Vaccine

[whatithink]

More personality over policy nonsense.

Let me try it this way by combining the two. Trump had a very clear record. Given his extensive list of policies and accomplishments, specifically where on that list, in order of importance to you, would you rank his personality and mean tweets?

Personality is important though. You can't just dismiss it. When you have a someone
- that starts his campaign with the murderers and rapists comment.
- is clearly misogynistic
- who enabled/encouraged/empowered white supremacists ("good people on both sides")
- who lied daily through his campaign and presidency
- who's whole political strategy is division.

Its not the presidency of some local jack&jill club. This is meant to be the leader of the nation.

WRT policy, I agreed with many things that were done. I did fine under his presidency and the economy was doing very well. He inherited something healthy and helped it get healthier. That's a good thing. Obama inherited a shit show, and Biden likewise.

I have voted both R & D, but there is zero chance I would have voted for trump. Clinton was a shit candidate, but I held my nose and voted for her. Biden is not a lot better, but again better than trump. Neither of those were policy based choices on my part.

I can ignore much in a politician, because they are politicians, but trump is a despicable excuse for a human being, imo, and I could never do anything to enable or encourage (by voting for) that as an example of our country.

 

[MARsSPEED]

We are also seeing the highest inflation rate since 2008 in 2021. I'm sure we all remember what happened in late 2008.

Current US Inflation Rates: 2000-2024

The annual inflation rate for the United States was 2.5% for the 12 months ending August, compared to the previous rate increase of 2.9%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on September 11, 2024. The next inflation update is scheduled for release on October 10 at 8:30 a.m. ET...

www.usinflationcalculator.com

 

[Hüsker Dü]

We are also seeing the highest inflation rate since 2008 in 2021. I'm sure we all remember what happened in late 2008.

Current US Inflation Rates: 2000-2024

The annual inflation rate for the United States was 2.5% for the 12 months ending August, compared to the previous rate increase of 2.9%, according to U.S. Labor Department data published on September 11, 2024. The next inflation update is scheduled for release on October 10 at 8:30 a.m. ET...

www.usinflationcalculator.com

And the overwhelming majority are happier now, strange ain’t it? I guess not everyone is so desperate to attempt to spin reality into an image they prefer, they just accept it.

 

[whatithink]

Wrong. Gas prices were higher for 6 out Obama's 8 years as compared to Trump years. If you take inflation/cost of living into account, Obama actually had higher prices for all 8 years. Please research your facts. The one below are from Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thanks.

Gasoline Prices Adjusted for Inflation | US Inflation Calculator

Gasoline prices are often very volatile with sharp swings in what American pay at the pump. The average price of gasoline dropped nearly 17% in 2020.

www.usinflationcalculator.com

I meant preceding 2 rather than 3 for Obama, my bad. They were trending down and then trended up under trump.

 

[MARsSPEED]

And the overwhelming majority are happier now, strange ain’t it? I guess not everyone is so desperate to attempt to spin reality into an image they prefer, they just accept it.

You are a special kind of stupid. Last time I checked, nobody likes to pay more for gas and groceries, especially at an alarming rate of inflation. Feel free to try to argue that people actually do like to pay more. That will be entertaining. If we keep on this pace, inflation will be at a 30 year high going back to 1990. All this in just the first year of a Democratic President and House along with a split Senate.

I honestly hope people like you stay fore front in the media. Come next year this time, we will have a conservative house and senate.

 

[MARsSPEED]

I meant preceding 2 rather than 3 for Obama, my bad. They were trending down and then trended up under trump.

Highest average gas price in history started in 2011, two years into Obama's term. That price did not go under the previous record until 2015. Not sure which side you are on but anyone who would argue for cheaper gas prices under Obama is a losing argument. However, Obama did do better in terms of overall inflation.

 

[whatithink]

Highest average gas price in history started in 2011, two years into Obama's term. That price did not go under the previous record until 2015. Not sure which side you are on but anyone who would argue for cheaper gas prices under Obama is a losing argument. However, Obama did do better in terms of overall inflation.

