I agree. How many millions of shares did the vile despot Trump, his equally despotic family and his rent-seeking cabinet and oligarchs buy and will dispose when Wall Street soars, making these immoral amd unethical scoundrels a ton of money more — again?
There will be electronic records of every transaction. Our job will be to insist that the next president's justice department prosecutes every single one of them.
And have each state, or at least those who find this conduct criminal, prosecute trump. Let’s hold the un-supreme court accountable, especially Alito and Thomas and maybe more.
We have always had these people. Remember the silent majority. No, you're too young. They are about 35% along with 10% of fellow travelers. We let them get out of hands one small step at a time.
Anyone else remember about a week ago when the CEOs of Target and Walmart, after meeting with Trump, ordered some of their factories in China to restart production? I didn't dream that, did I?
This was in the works, and predictable regardless.
Right, I was agreeing with you about the insider trading. Trump (a) chickens out after hearing that scarcity and recession are coming, (b) plays the hero for solving a problem he created, and (c) makes a boatload of money for his family and friends.
And if the economy continues to deteriorate, only more slowly, and his subjects get restless as a result, he gets to (d) claim more emergency powers.
This looks like a good place for a reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide rally is June 14, yes >that< June 14, be there or be square!
Let's ruin Chump's B'day. We need 3.5% or the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families, bring your pets. Spread the word as far and wide as possible.
We have always had these people. You know who I mean. The ones who always think they’re “taking the country back” from someone, even if they can’t quite say who. The angry ones with flags and slogans and a permanent grievance about things not being how they used to be—though how it “used to be” never seems to include Social Security or stop signs.
They used to be quieter. That’s what Nixon called them: the Silent Majority. You probably weren’t around. Lucky you. But I remember. They weren’t that silent, honestly—they still ran the school boards and owned the dealerships—but they didn’t storm the Capitol. They just quietly voted for people who dismantled the safety net, deregulated everything, and blamed “welfare queens” for a sluggish economy.
They’ve always made up about 35% of the country. That’s the core. Then there’s the 10% of “fellow travelers”—some clueless, some opportunistic, all useful. The ones who nod along and say, “Well, I don’t like his tweets, but he tells it like it is,” before forwarding a video titled America Was Better Before the Gays.
That’s almost half the country.
And the rest of us? We were busy. Working. Raising kids. Trying not to scream every time we saw someone put ketchup on pasta. We thought the system would hold. That reason would win. That these people would burn out on their own nonsense. But they didn’t.
They organized. They gerrymandered. They got judges. And slowly—one school board, one state legislature, one anti-science campaign at a time—they got out of hand.
We let them.
We laughed when Sarah Palin said she could see Russia. We rolled our eyes at Marjorie Taylor Greene chasing teenagers down hallways. We said, “Oh come on, that’s just fringe.” But the fringe is now the face. The lunatics didn’t just take over the asylum. They rezoned it and turned it into a theme park.
So here we are.
This isn’t a call to arms. It’s a call to attention. Because ignoring them hasn’t worked. And pretending they’ll go away if we’re just a little nicer, a little more patient, a little more “understanding”? That’s how we got here.
Yeah, well about 8,000,000 of you that voted for Kamala on the bottom of the ticket couldn't bring yourselves to vote for her at the top of the ticket.
Yes, Joseph, I think you are right. My opinion: this is not simply an American or Italian issue. This is based on our human nature (one side or the other). A never ending struggle, but I agree this is a struggle worth fighting. Let’s fight (peacefully, of course) together…Ciao!
Aside from soliciting bribes from corporations and foreign powers, there is every reason to suspect that Trump and his insiders are playing the markets to their personal benefit. Every action that precipitates a swing, positive or negative, can be profitable for someone whose enters the futures market with certain knowledge that their own actions (rational or not) will precipitate that swing.
Yes. Corruption is a central pillar of the operation. That increases the danger in predicting empty shelves and high prices, though. If the grifters manipulate conditions carefully enough (or just get lucky), they may first get the spoils of corruption and then a boost in popular support when the predictions turn out to be wrong. Not saying that will happen. I don’t know what will happen. But neither does anyone else.
If this setup insider trading, then they can't even do that right. The announcement was pre-market which means insiders would have been trading in a low volume environment
And much worse will come if Congress doesn’t act properly and swiftly (and they will act only if we go on protesting and boycotting).
