That movie should be required viewing for Americans. And, if after watching, you don’t see direct parallels to current events in the US, then you will be deported to Florida.
Trump's previous administration signed the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA), boasting it would "liberalize market access between the United States and Japan."
Yet in his current term, he has already reneged on that agreement—just as he has on the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA)—raising serious doubts about the credibility and durability of any trade commitments he now makes.
As for the sovereign wealth fund, I haven't seen any Japanese news outlet report on it.
Meanwhile, the figure of 550 billion dollars was clearly fabricated offhand by Trump.
Back several centuries, all peace treaties between the European monarchs, treaties which usually involved ceding/acquiring lands, were explicitly (in their text) "for the time eternal". At least the treaties I looked up. Which usually meant until next Spring, when the war was again easier to wage.
Treaties with the US today are of this kind. Which is one more proof that Trump is a real conservative, bringing back the wholesome traditions of Christianity, traditions which had been sullied in the last century or so by them radical left libtards.
They got the gold part down pat in the movie. Every time I see the oval office in its current disfigurement or an arial shot of the ridiculous flag and pole in front of the white house the prescience of "Idiocracy" hits home.
I watched it pre-Trump and thought it was hard to watch because of the human stupidity it presents as future society. Now I suspect if I tried to watch it again, it would drive me crazy because of our current path.
That is how it made me feel on rewatch. And in the movie it took centuries before we had declined into the deep swamp of stupidity the filmmakers portrayed. And yet, here “we” are but 20 years after the movie was made.
I'd rather skip this cruel and vindictive president we have now and go right to President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, who listens to experts.
At least in Idiocracy the leaders *knew* they were stupid, hence them testing everyone to find the smartest person.
The dumasses in the current administration think *they* are the smartest people. Trump, Musk, Patel, Bondi, Vance, all of them have no clue how stupid they are. This is what happens when you're raised on a constant diet of right-wing media.
Not so. Dim as he was, Camacho actually wanted what was best for his country and listened to the advice of someone he acknowledged as smarter than himself.
It's conservatism in a nutshell. Once you've decided that it's okay to thumb your nose at climate science or evolutionary biology because it makes you upset, you've pretty much decided that reality is optional, and you're eventually going to end up applying it to everything.
It is even more bizarre that we live in a country where the majority have no idea what Paul is talking about. And the plan is to dismantle the Department of Education. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything that MAGA says and does is theater for their human audience. MAGA are sophisticated, but highly misogynistic and with the emotional maturity of a 10 year old human boy.
I commented before they seem to have the executive brain function of a cross between a tired two year old in need of a nap and a snarky, hormone addled 13 year old. That averages out to 8.5 years, so your 10 year old is a good fit.
I am a foreigner. I wonder how many Americans know the purpose the Harvard University was established. It was to train teachers. Commonwealth of Massachusetts required every settlement (of some size) to have a public school, where all kids (male) were to be taught reading and writing, also in Greek and Hebrew. The latter was so everybody (male) could read the Bible in the original and not be dependent on any interpretation. These schools needed teachers.
Today no Harvard (or other schools) would be established. Fox News is enough to tell people what the Bible says.
Also, there was an emphasis among the Puritans in teaching girls as well as boys to read. Part of the Reformation agenda in Europe, with the use of the printing press was for everyone to be able to read the Bible, thus ending the church's stranglehold on what it contained.
Thank you. While I knew (duh) the Reformation "directly from the Source" philosophy and the enabling role of the printing press tech, I am again impressed by the "girls as well" part of the Commonwealth. I did not know this. That witches thing notwithstanding, the Commonwealth continues to impress me.
Thank you for clarification. But in the 17th century, were the jobs/vocations "teacher" and "minister" clearly distinct?
The topic is interesting, both as a pure history, but it is also relevant today. As I understand, already in the Middle Ages in Christian Europe there was an emerging trend to increasingly relay in teaching on reasoning based outside the authority system, using, to some extent, logic and observation. And so the "university system" was born and evolved. But it was a gradual process.
Copernicus have sent his draft works to Pope (and received back comments and encouragements, at least initially) not because this was "chain of command", but, AFAIK, Christian scholarly system was a nascent "research community" back then. And Copernicus job description was a lower order priest.
Need uninformed people for fascism to succeed. If I recall, some fascists killed those who could read (Khmer Rouge - not sure I spelled it correctly) or kicked them out of planes or helicopters (Pinochet - again sp?) or stab them or throw them down stairs or out of a window (Putin) or torture/kill them in their concentration camps (Hitler).