I'm not arguing for cheaper gas prices under Obama. Oil prices surged from 2008 onwards for 5-6 years. There's a variety of reasons for that. Practically speaking there's a lot of externals that drive oil prices and little any president (R or D) can do about them. Trump did initiate a lot of deregulation in the oil industry and that certainly helped.

Inflation is surging. Inflation in general isn't a bad thing, but obviously if its too high, that's not a good thing. Its a worldwide phenomena and fixing the supply chain issues should be a priority for the Biden admin & Congress. Its frankly very disappointing that this does not seem to be the highest priority. This should be a daily priority for them. The Ds will regret not trying to sort it out sooner in 12 months IMO.

 

[Desert Hound]

And the overwhelming majority are happier now, strange ain’t it? I guess not everyone is so desperate to attempt to spin reality into an image they prefer, they just accept it.

Take the tin foil hat off.

I know you get spoon fed your propaganda I mean news from the usual sources...but even the usual sources report it. This from NBC from their Oct 31st poll. The country is not happier now.

"In the poll, 42 percent of adults say they approve of Biden’s overall job as president — a decline of 7 points since August, with much of the attrition coming from key parts of the Democratic base."

"What's more, the survey finds that 7 in 10 adults, including almost half of Democrats, believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction, as well as nearly 60 percent who view Biden's stewardship of the economy negatively just nine months into his presidency."


"The poll finds 40 percent of Americans approving the president’s handling of the economy (down 7 points since August), and 51 percent approving of his handling of the coronavirus (down 2 points).

Maybe even more troubling for Biden, just 37 percent of adults give him high marks — on a 5-point scale — for being competent and effective as president, and only 28 percent give him high marks for uniting the country."

And it goes on and on.

From the recent Pew Report Polling:

"A majority of Americans now say that President Biden is not “mentally sharp,” according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center."

You are highly partisan. I am sure when you sit in the basement with you fellow friends you are all drinking the cool aide thinking this guy is great, the economy is great, thank God we have Biden.

Try to break out of your bubble sometime. You are the one trying to as you say "spin reality into an image they prefer".

 

[Hüsker Dü]

You are a special kind of stupid. Last time I checked, nobody likes to pay more for gas and groceries, especially at an alarming rate of inflation. Feel free to try to argue that people actually do like to pay more. That will be entertaining. If we keep on this pace, inflation will be at a 30 year high going back to 1990. All this in just the first year of a Democratic President and House along with a split Senate.

I honestly hope people like you stay fore front in the media. Come next year this time, we will have a conservative house and senate.

There’s that desperate spin, lol! You just can’t help yourself, you’ve been conditioned to do so . . . there are no bad dogs just bad trainers.

 

[Desert Hound]

Inflation is surging. Inflation in general isn't a bad thing, but obviously if its too high, that's not a good thing. Its a worldwide phenomena

Inflation is not a good thing for your average consumer.

It is a worldwide phenomena because over the past 2 yrs most of the advanced economies printed lots of money because their policies hurt economic activity.

And the idiots who run the country now think spending another couple of trillion on D wish list stuff will A) be a productive use of tax money and B) not affect inflation even more.

They even trotted out that their 3.5 trillion spending bill had a zero cost. As if...

There's a variety of reasons for that. Practically speaking there's a lot of externals that drive oil prices and little any president (R or D) can do about them. Trump did initiate a lot of deregulation in the oil industry and that certainly helped.

There actually is a lot presidents can do. Deregulation is a big driver.

The funny thing is with fracking and deregulation it helped bring our emission levels down to below what they wanted for the Paris Accords. Yet we did it without tying ourselves to the heavy regulation the left so desires. The main driver? We starting pulling a lot of natural gas out of the ground. It is both cheap and clean to use.

Further being energy independent is a good thing. It is far better to keep our money here vs filling the coffers of countries in the ME and Russia (the Euros get a lot of energy from them).