Dear Jeff, let me be clear, a democracy, even the most well-established, cannot stand this level of corruption and incompetence, in a very short time it becomes entrenched and addictive.
As Prof Krugman said some days ago, this time Trump IS Covid.
Hey, trump's acclimatizing us to corruption, sending people to prisons in other countries, ignoring the courts, and closing government agencies. It's working, we're getting used to it.
Actually, he LOVES being in the news, good or bad. It's all about attention. Didn't he once say bad publicity is better than no publicity at all? It's not simply about getting away with stuff, but people have to know and see it. It's what he's most proud of.
The problem is that the billionaire media covers even his stupidest actions (and there are a lot of stupid actions) as if it were serious news. They treat his scribbles on so-called Executive Orders as if they had the force of law.
I agree this is a very frustrating issue… By printing and then journalistically considering if there could be ("surely there must be!") any good side to whatever fresh turd has come out of the presidential face, (culminating in fact-checking three days later) they keep sane-washing this stream of droppings
This is one of many Americans who are as appalled as we can be by the corruption and cruelty of this so-called administration. We are resisting in every way we can.
I would prefer former porn star and professional wrestler President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, who at least listened to people who might know better.
Important to realize this. Personality trumps policy in America. It’s who and how the message is delivered that most listened to.
Trump doesn’t have policy but he has delivery. Most Americans can’t be bothered , Policy is for wonky woke people, but a barn burner speech like governor Pritzgher gives is the answer! Entertainment is everything. Otherwise just turn the channel.
Yeah, that's a more accurate description. If you display that characteristic to MAGAnuts, they'll think you're charismatic - because it reminds them of themselves.
I've recently thought about the part of Back to the Future when Marty shows Doc Brown his camcorder and tells him Reagan's President. Having a President that is merely an actor seems so quaint now.
They're at the Bread and Circus stage now. But the bread is going to run out soon, with this level of economic chaos. The clowns and monkeys aren't going to be nearly as funny on an empty stomach.
I wonder if any of the motivation for Trump's decision is related to the news that he was just given a $400 million luxury airplane by Qatar. The corruption is staggering and Trump may want to do something to get people talking about anything else, which we are now doing.
What renovation? I've read that it's like a palace inside and that Drumpf has been salivating over it. He showed it to family & friends when it was parked at the Palm Beach Airport recently. He has responded to criticism saying that he would be stupid not to accept it.
I'm showing my age, but I remember a cartoonist named Jimmy Hatlo who used to run Hatlo's Inferno
Each panel showcased a unique "punishment" tailored to the offense, making it a playful and inventive take on the afterlife.
I think of him every day and wonder what he would have made Trump suffer. Gives me some solace.
Of course thus means that the grifter in chief will have his personal 747 when he's finally out of office. Having a 747 in his presidential library is a joke
There are good reasons that we always built our Presidential aircraft from scratch here in the US. There's no way to be sure that "gift" isn't compromised in multiple ways, even if it's being modified. I'm quite certain that it is. This is a gift no intelligence operative would miss.
In the 1980s, the GOP allowed Russian construction workers to build the US Embassy in Moscow. They planted so many listening devices that part of the building was torn down and rebuilt by US workers. I’m confident that plane is an intelligence liability, not that Trump, Rubio, Hegseth, etc. will either notice or care.
Isn't it strange, Qatar made a luxury plane gift also to our president few years back? I believe the message is "take this plane and fly it to Qatar, when
In the meantime Trump gets to say he made China back down, and still no one is paying attention to starving children in Gaza and Russia’s continued advance in Europe.
Or the threatened suspension of habeus corpus,the on-going "renditions" of innocent people and the apparent preparations to privatize the national parks and rape them of all their resources... Or, or , or... There's far too much to list.
If you were to relate and assimilate, one of the things that you will learn about Trump is that he knows nothing about business of any kind. He doesn’t know how to make money, except through grifting. His casinos, mail, order steaks, fake university and airline and other schemes that have a profit, as opposed to grift component, simply go bankrupt.
Though he has a degree in business from an Ivy League institution it’s pretty well documented that someone else
took his SAT. Likely others went to his classes and took his test throughout his college career. This would include economics 101, which she apparently doesn’t understand.