You forgot Mohammed bin Salman killing (and dismembering) journalists.
And Netanyahu harassing, arresting, torturing non-Jewish residents of the West Bank, and then, for residents of Gaza, applying freely-gotten U.S. missiles, artillery, tanks, machine guns, freely-randomly, widely-placed bombs.
Math? I would say science in general. Vaccines, astronomy, climate modeling, sociology, nutricion, you name it. It is Lysenkoism all the way down, sidewise and even up. That did not end well for the Soviet Union, it does not bode well for the USA.
That is one of the three hallmarks of totalitarianism. He's got it and the secret police with loyalty only to the leader. He hasn't got complete suppression of criticism.
But by the end of the 20th century, the Pope Himself conceded that the Inquisition had been wrong. Then again, not all Catholics, including the head of the Vatican Observatory in the US (a Jesuit btw) agreed that he had gone far enough in admitting the error.
“Unreal” is exactly the right word. What we get as a result of these tariffs is exactly the opposite of what Trump & Co. say, which is untethered from reality.
But, but, but math is too hard. Plus that average person in the USA can no longer make change without having a computer tell them how much it should be.
When I was in the sixth grade, our teacher told us of buying some things at a department store and watching the young lady trying to add up the bill, which she had worked out in her head, reading the numbers upside-down. She told us she didn't like the current state of education.
Home Depot sells wood trim by the foot. The clerk is expected to measure each piece against a rule on the wall, total up the measurements, and enter that result. The register then multiplies by the per foot cost. I went up to the checkout once with an assortment of pieces. There was a new clerk there who appeared to be still in his late teens. He pretty obviously had no clue as to how to add up the measurements (any child entering third grade could've done it in my generation). He made up some number (which was favorable to me) and I paid and left. He wasn't there the next time I shopped there.
"I'm talkin' 'bout New Math - New-hoo-hoo Math. It's so simple. So very simple. Only a child can do it." - Tom Lehrer.
I don't disagree that we have an education crisis, but I doubt the problem was that the high school kid didn't understand addition. It was probably something stupid with their P.O.S. system.
I have concluded that in addition to Trump's errors in grammar and spelling in matter he originates himself, he has a kind of IQ ceiling in the staff he employs -- and that's a very common problem in large organizations. Nobody is allowed to be smarter than the boss (by the boss)-- and if the board picks a dumb or crooked boss, things that follow are pegged to that performance level.
I just keep wondering when Wall Street is going to rush for the exits. Or do they know something we don't? GM just reported a dreadful year-over-year decline in Q2 with worse results expected this quarter. How many more such reports are headed Wall Street's way?
I’m making a big bear bet against the market right now. I bought a bunch of stock at the April low after “Liberation Day” tanked the market and have been selling the profits off that and sticking it in a bearish bet. It’s painful to watch things keep going up, but 30 years in the market tells me the smartest play still remains, bet against everybody else.
I am not going that far, but I am out of the market. CNBC has been so aggressively positive, it is hard to watch It's only been this positive two or three times on my life, and you can probably guess when that was.
or call it "fake news" produced by democrats, which always works with the MAGAts. And then send the dogs off the trail with another Trump red herring scandal or announcement. Rinse and repeat.
I think big business is thriving, for the moment. Fewer regulations, lower taxes. It's producers and small businesses who seem more likely to crater, and their failure takes some time to impact Wall Street -- if it ever does.
Investors haven’t had a lot of alternative options, and institutional investors like public pension funds are even more confined. The question is whether those institutional investors will be enough to sustain the US markets when new options develop overseas.
Pension funds and IRA managers are already invested in overseas markets. About a quarter of my IRA is invested in overseas stocks and bonds. My advisor recommended that to me years ago, so it's not related to the current situation.
You’re right they try to diversify risk as much as possible, but some funds have legal limitations on how much of their portfolio they can invest overseas. Nowadays funds might want to move more into overseas investments but have maxed out their ability to do so.
It looks like a mass drinking session, just before the furniture gets thrown in the pool, and the house is set on fire and burns down. There's one final burst of rapacious asset stripping and fraud to go, as the proles last assets are stripped, the rubes stock up on Trump coin, and everyone bets their retirement funds on companies selling at 80:1 price to earnings ratios. The GOP is really good at creating financial crises. They look to be ahead of schedule at this point. Normally they try to delay the disasters until the tail end of the administration, so the Dems have to clean up the mess.