 

[crush]

I'm going to pull a fence sitter move and say why can't I have both?

If you forcing me to choose...right now I'd rather have mean tweets than President Schleprock.

t was acting bro. Just wait & see for yourself. I love you man P.S. No fence sitting allowed in debate either. Take a side and give your reasons why right. I will come back with why wrong. I use emotional bombs to hit folks right in the face and no one likes getting punched in the face online. However, it's needed now more than ever. This is way better then one of those old wars. I like being next to a warm fire place with hot coco, my wife and my dog Iccy Bear looking out at nature. I see you starting to see the truth. My pal Brandon ((no fun intended)) voted for BC, BO, HRC and JB. He came to the, "We The People" tent. We welcome all colors, all back grounds and we leave everyone alone to do as they please. I said long ago that either or is horrible. It's We The People and that is it bro. I love everyone, even my most evil critic, like that Golden Gate avatar. Dude is in my jock and I know why.

 

[crush]

Listen up. The greatest accomplishment t and his team did was ending the business of human trafficking. The election was stolen ((allowed to be stolen with cameras and Space Force from above)) to take these cheaters out btw. It had to be done this way. Hate t all you want today. I will predict all of you will be eating humble pie and crow because so brainwashed from the Tel A Vision. I'm truly shocked with many of you. I can't wait for so many of you to wake up some day and see the truth. That is my greatest joy I look forward to, the shock on so many people faces and the cries of joy and guilt, all in one.

 

[what-happened]

And the overwhelming majority are happier now, strange ain’t it? I guess not everyone is so desperate to attempt to spin reality into an image they prefer, they just accept it.

Who is this majority you speak of that is happier?

 

[whatithink]

Inflation is not a good thing for your average consumer.

It is a worldwide phenomena because over the past 2 yrs most of the advanced economies printed lots of money because their policies hurt economic activity.

And the idiots who run the country now think spending another couple of trillion on D wish list stuff will A) be a productive use of tax money and B) not affect inflation even more.

They even trotted out that their 3.5 trillion spending bill had a zero cost. As if...



There actually is a lot presidents can do. Deregulation is a big driver.

The funny thing is with fracking and deregulation it helped bring our emission levels down to below what they wanted for the Paris Accords. Yet we did it without tying ourselves to the heavy regulation the left so desires. The main driver? We starting pulling a lot of natural gas out of the ground. It is both cheap and clean to use.

Further being energy independent is a good thing. It is far better to keep our money here vs filling the coffers of countries in the ME and Russia (the Euros get a lot of energy from them).

Inflation in the 1-2% range is fine, but we're higher than that and that is cause for concern. The driver is not necessarily governments printing money. All the while govts were printing money, consumer debt was decreasing, savings were increasing and demand was dampened. The velocity of spend is just as important as the money supply in inflation.

The D plan is over 10 years and includes items that the govt should be doing, specifically on infrastructure. The net infrastructure spend in the US started to decline around the 2008 crash as state and the fed reduced spending on it and never came back to it. That's been calculated in the $1T range of "lost" spend relative to what was been spent annually prior. Infrastructure spend is accretive to an economy and relied on by both business and workers to be successful. As for being paid for, the plan was laid out but never likely to be approved. That doesn't mean I think everything in the D plan is good, just that everything in the D plan is not bad. There's certainly plenty that is necessary and should be spent and it should be the govt spending it.

Fracking is interesting. The high oil prices from 2009 made it economically viable, and so the boom in fracking. A price point at around $50 was needed to pay back the bonds. The bust cycle for fracking once prices went below that started, with the cause being supply pushing down prices below viability (for many). Funnily enough OPEC like prices in the $70 range, but that enables fracking to be viable which drives up supply & prices down etc.

We import more oil from Canada that all other imports combined. We also export oil that could be used domestically, but its cheaper to export than to send it to the high demand centers in the US. So energy independence (consumption vs production) does not mean that we only use US oil. We are still sending plenty of dollars overseas.