Well, he did go to at least one of his classes frequently enough to prompt one of his professors to later comment that ""Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had."
On the musical coda: I always enjoy learning about the historical basis for nursery rhymes. According to Wikipedia, the GODOY in this one is most commonly thought to be Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), the second son of King George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
His most significant field command was during the Flanders Campaign of 1793–94. Despite the British troops having some success against the French, in the summer of 1794 the Duke was obliged to retreat into the Netherlands and he was subsequently recalled to England.
Flanders having something of a reputation for being flat, the specific location of the "hill" in the nursery rhyme has been suggested to be the town of Cassel, which is built on a hill which rises about 570 feet above the flat lands of French Flanders in northern France.
After smashing Napoleon at Waterloo, the British built their own hill there called the Lion's Mound, so if any present or future DOY returns with troops, there will be one ready for them!
The current Duke of York being Andrew, I composed a version for him: Oh the grand old Duke of York, He had some dodgy friends, They led him up the garden path, And they led him down again
Welp, I dunno about the history of the song, but I learned it as a small child in the UK many years ago. When my daughter of 3 years first learned it, she would sing "The grand old Dupe of Yawp," which seems prophetic when applied to Drumpf and His Men, who always seem to be half-way up something or other.
Just heard Mr T tonight May 12. ... he sounds more and more as if he has been suffering from mini-strokes - barely coherent. The vocabulary is that of an 11 year old - everything's "great", "good", "beautiful", "fantastic" "amazing" etc etc. .... his speech is a stream of consciousness. The banality is incredible. HL Mencken once said back in the 1920s that one day the American people would in their infinite wisdom elect a real moron to the White House.
But other countries are not stupid. They will stop paying for drug and film patents and copyrights.
I’ve diversified our holdings to weather the Trump storm, and every time he does something like this, and the stock market (briefly) rebounds, I second guess myself. But then I remember that I’m not a day trader and I can’t play the market as a full time job, so I have to make myself hold still and not panic. Uncertainty affects us all right now, and not just the corporations.
I diversified as well and have zero regrets. I would rather protect my downside and give up some upside because Trump as President is bad long term for the market. It can prop itself up for quite some time on wishful thinking, but when business slows down or stops investing because of uncertainty, that will catch up and eventually slow market growth. But in the meantime, the S&P 500 will trade like an individual meme stock.
I've been diversified for years now. Fortunately, I have much of my money in European stocks and bonds, and those are doing pretty well. I took my entire RMD out into a high-interest bank account, so I will be OK there no matter what happens. So far, my holdings are down about 5% since the inauguration. In my opinion, you are wise to sit on your hands and I intend to do the same.
My brother IS a day trader. I sometimes wonder how he's doing now, but we haven't been on speaking terms since they came out with COVID shots. He's MAGA.
The yield curve provides the best clue where the economy is headed: things are going to keep getting worse for the rest of Trump’s term, and, assuming he actually leaves at the end of it, will only START to improve once he’s done so.
I think we can rely on Jerome Powell to keep an eye on the yield curve, and to take act9ve steps to prevent inversion. Broadly diversified bond portfolios haven't shown a negative return over any ten year period, even thru the debacle of the great recession.
Qater plane, is all of the above, opportunity to spy, opportunity for the despot to get out of town under Qatar's steam should the peasants revolt, and a great investment in a corrupt politician who has access to resources Qatar lacks ... water, arable land and cheap gold card citizenship.
You’d only invest in this grand uncertain climate if you have a giant risk appetite. And you can diversify your portfolio only so much. Nobodyvknows which sectors are going to be graced by Trump’s madness.
This is a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide rally is June 14, yes >that< June 14, be there or be square!
Let's ruin Chump's B'day. We need 3.5% or the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families, bring your pets. Spread the word as far and wide as possible.
So when the arsonist has put out the fire, MAGAs will stand in the smoking ruins and shout: "Look! Thanks to him we can build a new house! It will cost us plenty, but it will be a beautiful house!"
Once upon a time there was a great country that wound up with a very, very deranged and mean king. For no apparent reason, one day that king decided to instantly impoverish just about everyone in his kingdom by raising prices on just about everything his subjects purchased.. Why? Because he did not want he and his court of many very rich advisors and donors to pay taxes.