Prices on Japanese imports HAVE gone up, nobody is looking in the right place. I’m a photographer, almost all high end cameras and lenses come from Japan. The prices of almost everything recently jumped by 10-20%. Tariff price increases have already arrived. You could see this coming, I had my eyes on a couple lenses and bought them after the tariff pause. Then prices went up, saved myself $500!
I'm seeing the opposite at the moment. Right now, the price on a Nikon lens that I have my eye on has just dropped about 10%. This after holding solidly the same since its introduction several years ago. Interestingly enough, I'm starting to see some used ones on the market. I don't understand why this would be, unless people are beginning to sell off luxury items.
Or they’ve aged to a point where they must downsize to enter an assisted living facility. Or they’ve aged to a point they can no longer enjoy their hobby. We picked up a bunch of expensive cameras, lens and accessories from a friend in this situation who was 15 years older than us. He also sold a lot of really nice equipment.
It is also likely that Trump and his cronies, with their penchant for grift, will grab as much of that $550 billion investment as they can. What dislocations of the economy might that produce?
Exactly! In fact it is suspicious on its face that he announced it late in the day and Japan was silent. I’m betting that the 15% car tariff is not true and the huge cash investment in the US is over a number of years?
It’s even more confusing now that the Japanese Diet is turning over completely to its own version on MAGA while the PM (who supposedly agreed to the deal) is from a different party. I’ve read some Japanese politicians blame the Plaza Accord of 1985 for its losing economic steam. A “Japan First” government might decide to try a different route.
I buy my wife a supply of coffee sachets each month for her home office using Amazon’s subscribe and save feature. The cost has increased 28% or $11.28 since April. This is merely the most obvious increase to our monthly grocery bill. What a word, groceries, it means the stomach.
The six roll package of toilet paper I used to buy for $8.99 jumped last week to $10.99. This jump was at a middle of the road supermarket -- Shoprite -- and that is just one necessity item that has increased in the past couple of weeks. Only fools think that prices aren't increasing and won't continue to increase.
Also true for pet supplies. Our dog’s food increased by 3%, his medications have also increased, and his chew toy (which needs to be replaced monthly) increased by 50%. May all the dogs in Florida pee on the lawn at Mar-a-Lago.
If anything really documents that tRump never went to his classes at UPENN, it is that his major was apparently Economics and he has no clue how these things work. This is just another chance for him to grift.
Wharton School of Business professor William T. Kelley — “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”
American History, a decade or more from now (or maybe/probably sooner): “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn president we ever had. Maybe even dumber, somehow."
I was sure Reagan would have been treated poorly by high school history books by now, but proto-MAGAs never admitted they were mistaken. I’m not sure anything published in the US will ever declare Trump the US version of Caligula, but the rest of the world probably will.
I'm shocked that his college transcripts have never been leaked, or his high school transcripts. At least one of his professors claimed that Trump is the dumbest student he ever had.
All these “sovereign wealth funds” Trump's running around setting up sound like nothing more than a slush fund for the corrupt governments of the world… no wonder they're so appealing to Trump. I'd honestly never even heard of them before Trump. 🙄
Plus it's another way for him to direct some of that money to his own pockets and those of his uber wealthy supporters. Everything is a grift in Trumpworld.
Norway has one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world; I think it's #1. Established in 1969 or so, when the North Sea Oil was going to be developed. And of course, considering who runs it, it seems to be entirely free of massive corruption.
It seems to me inflation, GDP and interest rates are all going in the wrong direction yet the market seems optimistic about the future. Are we back to "irrational exuberance?"
"The market" is mostly driven by white men, an overwhelmingly Republican demographic, who absolutely lose their shit with glee whenever Republicans are in charge.
I don't think they realize this is the tradeoff they're making, but ultimately they'd rather pay less taxes on lower gains. Plus that bitch Andrea reported them to HR, so they can't let the woke libs run things. IT WAS JUST A JOKE, ANDREA!
So they're happy. They'll be happy a while, probably. And yet, as we saw in 2007-2008... gravity persists.
The market is exactly that - buying and selling stocks and bonds. Investors buy stocks in the expectation that they will receive dividends (payments) on their investments. None of the three items you mentioned are likely to directly affect the ability of companies to pay dividends. Bonds are different. If interest rates go up, the value of existing bonds goes down (investors will want to buy the new ones to get higher interest rates).
GM has recorded a billion dollar loss thanks in part to absorbing Trump's tariffs.