 

[crush]

Inflation in the 1-2% range is fine, but we're higher than that and that is cause for concern. The driver is not necessarily governments printing money. All the while govts were printing money, consumer debt was decreasing, savings were increasing and demand was dampened. The velocity of spend is just as important as the money supply in inflation.

The D plan is over 10 years and includes items that the govt should be doing, specifically on infrastructure. The net infrastructure spend in the US started to decline around the 2008 crash as state and the fed reduced spending on it and never came back to it. That's been calculated in the $1T range of "lost" spend relative to what was been spent annually prior. Infrastructure spend is accretive to an economy and relied on by both business and workers to be successful. As for being paid for, the plan was laid out but never likely to be approved. That doesn't mean I think everything in the D plan is good, just that everything in the D plan is not bad. There's certainly plenty that is necessary and should be spent and it should be the govt spending it.

Fracking is interesting. The high oil prices from 2009 made it economically viable, and so the boom in fracking. A price point at around $50 was needed to pay back the bonds. The bust cycle for fracking once prices went below that started, with the cause being supply pushing down prices below viability (for many). Funnily enough OPEC like prices in the $70 range, but that enables fracking to be viable which drives up supply prices down etc.

We import more oil from Canada that all other imports combined. We also export oil that could be used domestically, but its cheaper to export than to send it to the high demand centers in the US. So energy independence (consumption vs production) does not mean that we only use US oil. We are still sending plenty of dollars overseas.

Dude, do you know what your actually about? People are getting fired left & right, right now, all because they wont kneel and take two+boosters for life for the team in the arm. Because so many say, "No way" they get fired now and have to hold unto their money. Small business is on life support and not looking good at all. This is going to get way worse because of people like you, That's what i think.

 

[Desert Hound]

The D plan is over 10 years and includes items that the govt should be doing, specifically on infrastructure.

See that is where you are wrong.

They are using gimmicks like gov usually does. The taxes will be around for at least 10 yrs. Much of the spending items are for far fewer years.

So by saying the whole thing is over 10 yrs it makes it look better. What you have is front loaded spending but taxes going on far longer. It hides the cost so to speak. Most people fall for that shell game.

Funnily enough OPEC like prices in the $70 range, but that enables fracking to be viable which drives up supply & prices down etc.

That kind of is the point. Without our own supply, we would be paying more. Fracking forces the other countries to lower their prices. That is a benefit to us.

And while the Saudis, etc can drop the price to lower than $50 to make fracking not terribly viable, they themselves cannot afford to do so for long because they have built in a cost structure to their countries that require X amount of revenue to pay for. In short their funding for their programs assumes a price above $50 (at which fracking is viable).

The other thing about fracking is that it is relatively new. Over time they will get more efficient at what they are doing, and their break even point will go down.

We import more oil from Canada that all other imports combined.

Canada is a country where we should import from. Better to get from them then to limit ourselves, and then turn around and increase our spending on countries in the ME.

The net infrastructure spend in the US started to decline around the 2008 crash as state and the fed reduced spending on it and never came back to it.

To be fair much of what the dems call infrastructure in their plan is not infrastructure as we know it. They use the term in order to sell it.

And it works. Watch the people talk about it. They talk bridges, etc. And your average person thinks yeah we need that. And yet much of what is in there is not infrastructure. It is another shell game to put in place a wish list that progressives have been pushing for many years.

Here are some of the items in the "infrastructure bill"

- extended child care credit
- universal pre-k
- paid family leave
- expand obamacare
- expand medicare
- free community college
- let medicare negotiate drug prices
etc etc

And so on. That stuff should not be in an infrastructure bill because it doesn't have anything to do with infrastructure as we know it.

The above items should be in their own bill and called what they are.

Now things are in flux because there are pushback in certain areas. So you will see stuff, dropped, etc.

Then of course you have the tax side of it which has a plethora of issues.