Then a few weeks later, the king decided to be kind and just keep the impoverished and struggling among his subjects in poverty.
Meanwhile the king will get a new $400 million carriage to fly around in.
1) Insider trading on steroids;
2) intentionally vague timing for maximum corruption returns;
3) death of a centuries-old democracy.
I agree. How many millions of shares did the vile despot Trump, his equally despotic family and his rent-seeking cabinet and oligarchs buy and will dispose when Wall Street soars, making these immoral amd unethical scoundrels a ton of money more — again?
There will be electronic records of every transaction. Our job will be to insist that the next president's justice department prosecutes every single one of them.
We don't need to wait for the next president, we only need for a blue tsunami in the midterms.
Do you think we'll last that long?
jo
JosephZeigler.substack.com
So you'd let those low energy losers win?
Lose the zero-sum game.
It will if we force it to.
And have each state, or at least those who find this conduct criminal, prosecute trump. Let’s hold the un-supreme court accountable, especially Alito and Thomas and maybe more.
trump is breaking federal laws. Someone needs to deter him or we're done.
JoeZeigler.substack.com
Blockchain records?
I meant Blockchain “records”!
Totally. The grift of a lifetime. And people elected him? I just don't get it.
We have always had these people. Remember the silent majority. No, you're too young. They are about 35% along with 10% of fellow travelers. We let them get out of hands one small step at a time.
JosephZeigler.substack.com
I don’t think they are literate.
Completely agree
Anyone else remember about a week ago when the CEOs of Target and Walmart, after meeting with Trump, ordered some of their factories in China to restart production? I didn't dream that, did I?
This was in the works, and predictable regardless.
Sure, I agree, Julian.
But timing is the game-changer here, as always in insider trading scams.
And the price for this massive scam is the American democracy and Western values, something DJT was very clear was not his goal, ever.
Right, I was agreeing with you about the insider trading. Trump (a) chickens out after hearing that scarcity and recession are coming, (b) plays the hero for solving a problem he created, and (c) makes a boatload of money for his family and friends.
And if the economy continues to deteriorate, only more slowly, and his subjects get restless as a result, he gets to (d) claim more emergency powers.
Heads he wins, tails you lose. As usual.
Yes, I agree 100%, dear Julian, I am really frightened with what can come next.
Ciao!
This looks like a good place for a reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide rally is June 14, yes >that< June 14, be there or be square!
Let's ruin Chump's B'day. We need 3.5% or the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families, bring your pets. Spread the word as far and wide as possible.
https://www.nokings.org/
//
Don't let up folks, it's working:
Boycott TE卐LA! Boycott Swastikar!
Short TE卐LA! Short Swastikar!
Boycott 卐tarlink!
Boycott 卐/Twitter!
Curb your DOGE!
https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
https://indivisible.org/
https://handsoff2025.com/
https://www.teslatakedown.com/
https://www.riseandresist.org/
https://thirdact.org
https://www.nokings.org/
Title: We Let Them Get Out of Hand
We have always had these people. You know who I mean. The ones who always think they’re “taking the country back” from someone, even if they can’t quite say who. The angry ones with flags and slogans and a permanent grievance about things not being how they used to be—though how it “used to be” never seems to include Social Security or stop signs.
They used to be quieter. That’s what Nixon called them: the Silent Majority. You probably weren’t around. Lucky you. But I remember. They weren’t that silent, honestly—they still ran the school boards and owned the dealerships—but they didn’t storm the Capitol. They just quietly voted for people who dismantled the safety net, deregulated everything, and blamed “welfare queens” for a sluggish economy.
They’ve always made up about 35% of the country. That’s the core. Then there’s the 10% of “fellow travelers”—some clueless, some opportunistic, all useful. The ones who nod along and say, “Well, I don’t like his tweets, but he tells it like it is,” before forwarding a video titled America Was Better Before the Gays.
That’s almost half the country.
And the rest of us? We were busy. Working. Raising kids. Trying not to scream every time we saw someone put ketchup on pasta. We thought the system would hold. That reason would win. That these people would burn out on their own nonsense. But they didn’t.
They organized. They gerrymandered. They got judges. And slowly—one school board, one state legislature, one anti-science campaign at a time—they got out of hand.
We let them.