So let me guess how this Japanese investment works: Trump helps steer it to a crony, and this crony then steers some of it back to the Trump Organization. So far neither Congress nor the courts have found anything objectionable in Trump's grifts, so I imagine this one will pass muster too.
Surely Mighty Mini Minion Mike Johnson will look closely at this. After the recess, of course. And then after the Epstein case blows over. And after the MLK files are reviewed. And by then, it's the holidays of course...
It’s either higher consumer prices or lower margins for companies that depend on a global supply chain ..it’s not arguable..it’s just math !! Trumps a moron ..his advisors are the dregs from wall st..no smart person would ever work in this corrupt administration!
He’s hired the dregs in every cabinet position….its embarrassing…the rest of the world is just laughing..watching the deterioration of a once great democracy!..ps the exporters don’t pay the tariffs ..the importer does !! That’s us ..unfortunately the majority of his base is too stupid to understand this simple concept!!!
This sounds like a 15% National Sales Tax that the consumers will pay on any goods coming in from Japan. Ultimately, even if the exporter pays some of the tarriffs, the consumer pays for that and more.
... LOL that's because.... it is a National Sales Tax. The exporter pays nothing. The foreign government pays nothing. The domestic importer pays the bill when the container arrives. The revenue goes to Washington.
His obsession with “making deals” leads to a lot of short-term thinking. What he isn't seeing is the small businesses crushed along the way. Big companies will survive but small job-creating businesses are already collapsing at a time when there are no corporate jobs to return to.
Mike Judge's Idiocracy.
Once a dystopian satire, now a contemporary documentary.
That movie should be required viewing for Americans. And, if after watching, you don’t see direct parallels to current events in the US, then you will be deported to Florida.
It should be shown in schools. In History Class -- schools that still have such classes, of course...
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Within a week of the 9/11 attacks, my husband and I re-watched Brazil.
Then came the Patriot Act and open acceptance of torture.
Torture reprised in US immigrant camps, as detailed by Human Rights Watch:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/07/21/us-immigrants-abused-in-florida-detention-sites
Once again, the Zambardo/ Stanford Prison Experiment Study fully validated, as in Abu Ghraib.
I don't think the Zambardo Prison Experiment was considered valid, since it applied to a narrow demographic.
Instead, I think it is self-selection of people signing up to be bullies (like many if not most police departments).
Trump's previous administration signed the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA), boasting it would "liberalize market access between the United States and Japan."
https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/ustr-archives/usjta
Yet in his current term, he has already reneged on that agreement—just as he has on the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA)—raising serious doubts about the credibility and durability of any trade commitments he now makes.
As for the sovereign wealth fund, I haven't seen any Japanese news outlet report on it.
Meanwhile, the figure of 550 billion dollars was clearly fabricated offhand by Trump.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/23/trumps-japan-trade-deal-card-was-altered-by-hand.html
Back several centuries, all peace treaties between the European monarchs, treaties which usually involved ceding/acquiring lands, were explicitly (in their text) "for the time eternal". At least the treaties I looked up. Which usually meant until next Spring, when the war was again easier to wage.
Treaties with the US today are of this kind. Which is one more proof that Trump is a real conservative, bringing back the wholesome traditions of Christianity, traditions which had been sullied in the last century or so by them radical left libtards.
We don't need to see the movie - we're living it.
It absolutely ruins the arena scene with all the idiots hooting for violence.
Deported to Florida? Nooooo!
They got the gold part down pat in the movie. Every time I see the oval office in its current disfigurement or an arial shot of the ridiculous flag and pole in front of the white house the prescience of "Idiocracy" hits home.
Gold in the Oval Office: didn’t Paul call that dictator kitsch?
Paul of diamonds on the soles of his shoes?
?? Don’t understand
Simon?
I meant our host.
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho yes he actually has a soft drink in his name 😉
A future generation of Dwayne Cane Sugar Trump Bigly Johnson's await our denouement.
hah!
I thought it was a dumb fim when it first came out. I still think it's a dumb film only now it's no longer a work of fiction.
Agreed.
But you'd have to admit that its dumbness is now both context and texture.
The dumbness is now functional, in other words.
The author said he saw it coming in several generations, he was shocked it only took one to get here.
Interesting.
Normally I'd hit like to your response but there's nothing remotely likable about this situation.
I never heard of it. Thanks for recommending it.
Idiocracy - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
You'll be horrified how real it reads.
Good luck!
i agree. Hadn't seen it, will now It's streaming on Hulu
I watched it pre-Trump and thought it was hard to watch because of the human stupidity it presents as future society. Now I suspect if I tried to watch it again, it would drive me crazy because of our current path.