 

[what-happened]

Doctors must be honest with parents about unknown risks of COVID-19 emergency vaccine

We all want to do what is absolutely best for children's health. If medical providers get this wrong, everything is on the line for vaccines.

www.yahoo.com

This is a good read, well articulated. It's a stance that many pediatric providers fall in line with. Tactical patience by providers and a joint, well informed decision conversation with their patients is likely the course for many.

There are a lot of important decision influencing details that the FDA and the CDC will not provide, and that's unfortunate. Responsible pediatric providers will have the right conversations. Moderna is slow rolling their offereing to see how this plays out. I'm sure it's not out of the goodness of their heart (pun intended). Why rolll out a product that many will be reluctant to consume.

 

[MicPaPa]

The reality is it mattered to quite a few people. The reality is that it cost Trump the election. As I always point out to dad4, you can live in the world you wish for, or you can live in the world we are in. Trump is toxic to a certain number of people who otherwise support his policies. You can go with him and increase the chances the rs will lose, or you can go with someone that will reflect his policies but be more palatable from a character point of view. Youngkin showed that was possible...he retained the R gaines among minorities and the working class, won back the suburbs.

I prefer: God gives you what you need, not necessarily what you want.

You are certainly free to interpret the Virginia bellwether election however you choose, but we obviously read it quite differently. I don’t put much stock in polls, especially those conducted by legacy media, but for the purpose of my point I selected a random Virginia CBS affiliate. This is what they listed as the top voter issues in Virginia’s gubernatorial election:

economy 34%
covid-19 17%
education 14%
healthcare 7%
climate change 7%
racism 5%
immigration 5%
abortion 5%
law enforcement 4%

Understanding their list ended there, I cannot disprove your insistence that personality/manners/vulgarity/meanness/hurtful tweets etc. etc. etc. matters, but I can say with confidence that it mattered somewhere between 10th-? to Virginia voters.

I could care less about Trump personally, in fact, you can put me down as “personality 0%”, but you can also put me down as 100% for how Trump handled the above list. It’s not who he is, it’s what he brings to the table at a time we need it. The left and their water boys in the media/big tech are on the march to destroy this country as it was founded. It is clear to many of us that the McCains, Romneys, Jeds!, and even the Youngkins are not going to get it done. Thus, you got what we needed, not what you wanted.

 

[watfly]

Fuel costs were higher in 2017, 2018 & 2019 relative to the 3 preceding years under Obama. They dropped in 2020 as the world closed down. There is also a correlation between the oil price and the economic viability of fracking to get it out of the ground. So the higher price meant more fracking of marginal fields. Of course fracking is not exactly environmentally friendly, so removing regulations for the oil companies to make more money at higher prices to the detriment of any local environments and people, was a price worth paying for their profits "energy independence".

The current costs are partly to do with a surge in demand as the world opens up and the fact that the oil producers are making hay while they gradually increase production to meet the demand, i.e. they probably make more money with a "short" supply / high demand scenario, and do not want a surge in supply which would drive the price down.

Energy independence is also a bit of a "meh" for me. There is a strategic (defense) advantage in keeping our oil in the ground and using everyone elses as a hedge against a day when their's is all used up and we are still oil "rich". Practically we have more than enough energy production to meet any defense needs, so the independence thing is just a dog whistle.

Your points in regards to fuel costs are primarily short term related. There is very little doubt by energy professionals that in the long term, eliminating projects like the Keystone pipeline, which contributes to energy independence, will have a negative long term impact on supply and the resulting costs.

It defies logic that having more control over our energy and less reliance on the Middle East is a "meh" thing. Is it a panacea for all our ills, no, but its a very powerful element. Having national control over what is arguably the #1 world commodity (I'd actually say water is #1) is not a minor thing.

In terms of "dog whistle" goes, you strike me as a moderate guy that wouldn't use the gimmicks of the far left which uses the term to mischaracterize the words of the right, often to cast reasonable arguments in a pejorative light.

 

[whatithink]

The left and their water boys in the media/big tech are on the march to destroy this country as it was founded.

What does "this country as it was founded" mean and how are the left & their water boys on the march to destroy it?

Genuine Q.