We laughed when Sarah Palin said she could see Russia. We rolled our eyes at Marjorie Taylor Greene chasing teenagers down hallways. We said, “Oh come on, that’s just fringe.” But the fringe is now the face. The lunatics didn’t just take over the asylum. They rezoned it and turned it into a theme park.
So here we are.
This isn’t a call to arms. It’s a call to attention. Because ignoring them hasn’t worked. And pretending they’ll go away if we’re just a little nicer, a little more patient, a little more “understanding”? That’s how we got here.
They were always here.
And now they think it’s their country again.
JosephZeigler.substack.com
Yeah, well about 8,000,000 of you that voted for Kamala on the bottom of the ticket couldn't bring yourselves to vote for her at the top of the ticket.
Yes, Joseph, I think you are right. My opinion: this is not simply an American or Italian issue. This is based on our human nature (one side or the other). A never ending struggle, but I agree this is a struggle worth fighting. Let’s fight (peacefully, of course) together…Ciao!
It's been one long contiguous 100 day+ nightmare.
Plus, killer uncertainty remains.
And killer bunnies! :)
For death awaits you all with big nasty pointy teeth!
Aside from soliciting bribes from corporations and foreign powers, there is every reason to suspect that Trump and his insiders are playing the markets to their personal benefit. Every action that precipitates a swing, positive or negative, can be profitable for someone whose enters the futures market with certain knowledge that their own actions (rational or not) will precipitate that swing.
Agree 100%
Yes. Corruption is a central pillar of the operation. That increases the danger in predicting empty shelves and high prices, though. If the grifters manipulate conditions carefully enough (or just get lucky), they may first get the spoils of corruption and then a boost in popular support when the predictions turn out to be wrong. Not saying that will happen. I don’t know what will happen. But neither does anyone else.
If this setup insider trading, then they can't even do that right. The announcement was pre-market which means insiders would have been trading in a low volume environment
This is long in the making and predictable, Jeff, I agree. At least since Mr Bessent outmanoeuvred Mr Navarro (a.k.a. Prof Ron Vara…!!!) and DJT.
I went long on shares since then (as a private investor), but how about 401(k)?
In my view this is a complete scam against the retirement money of the Middle Class, the latest in a very long series!
Just the way DJT made business all his life, on the back of honest Americans.
So you think Trump knew he would cave before the weekend and let his buddies know so they could trade in a high volume environment?
Absolutely.
And much worse will come if Congress doesn’t act properly and swiftly (and they will act only if we go on protesting and boycotting).
Dear Jeff, let me be clear, a democracy, even the most well-established, cannot stand this level of corruption and incompetence, in a very short time it becomes entrenched and addictive.
As Prof Krugman said some days ago, this time Trump IS Covid.
Futures.
4) Untraceable Crypto Bribes totaling billions to the US President
5) The Death of the 4th Estate--FOX News, Sinclair et al have replaced actual news with infotainment & propaganda.
Yes, I agree 100%. This is not only the Trump clan. Much more is at stake. Very dangerous situation.
Hey, trump's acclimatizing us to corruption, sending people to prisons in other countries, ignoring the courts, and closing government agencies. It's working, we're getting used to it.
JosephZeigler.substack.com
Helluva a show though, right? The previous sleepy, competent guy was too boring for Americans, who want a show in every sphere of their lives.
The previous “sleepy” guy never fell asleep at the pope’s funeral!
Nor did sleepy guy fall asleep at his trial … wait he was never on trial!
He wasn't asleep. He was dreaming about how good he would look in the Pope's vestments.
Americans seem to want the politics of their nation to be like Professional Wrestling, with artificial drama, heel turns, villains, and heroes.
I like boring. I miss the days when the president is not in the news.
Every single day!!!
DonnyJon would like to be out of the news. He could get away with a lot more if the reporters would be silent.
Actually, he LOVES being in the news, good or bad. It's all about attention. Didn't he once say bad publicity is better than no publicity at all? It's not simply about getting away with stuff, but people have to know and see it. It's what he's most proud of.
The problem is that the billionaire media covers even his stupidest actions (and there are a lot of stupid actions) as if it were serious news. They treat his scribbles on so-called Executive Orders as if they had the force of law.
He is good at scribbling like a 2 year old.
