. Trump said he had bone spurs and asked "what's in it for them," to those who did. But suuuuure...Walz is the "type," to say what Trump actually did. Again, just like Kerry and the Swift Boat nonsense.

He quite literally did though. "Tim Walz is on the phone and....uh....we spoke. I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days, and the whole world was laughing, I spoke to other Governors on the phone and I think he's an excellent guy, Tim is on the phone now, I was very happy with the last couple of days Tim, you knocked them out the last couple of days like bowling pins...." Walz-Speaks, talks about mobilizing the entire National Guard; "But Tim, it showed the INCREDIBLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR GREAT STATE(speaking over each other)... He says it, trying to paint the interaction differently is just not honest. You can listen to what he said.

The full story? He said Walz did a great job...better than other Governors and he said it at the time. That's the context.

You're not going to address how you just posted something that was objectively false... A proven lie and you want me to explain to you how inflation works and why things are going to be "different," when in fact...inflation is coming down. I'm not going to address 2nd and 3rd topics until you address the topic you lie about. It just results in a circular argument. For instance, not going to point out that SHE hasn't had 3.5 years or how WAGES are now outpacing inflation...I'll leave that until you respond to the "wages have fallen 4%" lie.

Trump praised the hell out of him for what he did as the Gov of Minnesota! All the noise, the guy retired after 24 years and the right, running a guy who calls vets "suckers and losers," and asked, 'what's in it for them,' is trying the same shit Bush did with Kerry. That's it. That's all it comes down to.

Yes, I'M the one who "made it up," there sport. It's definitely not part of a caricature of a witch that dates back literally hundreds of years in relation to women... Jeesus...you really can't fake this type of stupid. My bad. I assumed it was just people playing dumb. I gave some of y'all too much credit.

Guess I'll have to agree to disagree(kinda...). I think he's pretty damn good here. Getting up in the middle of a National Campaign and being thrown into the spotlight...I don't think he's as comfortable with the rally speeches and the crowds. But this is a guy I'd want representing me. And the fact that after all that time service, he doesn't own stock and his net worth is...actually less than the average American(certainly 60-year-old American)...this helped make me a fan.

No, you're right. You often hear people talking about Men "cackling." And who's the "language police?" I don't know how to answer such a stupid question. Anyone with the power of observation.

When it comes to finances...I'd REALLY recommend people take JUST a few minutes to educate themselves. The idea that wages have gone DOWN 4% under Biden(or I guess the claim was under Harris) is just...comically ignorant and objectively not true. I mean...even if you WANT to stay ignorant with regards to the Political Landscape, it's dangerous to be making economic decisions when you don't even understand what the issue is. That "Jobs report," that tanked the economy? The actual numbers came out and again, they were better than expected. Just as was the case with Obama, he came in and was handed an economic DISASTER from the previous administration. What they've done in 3.5 years? If you're really arguing the economic policies of the Biden administration aren't working, you simply don't understand them. And that's fine...but you kinda expose your ignorance when you cut and paste just ridiculous misinformation from a Twitter post. It'd be like a post saying the Trump was president for the 8 worst days in the HISTORY of the Stock Market. If you said that, you'd...be a fool. If you said he was POTUS for the 8 largest net losses in a day in the Stock Markets history, well, that'd be 100% correct. But...it's kinda important to understand the distinction. (I DO understand I'm asking too much from some people like Scout here! LOL...but seriously, your retirement accounts are obviously pretty damn important. So now would be a good time to consider rotating out of the Large Caps and talk to your advisor about IWM or about getting more exposure to the Russell, especially if the fed cuts by 75 basis points from now until March...which is the projection at the moment).