That is how it made me feel on rewatch. And in the movie it took centuries before we had declined into the deep swamp of stupidity the filmmakers portrayed. And yet, here “we” are but 20 years after the movie was made.
I had never seen the movie until a few months ago when my husband said I should watch it. Way too close to reality despite the silliness.
Gatorade to irrigate the crops.
Bleach and ivermectin to cure a hoax virus.
Way too close to home.
Yes, like the "Handmaid's tale." Only funnier.
I'd rather skip this cruel and vindictive president we have now and go right to President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, who listens to experts.
At least in Idiocracy the leaders *knew* they were stupid, hence them testing everyone to find the smartest person.
The dumasses in the current administration think *they* are the smartest people. Trump, Musk, Patel, Bondi, Vance, all of them have no clue how stupid they are. This is what happens when you're raised on a constant diet of right-wing media.
But otherwise, welcome to Costco, I love you.
I said the exact same thing! Their idiots were benign, and knew they were idiots.
You may like Burnt-Ground.ghost.io
Maybe, maybe not, but certainly kakocracy, rule of the worst.
At this point, sortition (picking citizens at random for office instead of electing them) would undoubtedly be better.
A lottery! That would be a grand idea!
Trump has a Camacho vibe right ?
Not so. Dim as he was, Camacho actually wanted what was best for his country and listened to the advice of someone he acknowledged as smarter than himself.
Has Trump ever done any of that?
It's unreal that we live in a world where they thumb their noses at basic math.
It's conservatism in a nutshell. Once you've decided that it's okay to thumb your nose at climate science or evolutionary biology because it makes you upset, you've pretty much decided that reality is optional, and you're eventually going to end up applying it to everything.
Chris, spot on comment.
And on the left, reading Foucault has the same general effect ... although you will be insanely more articulate of course!!😜
I see it over and over again.
It is even more bizarre that we live in a country where the majority have no idea what Paul is talking about. And the plan is to dismantle the Department of Education. What could possibly go wrong?
The short-term objective is the Department of Education. Their long-term plan is to eliminate public education.
Why do we needz edumakaysion? all i needz is me gun and the good book.
Signed,
Maga.
Everything that MAGA says and does is theater for their human audience. MAGA are sophisticated, but highly misogynistic and with the emotional maturity of a 10 year old human boy.
I commented before they seem to have the executive brain function of a cross between a tired two year old in need of a nap and a snarky, hormone addled 13 year old. That averages out to 8.5 years, so your 10 year old is a good fit.
Oops, averages to 7.5 years.
i dont even need the book. I gots a preacher to tell me what's init.
Don't need the book because can't read and need authoritarian to tell me what's in it.
I am a foreigner. I wonder how many Americans know the purpose the Harvard University was established. It was to train teachers. Commonwealth of Massachusetts required every settlement (of some size) to have a public school, where all kids (male) were to be taught reading and writing, also in Greek and Hebrew. The latter was so everybody (male) could read the Bible in the original and not be dependent on any interpretation. These schools needed teachers.
Today no Harvard (or other schools) would be established. Fox News is enough to tell people what the Bible says.
Actually, it was founded to train Puritan ministers.
Also, there was an emphasis among the Puritans in teaching girls as well as boys to read. Part of the Reformation agenda in Europe, with the use of the printing press was for everyone to be able to read the Bible, thus ending the church's stranglehold on what it contained.
Thank you. While I knew (duh) the Reformation "directly from the Source" philosophy and the enabling role of the printing press tech, I am again impressed by the "girls as well" part of the Commonwealth. I did not know this. That witches thing notwithstanding, the Commonwealth continues to impress me.
Thank you for clarification. But in the 17th century, were the jobs/vocations "teacher" and "minister" clearly distinct?
The topic is interesting, both as a pure history, but it is also relevant today. As I understand, already in the Middle Ages in Christian Europe there was an emerging trend to increasingly relay in teaching on reasoning based outside the authority system, using, to some extent, logic and observation. And so the "university system" was born and evolved. But it was a gradual process.
Copernicus have sent his draft works to Pope (and received back comments and encouragements, at least initially) not because this was "chain of command", but, AFAIK, Christian scholarly system was a nascent "research community" back then. And Copernicus job description was a lower order priest.
And always has been. Privatize and rape all the gov't funding.