I agree this is a very frustrating issue… By printing and then journalistically considering if there could be ("surely there must be!") any good side to whatever fresh turd has come out of the presidential face, (culminating in fact-checking three days later) they keep sane-washing this stream of droppings
Damn straight, Mark.
I also miss the days when I didn't see members of the cabinet on the news.
"Americans" who watch professional wrestling, I guess. I've never seen it nor did I eer see the stupid Trump apprentice show, so count me out!
I've seen pro wrestling on television. You haven't missed much, though the choreography rates up there with ballet.
But it’s not pretty.
....... in the eye of the beholder.
Well, it is also all the so-called reality shows, which are actually scripted for maximum outrage, rather like professional wrestling.
Me, too!
Except that the villains are real.
Well, Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame. The term "kayfabe" explains it all
This is one of many Americans who are as appalled as we can be by the corruption and cruelty of this so-called administration. We are resisting in every way we can.
I would prefer former porn star and professional wrestler President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, who at least listened to people who might know better.
Didn’t you see the movie ? It was called “Idiocracy”.
Hulk Hogan is only 69, still young enough to run for Pres.
For some strange reason, a lot of Americans prefer "charisma" over competence.
A culture addicted to entertainment in every sphere of life.
Important to realize this. Personality trumps policy in America. It’s who and how the message is delivered that most listened to.
Trump doesn’t have policy but he has delivery. Most Americans can’t be bothered , Policy is for wonky woke people, but a barn burner speech like governor Pritzgher gives is the answer! Entertainment is everything. Otherwise just turn the channel.
That's why the Dems should put Corey Booker up for Pres. Because in addition to being smart and having outside the box solutions
to problems and being empathetic and having a strong moral compass, he gives barn burning speeches
It's a sad comment on the state of the union.
Most would call it "incoherent bluster".
Yeah, that's a more accurate description. If you display that characteristic to MAGAnuts, they'll think you're charismatic - because it reminds them of themselves.
I've recently thought about the part of Back to the Future when Marty shows Doc Brown his camcorder and tells him Reagan's President. Having a President that is merely an actor seems so quaint now.
Yeah, but who wants to attend a funeral for the country?
Kind of like the showman Reagan following the principled president Carter. Same ole crap
Gotta say that makes more sense that a lot of people who say "Why would they do that?"
makes for great TV
They're at the Bread and Circus stage now. But the bread is going to run out soon, with this level of economic chaos. The clowns and monkeys aren't going to be nearly as funny on an empty stomach.
Those are not "Americans" - those are dimwitted ignoramuses supporting a fascist dictator
But not competent enough to quit sadly 😩
I wonder if any of the motivation for Trump's decision is related to the news that he was just given a $400 million luxury airplane by Qatar. The corruption is staggering and Trump may want to do something to get people talking about anything else, which we are now doing.
Not so fast. Plane not sold yet. And renovations predicted to cost a small fortune. $400M?
And renovations take how long? Probably as long as it takes Boeing to deliver their two planes.
What a costly farce. Where’s Doge when we could actually use them?
DOGE wouldn't target this. It's not "woke".
DOGE will prove to be a very costly farce as well
Exactly doge was a scam and a pathetic joke. The only upside is Elon getting the hell away before every Tesla in the USA was set on fire 🔥
What renovation? I've read that it's like a palace inside and that Drumpf has been salivating over it. He showed it to family & friends when it was parked at the Palm Beach Airport recently. He has responded to criticism saying that he would be stupid not to accept it.
I'm showing my age, but I remember a cartoonist named Jimmy Hatlo who used to run Hatlo's Inferno
Each panel showcased a unique "punishment" tailored to the offense, making it a playful and inventive take on the afterlife.
I think of him every day and wonder what he would have made Trump suffer. Gives me some solace.
I read to be up to Air Force One specs it would take years of renovations and millions of dollars.
Of course thus means that the grifter in chief will have his personal 747 when he's finally out of office. Having a 747 in his presidential library is a joke
You're right. I asked AI and it would be several years, not until 2028
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/hiw-long-would-it-take-to-brin-mESWQsYoRKSb2JfXPfHlSQ
There are good reasons that we always built our Presidential aircraft from scratch here in the US. There's no way to be sure that "gift" isn't compromised in multiple ways, even if it's being modified. I'm quite certain that it is. This is a gift no intelligence operative would miss.
