T 2.0

kickingandscreaming said:
The long term trade deficit will tell the story, no? I never get too caught up in what politicians claim policies will do as results are often quite different from policy objectives.
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Yes, it will, but it will be a product of trade agreements, which take months and years to negotiate. The US cannot practically or logistically renegotiate every existing trade agreement concurrently - never mind do it in 90 days.

The question of whether the trade deficit is a good or bad thing is really up in the air. We've run a trade deficit for decades. We built the global trade system which includes us running these deficits. It has made the US into the largest economy in the world, and the richest country in the world, which the biggest companies and the USD as the reserve currency of the world.

I've not read anything that agrees that manufacturing (as a whole) will come back to the US. Some may, but this will take time. Some will definitely not, e.g. iPhones, unless they are 100% automated and even then it's super complicated. Take the iPhone example, which apparently Trump is pissed about (its moving to India and not the US apparently). Since Apple moved manufacturing to China, it has trained approx. 25 million Chinese workers to make its products. That provides a huge workforce earning about $500 per month to produce the millions of units required monthly. Each iPhone has 1000 parts. Those parts are sourced from 60 (or so) countries. If iPhones were to be made in the US the retail price would apparently be $3500 versus $1000 today. Is a US admin really going to look to blow up one of the most successful companies of all time, and one of the biggest US companies of all time over this?

International trade is super complicated. That's why trade agreements take years to negotiate.
 
Speaking of males 'identifying' as females, it's just a few, right? Especially cute seeing Atta Boy Hernandez do the bent knee, girlie pose. At least he wore enough makeup to not have to shave that morning. LMFAO!

abc7.com

Transgender athlete wins 2 girls events at California track and field finals

The high school junior shared first place with her closest competitors because of a new policy put into place earlier this week in response to her success.
abc7.com abc7.com

www.spokesman.com

Defending state track champion, transgender athlete Verónica Garcia wins second state title

TACOMA – Though the jeering follows Verónica Garcia when she races in track events, it hasn’t slowed her down.
www.spokesman.com www.spokesman.com
 
Slobodan said:
What do you agree with when it comes to Bernie?
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A single payer system, with private insurance if you want to pay extra for that. I think the health industry sucks way too much money out of our economy for less than mediocre results; that's sucking from both individuals and companies. We shouldn't be paying more than double what anyone else in the world pays to end up ranked as #20 or something in health outcomes.
 
whatithink said:
You are supporting my point, i.e. if your candidate can't go on a podcast etc., then they shouldn't be your candidate.

I vote both D & R, dependent on the candidate and have for years. My priorities are more fiscal in nature and I try to ignore the culture BS that both sides spend way too much time on, when they should be doing their job of running the country (financially) and not allowing it to be run into the ground by their respectively stupid "policies".

The podcasts comment was specifically related to young males, who most definitely do not look at MSM or listen to elite institutions. I have teenagers - they have never looked at Fox or CNN or any other MSM, unless its a clip on Insta or TikTok. They also don't use X, but will watch stuff on youtube. That doesn't mean they are not informed, though. One of mine voted for the first time in Nov and told me (after) that they had gone through the policies (online) of both presidential candidates in detail to decide who they wanted to vote for. They didn't watch the debate, but did listen to the Rogan podcast.

The Dems, imo, are approaching that demographic all wrong in trying to create platforms to engage with them, rather than using what has already been built organically.
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I hear you about the “culture BS”. Unfortunately, I believe the focus on all the DEI objectives in our companies has moved us away from what their primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives should be - put forward the best product. As a nation, we have all suffered from these misplaced priorities.
 
kickingandscreaming said:
I hear you about the “culture BS”. Unfortunately, I believe the focus on all the DEI objectives in our companies has moved us away from what their primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives should be - put forward the best product. As a nation, we have all suffered from these misplaced priorities.
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I've worked for companies that were totally diverse, way before anyone ever came up with the term DEI. I've also worked for companies that had DEI committees etc., and yet were not particularly diverse, but definitely played lip service to it. To me, DEI became just a marketing checkbox. In every instance it didn't negatively impact on the objectives, or it would have been kicked to the curb.
 
whatithink said:
On the young male front, Harris' campaign really fucked up. She should have gone to TX and done the podcast with Rogan. Trump's podcast had like 50M views, 20M in the first 24 hours. Harris should have put her big boy pants on and gone there and not try to dictate he comes to her or whatever. If she or her campaign were in any way worried about doing a podcast with Joe Rogan, then they shouldn't have been running for President - like seriously!

On the podcast front, the Dems are trying to raise funds to create a podcast echo chamber to counter the right's dominance there. That's not how it works obviously, but they don't seem to be able to deal with organic growth and no control. There are plenty of left or even central leaning podcasts that could be banded together into an ecosystem, without trying to exert any control, by just asking them to promote each other.
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Harris may be intelligent. Her resume would suggest she is. Her actually speaking suggests she's not. She believes her own hype and ends up sounding like a moron. A little less maniacal than AOC, but the same affliction. Her doing a podcast with Rogan would have been suicidal. She couldn't even get through a one on one with Lester Holt. If she really is that intelligent, we may never know it. Like Cankles Clinton, she's a 2 time loser. If dems wanted a female candidate that was viable, they shouldn't have chased Gabbard out. She checked all the boxes. All she needed was time. Personally, I'd be concerned about voting for someone in their early 40s.