Need uninformed people for fascism to succeed. If I recall, some fascists killed those who could read (Khmer Rouge - not sure I spelled it correctly) or kicked them out of planes or helicopters (Pinochet - again sp?) or stab them or throw them down stairs or out of a window (Putin) or torture/kill them in their concentration camps (Hitler).
You forgot Mohammed bin Salman killing (and dismembering) journalists.
And Netanyahu harassing, arresting, torturing non-Jewish residents of the West Bank, and then, for residents of Gaza, applying freely-gotten U.S. missiles, artillery, tanks, machine guns, freely-randomly, widely-placed bombs.
Correct, there are others.
This is what is so heartbreaking and terrifying.
Numbers have a well-known liberal bias.
As does reality.
😅
Math? I would say science in general. Vaccines, astronomy, climate modeling, sociology, nutricion, you name it. It is Lysenkoism all the way down, sidewise and even up. That did not end well for the Soviet Union, it does not bode well for the USA.
We have regressed back to the point where Authority asserted that the sun revolves around the earth.
It took centuries before that was corrected. In the meantime, people were driven out of polite society and some were executed.
L'etat, c'est Trump.
That is one of the three hallmarks of totalitarianism. He's got it and the secret police with loyalty only to the leader. He hasn't got complete suppression of criticism.
He has other craven people who'll penalise those who criticise; and not merely criticism but independent thought.
Hah! Again, standardized testing!
Après lui le déluge...
But by the end of the 20th century, the Pope Himself conceded that the Inquisition had been wrong. Then again, not all Catholics, including the head of the Vatican Observatory in the US (a Jesuit btw) agreed that he had gone far enough in admitting the error.
“Unreal” is exactly the right word. What we get as a result of these tariffs is exactly the opposite of what Trump & Co. say, which is untethered from reality.
Well, math which does not reflect The Dear Leader's pronouncements is WOKE. And, it'really boring, mkay?
I am reminded of the scene in Orwell's 1984, where O'Brien is torturing Winston and makes him say that 2+2=5.
I was thinking about 1984, too. Everyone would benefit from reading or re-reading that novel.
Unfortunately our political economy seems to be such that literally anybody who reads the book thinks it's describing their enemies.
Well, only one political faction has a "dear leader" at this point.
If and when anyone objects, they’ll disappear them.
a la Epstein.
But, but, but math is too hard. Plus that average person in the USA can no longer make change without having a computer tell them how much it should be.
OK, it's old-timers time.
When I was in the sixth grade, our teacher told us of buying some things at a department store and watching the young lady trying to add up the bill, which she had worked out in her head, reading the numbers upside-down. She told us she didn't like the current state of education.
BTW that was in 1952.
Home Depot sells wood trim by the foot. The clerk is expected to measure each piece against a rule on the wall, total up the measurements, and enter that result. The register then multiplies by the per foot cost. I went up to the checkout once with an assortment of pieces. There was a new clerk there who appeared to be still in his late teens. He pretty obviously had no clue as to how to add up the measurements (any child entering third grade could've done it in my generation). He made up some number (which was favorable to me) and I paid and left. He wasn't there the next time I shopped there.
"I'm talkin' 'bout New Math - New-hoo-hoo Math. It's so simple. So very simple. Only a child can do it." - Tom Lehrer.
I don't disagree that we have an education crisis, but I doubt the problem was that the high school kid didn't understand addition. It was probably something stupid with their P.O.S. system.
Oh, it's real enough!
Math is Woke!
The 3 D’s doctrine of the current administration: Keep them dumb, keep them docile and keep them divided.
And, Nancy, keep them "doing" the tests.
Only one correct answer. And "we" always ask the questions. You mass test-takers, never any questions from any of you.
I have concluded that in addition to Trump's errors in grammar and spelling in matter he originates himself, he has a kind of IQ ceiling in the staff he employs -- and that's a very common problem in large organizations. Nobody is allowed to be smarter than the boss (by the boss)-- and if the board picks a dumb or crooked boss, things that follow are pegged to that performance level.
the ability to grasp basic math is a function of the woke mind virus and evidence of how libruls hate true patriot conservatives
I just keep wondering when Wall Street is going to rush for the exits. Or do they know something we don't? GM just reported a dreadful year-over-year decline in Q2 with worse results expected this quarter. How many more such reports are headed Wall Street's way?
I’m making a big bear bet against the market right now. I bought a bunch of stock at the April low after “Liberation Day” tanked the market and have been selling the profits off that and sticking it in a bearish bet. It’s painful to watch things keep going up, but 30 years in the market tells me the smartest play still remains, bet against everybody else.