In the 1980s, the GOP allowed Russian construction workers to build the US Embassy in Moscow. They planted so many listening devices that part of the building was torn down and rebuilt by US workers. I’m confident that plane is an intelligence liability, not that Trump, Rubio, Hegseth, etc. will either notice or care.
Good point.
Trojan Horse!
Isn't it strange, Qatar made a luxury plane gift also to our president few years back? I believe the message is "take this plane and fly it to Qatar, when
secular justice comes"
It’s a Boeing, so what could go wrong?😉
Any excuse to slip in a Monty Python reference gets my vote. Well done and funny at the same time.
Ha! I was thinking the same.
I am happy to share.
In the meantime Trump gets to say he made China back down, and still no one is paying attention to starving children in Gaza and Russia’s continued advance in Europe.
Or the threatened suspension of habeus corpus,the on-going "renditions" of innocent people and the apparent preparations to privatize the national parks and rape them of all their resources... Or, or , or... There's far too much to list.
If you were to relate and assimilate, one of the things that you will learn about Trump is that he knows nothing about business of any kind. He doesn’t know how to make money, except through grifting. His casinos, mail, order steaks, fake university and airline and other schemes that have a profit, as opposed to grift component, simply go bankrupt.
Though he has a degree in business from an Ivy League institution it’s pretty well documented that someone else
took his SAT. Likely others went to his classes and took his test throughout his college career. This would include economics 101, which she apparently doesn’t understand.
Well, he did go to at least one of his classes frequently enough to prompt one of his professors to later comment that ""Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had."
On the musical coda: I always enjoy learning about the historical basis for nursery rhymes. According to Wikipedia, the GODOY in this one is most commonly thought to be Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), the second son of King George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
His most significant field command was during the Flanders Campaign of 1793–94. Despite the British troops having some success against the French, in the summer of 1794 the Duke was obliged to retreat into the Netherlands and he was subsequently recalled to England.
Flanders having something of a reputation for being flat, the specific location of the "hill" in the nursery rhyme has been suggested to be the town of Cassel, which is built on a hill which rises about 570 feet above the flat lands of French Flanders in northern France.
After smashing Napoleon at Waterloo, the British built their own hill there called the Lion's Mound, so if any present or future DOY returns with troops, there will be one ready for them!
The current Duke of York being Andrew, I composed a version for him: Oh the grand old Duke of York, He had some dodgy friends, They led him up the garden path, And they led him down again
Welp, I dunno about the history of the song, but I learned it as a small child in the UK many years ago. When my daughter of 3 years first learned it, she would sing "The grand old Dupe of Yawp," which seems prophetic when applied to Drumpf and His Men, who always seem to be half-way up something or other.
Priceless! Dupe of Yawp!
Just heard Mr T tonight May 12. ... he sounds more and more as if he has been suffering from mini-strokes - barely coherent. The vocabulary is that of an 11 year old - everything's "great", "good", "beautiful", "fantastic" "amazing" etc etc. .... his speech is a stream of consciousness. The banality is incredible. HL Mencken once said back in the 1920s that one day the American people would in their infinite wisdom elect a real moron to the White House.
But other countries are not stupid. They will stop paying for drug and film patents and copyrights.
" Like nothing we've ever seen before" is another one of Trump's usual meaningless phrases. The guy is the King of Bullshit.
Wrong "Like nothing we've ever seen before" is totally right. Graft, corruption, incompetence, carelessness, cruelty like nothing we've ever seen before.
I’ve diversified our holdings to weather the Trump storm, and every time he does something like this, and the stock market (briefly) rebounds, I second guess myself. But then I remember that I’m not a day trader and I can’t play the market as a full time job, so I have to make myself hold still and not panic. Uncertainty affects us all right now, and not just the corporations.
I diversified as well and have zero regrets. I would rather protect my downside and give up some upside because Trump as President is bad long term for the market. It can prop itself up for quite some time on wishful thinking, but when business slows down or stops investing because of uncertainty, that will catch up and eventually slow market growth. But in the meantime, the S&P 500 will trade like an individual meme stock.
We're already hearing of empty shipping ports, and anecdotally, I've been seeing a lot more people being laid off on LinkedIn.