The real problem is this: All of these politicians are full of shit. Some more than others, but the democrats went all in on 'crazy'. Illegal aliens are victims... tampons in the boys locker room... gender is fluid... etc. All a bunch of bullshit, but they rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. For that matter, Trump says crazy shit, too, but the difference is Trump's actions typically provide what most Americans want. He doesn't need to open his mouth at all. It would be better if he didn't, but cutting waste, prioritizing Americans and securing our borders resonated with voters. I don't think manufacturing will come back. Maybe to some degree, but slave labor is the only thing that can produce slave prices we love. Now, if DOGE can bring back some of the fucking wasteful spending that's been going on, and cut loose the fraud and deadbeats, maybe that money can be put to good use in our country.
 
whatithink said:
A single payer system, with private insurance if you want to pay extra for that. I think the health industry sucks way too much money out of our economy for less than mediocre results; that's sucking from both individuals and companies. We shouldn't be paying more than double what anyone else in the world pays to end up ranked as #20 or something in health outcomes.
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I don't argue that. But like someone wrote earlier... (Crush, I think)... there's no money in it.

How do you envision implementing it? I certainly don't trust the government to oversea it and I don't know enough about Bernie's idea to support or challenge it. I do believe Bernie does his best to resonate as the common man while owning 3 homes and flying around the country in a private jet, to stay in office. I suppose he's no different than the rest.
 
whatithink said:
I've worked for companies that were totally diverse, way before anyone ever came up with the term DEI. I've also worked for companies that had DEI committees etc., and yet were not particularly diverse, but definitely played lip service to it. To me, DEI became just a marketing checkbox. In every instance it didn't negatively impact on the objectives, or it would have been kicked to the curb.
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The trend is in the direction of "kicked to the curb". So, negative impacts seem to be felt by some. I'll also note that Harvard, a hotbed of DEI, now offers remedial mathematics. That's inconsistent with elite education and merit.
 
whatithink said:
I've worked for companies that were totally diverse, way before anyone ever came up with the term DEI. I've also worked for companies that had DEI committees etc., and yet were not particularly diverse, but definitely played lip service to it. To me, DEI became just a marketing checkbox. In every instance it didn't negatively impact on the objectives, or it would have been kicked to the curb.
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The conductor of our mandatory lower-level managers' sexual harassment training class was our division's HR head -- a 30-something, well-built brunette. Most of the training consisted of "get it out now" examples of sexual jokes and comments, directed mostly at her. She didn't even blush. After the class, the participants (all middle-aged white males) made jokes about the jokes we couldn't tell anymore.

"I have something to say about your appearance, but it would be against the rules."

"A rabbi, a priest, and a minister walked into a bar and said nothing."

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...
 
kickingandscreaming said:
I hear you about the “culture BS”. Unfortunately, I believe the focus on all the DEI objectives in our companies has moved us away from what their primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives should be - put forward the best product. As a nation, we have all suffered from these misplaced priorities.
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I'll also note, Mao's revolution is known as a "Cultural" revolution for a reason. So, we ignore this at our own risk.
 
whatithink said:
A single payer system, with private insurance if you want to pay extra for that. I think the health industry sucks way too much money out of our economy for less than mediocre results; that's sucking from both individuals and companies. We shouldn't be paying more than double what anyone else in the world pays to end up ranked as #20 or something in health outcomes.
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Black Rock (a big Wall Street investment house) is suing United Health Care because UHC is suddenly being more lenient on approving patient care items (prescriptions, tests, surgeries) after the UHC CEO was assassinated in broad daylight, thus cutting into UHC profits and the value of UHC stock held by Black Rock.
 
watfly said:
Ouch;). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you were a supporter of Bernie Sanders. You can't get much farther left than that. Sorry your boy got screwed by the DNC.

Just FYI, my comment about your tariff post was intended as a compliment, but in your defense you wouldn't expect that given our history. Tariffs are a substantive issue and a legitimate reason to question Trump. As opposed to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb's repeated middle school narrative of TACO, which has proven to be a losing strategy. To some degree I agree with you about tariffs, which is more of a Trump issue than a left or right issue. I believe its an issue that has historically flip flopped between the parties.

I've made this point with others before, but the side we choose is largely driven by our livelihood. My livelihood is small business, so I'm going to lean right. Well in California that makes me staunchly right, nationally I would say I lean right, as I'm left leaning on some social issues (within reason.) Small business is just getting crushed in California and the amount of anti-small business legislation is astonishing.

If I had to guess, your livelihood is involved in some form of social services. I could be totally wrong and I apologize if I mischaracterized you.
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I see the TACO thing certainly struck a nerve. I guess Wall Street can have an effect on people’s attitude.
 
espola said:
Black Rock (a big Wall Street investment house) is suing United Health Care because UHC is suddenly being more lenient on approving patient care items (prescriptions, tests, surgeries) after the UHC CEO was assassinated in broad daylight, thus cutting into UHC profits and the value of UHC stock held by Black Rock.
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I saw that, they own 10% of UHC -it beggars belief!
 
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