I am not going that far, but I am out of the market. CNBC has been so aggressively positive, it is hard to watch It's only been this positive two or three times on my life, and you can probably guess when that was.
Good luck, Adam! I'm with you in spirit, but didn't have the balls to go all in. Instead I hedged a substantial part of our investments.
I think we are already in the tRumpcession.
Definitely. But, all government economic data will indicate otherwise as long as a felon oozes around the Whitehouse.
I'm sure he has already ordered the economic reports to be cooked.
or call it "fake news" produced by democrats, which always works with the MAGAts. And then send the dogs off the trail with another Trump red herring scandal or announcement. Rinse and repeat.
I think big business is thriving, for the moment. Fewer regulations, lower taxes. It's producers and small businesses who seem more likely to crater, and their failure takes some time to impact Wall Street -- if it ever does.
Yes, concentrated wealth picking up those carcasses on the cheap after the crash.
Investors haven’t had a lot of alternative options, and institutional investors like public pension funds are even more confined. The question is whether those institutional investors will be enough to sustain the US markets when new options develop overseas.
Pension funds and IRA managers are already invested in overseas markets. About a quarter of my IRA is invested in overseas stocks and bonds. My advisor recommended that to me years ago, so it's not related to the current situation.
You’re right they try to diversify risk as much as possible, but some funds have legal limitations on how much of their portfolio they can invest overseas. Nowadays funds might want to move more into overseas investments but have maxed out their ability to do so.
It looks like a mass drinking session, just before the furniture gets thrown in the pool, and the house is set on fire and burns down. There's one final burst of rapacious asset stripping and fraud to go, as the proles last assets are stripped, the rubes stock up on Trump coin, and everyone bets their retirement funds on companies selling at 80:1 price to earnings ratios. The GOP is really good at creating financial crises. They look to be ahead of schedule at this point. Normally they try to delay the disasters until the tail end of the administration, so the Dems have to clean up the mess.
Prices on Japanese imports HAVE gone up, nobody is looking in the right place. I’m a photographer, almost all high end cameras and lenses come from Japan. The prices of almost everything recently jumped by 10-20%. Tariff price increases have already arrived. You could see this coming, I had my eyes on a couple lenses and bought them after the tariff pause. Then prices went up, saved myself $500!
I'm seeing the opposite at the moment. Right now, the price on a Nikon lens that I have my eye on has just dropped about 10%. This after holding solidly the same since its introduction several years ago. Interestingly enough, I'm starting to see some used ones on the market. I don't understand why this would be, unless people are beginning to sell off luxury items.
Or they’ve aged to a point where they must downsize to enter an assisted living facility. Or they’ve aged to a point they can no longer enjoy their hobby. We picked up a bunch of expensive cameras, lens and accessories from a friend in this situation who was 15 years older than us. He also sold a lot of really nice equipment.
It is also likely that Trump and his cronies, with their penchant for grift, will grab as much of that $550 billion investment as they can. What dislocations of the economy might that produce?
His TS post says the US (ie, Trump) will keep 90% of the profits of this $550B. Who would sign an agreement like that?
But Japan has not commented yet? Is it possible the “deal” is not really what the Trump government has announced?
We saw that with the Vietnam "deal." Trump announced the deal, with tariff rates. A few days later, Vietnam said, "That's not what we agreed to..."
Also keep in mind that any "deal" with Trump is valid only until he decides that it isn't.
Exactly! In fact it is suspicious on its face that he announced it late in the day and Japan was silent. I’m betting that the 15% car tariff is not true and the huge cash investment in the US is over a number of years?
It’s even more confusing now that the Japanese Diet is turning over completely to its own version on MAGA while the PM (who supposedly agreed to the deal) is from a different party. I’ve read some Japanese politicians blame the Plaza Accord of 1985 for its losing economic steam. A “Japan First” government might decide to try a different route.
I buy my wife a supply of coffee sachets each month for her home office using Amazon’s subscribe and save feature. The cost has increased 28% or $11.28 since April. This is merely the most obvious increase to our monthly grocery bill. What a word, groceries, it means the stomach.
The six roll package of toilet paper I used to buy for $8.99 jumped last week to $10.99. This jump was at a middle of the road supermarket -- Shoprite -- and that is just one necessity item that has increased in the past couple of weeks. Only fools think that prices aren't increasing and won't continue to increase.