I've been diversified for years now. Fortunately, I have much of my money in European stocks and bonds, and those are doing pretty well. I took my entire RMD out into a high-interest bank account, so I will be OK there no matter what happens. So far, my holdings are down about 5% since the inauguration. In my opinion, you are wise to sit on your hands and I intend to do the same.
My brother IS a day trader. I sometimes wonder how he's doing now, but we haven't been on speaking terms since they came out with COVID shots. He's MAGA.
Ugh. I’m very sorry. That’s like a form of rabies.
Something about lying in the bed you made comes to mind.
Covid seemed to drive a lot of people over the edge.
Same here
The yield curve provides the best clue where the economy is headed: things are going to keep getting worse for the rest of Trump’s term, and, assuming he actually leaves at the end of it, will only START to improve once he’s done so.
I think we can rely on Jerome Powell to keep an eye on the yield curve, and to take act9ve steps to prevent inversion. Broadly diversified bond portfolios haven't shown a negative return over any ten year period, even thru the debacle of the great recession.
I got out of the US market completely.
Alas, if Trump hoses things badly enough, there may not be a safe harbor anywhere in the world.
You are in the market for the long term, not the wrong term.
I miss the guy with no malarkey.
Guess what? And by the way it's no joke.
So many thoughts, let me stick to these:
- tariffs will stay; Trump wants to use them as source of income
- Empty shelves; many US stores will have empty shelves for 4 weeks until new boats arrive. And when they arrive, prices have gone up by 30%.
- Qatar plane; this is perhaps too easy, but... what if Qatar offered the plane just to simplify spying on Trump?
See my comment above.
Qater plane, is all of the above, opportunity to spy, opportunity for the despot to get out of town under Qatar's steam should the peasants revolt, and a great investment in a corrupt politician who has access to resources Qatar lacks ... water, arable land and cheap gold card citizenship.
No one needs an opportunity to spy in this administration, just hold out some money and the information will start flowing.
Trump already preparing an exit strategy; you might actually be on to something here. Well spotted.
how the heck does one invest in an environment like this? both bulls and bears are confused.
You join Truth Social, and wait for instructions.
I’m sorry. I forgot a key point. Bend The Knee!
It's easy if you're a Trump insider; it's a complete mystery to anyone else.
You’d only invest in this grand uncertain climate if you have a giant risk appetite. And you can diversify your portfolio only so much. Nobodyvknows which sectors are going to be graced by Trump’s madness.
Even the oracle of Omaha has pulled out into cash.
Just watch Marjorie Taylor Greene's transactions.
Invest outside the US.
Keep an eye out for unicorns.
Waiting for the pigs to get slaughtered.
The pigs are the American people. This is the biggest pig butchering scam imaginable.
Paul and everyone else reading this, we are all EXHAUSTED from this fool and his enablers.
The republicans could shut this down in a NY minute but sit on their hands and do nothing.
So we have to keep up the pressure and do everything we can. Take a deep breath, center yourself and continue the fight.
This is a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide rally is June 14, yes >that< June 14, be there or be square!
Let's ruin Chump's B'day. We need 3.5% or the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families, bring your pets. Spread the word as far and wide as possible.
https://www.nokings.org/
So when the arsonist has put out the fire, MAGAs will stand in the smoking ruins and shout: "Look! Thanks to him we can build a new house! It will cost us plenty, but it will be a beautiful house!"
A big beautiful house. With bricks made from the ashes.
Once upon a time there was a great country that wound up with a very, very deranged and mean king. For no apparent reason, one day that king decided to instantly impoverish just about everyone in his kingdom by raising prices on just about everything his subjects purchased.. Why? Because he did not want he and his court of many very rich advisors and donors to pay taxes.
Then a few weeks later, the king decided to be kind and just keep the impoverished and struggling among his subjects in poverty.
Meanwhile the king will get a new $400 million carriage to fly around in.
So here we are in America. Home of the brave.
Thank you for a sane look at this continuing mess
Why wasn’t the NYT headline: Trump Surrenders in Trade War with China!
Oh, the NY Times would never do that. (Though I think the headline should be "Capitulation Day!")
The NYT exists to launder right-wing talking points into left-wing audiences.
(One reason why I'm very impressed that the professor survived there for a full quarter century).
Trade War With China WHICH HE STARTED.
DonnyJon would shut them down in a New York second.