Also true for pet supplies. Our dog’s food increased by 3%, his medications have also increased, and his chew toy (which needs to be replaced monthly) increased by 50%. May all the dogs in Florida pee on the lawn at Mar-a-Lago.
If anything really documents that tRump never went to his classes at UPENN, it is that his major was apparently Economics and he has no clue how these things work. This is just another chance for him to grift.
Wharton School of Business professor William T. Kelley — “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”
American History, a decade or more from now (or maybe/probably sooner): “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn president we ever had. Maybe even dumber, somehow."
I was sure Reagan would have been treated poorly by high school history books by now, but proto-MAGAs never admitted they were mistaken. I’m not sure anything published in the US will ever declare Trump the US version of Caligula, but the rest of the world probably will.
He couldn't find the seat of his diaper with both hands.
I'm shocked that his college transcripts have never been leaked, or his high school transcripts. At least one of his professors claimed that Trump is the dumbest student he ever had.
There just aren't that many people at any university who have access to transcript records. The leaker would wind up in prison very rapidly.
All these “sovereign wealth funds” Trump's running around setting up sound like nothing more than a slush fund for the corrupt governments of the world… no wonder they're so appealing to Trump. I'd honestly never even heard of them before Trump. 🙄
Plus it's another way for him to direct some of that money to his own pockets and those of his uber wealthy supporters. Everything is a grift in Trumpworld.
Norway has one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world; I think it's #1. Established in 1969 or so, when the North Sea Oil was going to be developed. And of course, considering who runs it, it seems to be entirely free of massive corruption.
Interesting, I didn't know that, it must be nice there in Norway to have one that isn't controlled by crooks.
It seems to me inflation, GDP and interest rates are all going in the wrong direction yet the market seems optimistic about the future. Are we back to "irrational exuberance?"
Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes, we are.
"The market" is mostly driven by white men, an overwhelmingly Republican demographic, who absolutely lose their shit with glee whenever Republicans are in charge.
I don't think they realize this is the tradeoff they're making, but ultimately they'd rather pay less taxes on lower gains. Plus that bitch Andrea reported them to HR, so they can't let the woke libs run things. IT WAS JUST A JOKE, ANDREA!
So they're happy. They'll be happy a while, probably. And yet, as we saw in 2007-2008... gravity persists.
The market is exactly that - buying and selling stocks and bonds. Investors buy stocks in the expectation that they will receive dividends (payments) on their investments. None of the three items you mentioned are likely to directly affect the ability of companies to pay dividends. Bonds are different. If interest rates go up, the value of existing bonds goes down (investors will want to buy the new ones to get higher interest rates).
Isn’t the ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ just a way to put money in Drumpf’s pocket & sidestep any accountability for the income?
Sure, when Trump is connected to it. Otherwise, they seem to be pretty well run, especially the older ones.
GM has recorded a billion dollar loss thanks in part to absorbing Trump's tariffs.
So let me guess how this Japanese investment works: Trump helps steer it to a crony, and this crony then steers some of it back to the Trump Organization. So far neither Congress nor the courts have found anything objectionable in Trump's grifts, so I imagine this one will pass muster too.
Surely Mighty Mini Minion Mike Johnson will look closely at this. After the recess, of course. And then after the Epstein case blows over. And after the MLK files are reviewed. And by then, it's the holidays of course...
It’s either higher consumer prices or lower margins for companies that depend on a global supply chain ..it’s not arguable..it’s just math !! Trumps a moron ..his advisors are the dregs from wall st..no smart person would ever work in this corrupt administration!
True, but that's why we have the incompetents on parade. What self-respecting person would want to work in this administration?
He’s hired the dregs in every cabinet position….its embarrassing…the rest of the world is just laughing..watching the deterioration of a once great democracy!..ps the exporters don’t pay the tariffs ..the importer does !! That’s us ..unfortunately the majority of his base is too stupid to understand this simple concept!!!
Everybody really needs to start calling these import taxes instead of tariffs. Two simple words that explain exactly what they are.
This sounds like a 15% National Sales Tax that the consumers will pay on any goods coming in from Japan. Ultimately, even if the exporter pays some of the tarriffs, the consumer pays for that and more.
... LOL that's because.... it is a National Sales Tax. The exporter pays nothing. The foreign government pays nothing. The domestic importer pays the bill when the container arrives. The revenue goes to Washington.
His obsession with “making deals” leads to a lot of short-term thinking. What he isn't seeing is the small businesses crushed along the way. Big companies will survive but small job-creating businesses are already collapsing at a time when there are no corporate jobs to return to.