The "people" also have no sense of context when it comes to inflation. They don't understand what the root causes are, and they don't understand that the US has managed to have lower inflation, post-COVID, than pretty much every industrialized nation. What offends me the most, however, is the thinking that life under Trump would be so much better.
The "people" also have no sense of context when it comes to inflation. They don't understand what the root causes are, and they don't understand that the US has managed to have lower inflation, post-COVID, than pretty much every industrialized nation. What offends me the most, however, is the thinking that life under Trump would be so much better.
It just makes me wonder. What if I think stuff was too expensive in 2019?! Hell I learned to drive back in the 90s, by that measure letтАЩs have gas cost $1.50/gal.
I did a summer in Europe after high school. It was fabulous. I canтАЩt imagine many parents today sending their 17 year old female child off to Europe for 10 weeks with a Eurorail pass, a stack of cashiers checks, a calling card (remember those?) and the pack on her back. Good times. ЁЯдЯ
Agreed. We wore a cloak woven from innocence, naivety, adventurousness, and curiosity. It seemed to make one invincible. I've passed it to my children, although now I cloak them with my prayers.
There are still some hostels around. IтАЩve met lots of folks who were staying in them in my (semi-recent) travels. Not so much in western Europe, but definitely in Eastern Europe, Australia and India. Not that IтАЩd feel safe sending my kids around the world at this particular moment in history. Although the late-80тАЩs (when I first started solo gallivanting around the globe prolly) wasnтАЩt so super safe either. :-)
Some people seem to be thinking, "well, we didn't have this problem when Trump was President, so that's a point in his favor. Why not put him back in and give him another chance?" I think that this is a fallacy, but I guess a lot of people disagree with me. I'm lurking in a pro-Trump fb group, and I sometimes see comments there along the lines of "I miss mean tweets and world peace." My guess is that almost no one in Ukraine or Israel is thinking, "you know, we never had these kinds of problems when Donald Trump was President of the U.S.", since not everything that happens in the world is about the United States, but apparently it is what some Americans think.
It's that logic that offends me, that post hoc ergo propter hoc bullshit. There is no leader in the world who considers Donald Fucking Trump a formidable leader. The Putins, the MBSs, the Orbans, and the Kim Jong Uns of the world look at Trump and see a mark. All they have to do is flatter him. And Russia knew this as early as 1986, if not earlier. From The New York Review of Books:
"In March 1986, Yuri Dubinin arrived in New York to assume his post as the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations. DubininтАЩs daughter, Natalia, was already a diplomat serving at the Soviet mission, and she picked her father up at the airport and drove him into a city to which heтАЩd never before been. (He wouldnтАЩt stay longтАФwithin weeks of his arrival, Dubinin was reposted as Soviet ambassador to the United States and relocated to Washington, D.C.) Their first stop, Natalia told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, was a Tetris-like black skyscraper on Fifth Avenue. Professing himself impressed by what he saw in this monument to American capitalism, the graying apparatchik asked to meet its owner. So the Dubinins traveled to the top floor and were introduced to Donald Trump.
"It was a mutually delightful encounter. тАЬThe first thing I saw in the city is your tower,тАЭ the ambassador exclaimed to the developer (it must have been an exceptionally cloudy day on the Grand Central Parkway). тАЬTrump melted at once,тАЭ Natalia recalled. тАЬHe is an emotional person, somewhat impulsive. He needs recognition. And, of course, when he gets it he likes it. My fatherтАЩs visit worked on him like honey to a bee.тАЭ"
From what I can see we traded a forever war involving the US under Trump for a war draining one of our chief global rivals without our direct involvement. As for the ME, same as it ever was (yeah, I know it is more complicated than that).
Just checked the figures and we're spending less on Ukraine than we did in Trump's term on Afghanistan along with not having American boots on the ground to get killed and wounded. Beyond that, we know damn well that the blood and treasure poured into Afghanistan in Trump's term bore no real fruit. Supporting Ukraine seems very likely to be a big positive return for us, with a potential ally supported and a deadly advesary severely hurt.
It probably will be better for a lot of people...in the short term. I suspect that Trump will do all kinds of things to boost the short term at the expense of the long term.
But then you end up with inflation like 59% as in Turkey under Erdogan, an authoritarian. In Russia, I think inflation is like 12%, and itтАЩs higher in Europe. Inflation is a world-side phenomenon right now post-COVID. Americans are so frightfully insulated that they have no clue.
But thereтАЩs another thing that is a problem in the US and that is the price of health care. ItтАЩs ridiculous.
I suspect big business (especially oil) raises (manipulates) prices during Democratic administrations, and lowers them during Republican eras, because the Republican agenda of low regulation and low corporate taxes are favorable, and they know how to control the masses into voting Republican - prices.
They're already manipulating the price of oil (taking 1Mbpd offline, driving up the price). You could argue that Trump being back in the WH would drive oil prices down (by expanding US production). But they support Trump because he's transactional (ignores human rights) and they would get arms and possibly nuclear technology.
True. I just think it will get worse. Right now gas is pretty decent where I am. Under $3 at Sheetz yesterday. But it's been higher than makes sense for a while now.
Another тАЬsword danceтАЭ is calling. Light up the orb! (Imagine if Obama had engaged in such a bizarre [almost Satanic?] display; he was pilloried just for tilting his head slightly upon introduction.)
The "people" also have no sense of context when it comes to inflation. They don't understand what the root causes are, and they don't understand that the US has managed to have lower inflation, post-COVID, than pretty much every industrialized nation. What offends me the most, however, is the thinking that life under Trump would be so much better.
It just makes me wonder. What if I think stuff was too expensive in 2019?! Hell I learned to drive back in the 90s, by that measure letтАЩs have gas cost $1.50/gal.
Lol. Remember how far we used to get on $5?
"We could use a man like Herbert Hoover again..."
тАЬтАжthose were the daysтАжтАЭ
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? ;-)
So said Archie Bunker.
"Europe on 5 Dollars a Day"
(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3536665-europe-on-5-dollars-a-day)
I did a summer in Europe after high school. It was fabulous. I canтАЩt imagine many parents today sending their 17 year old female child off to Europe for 10 weeks with a Eurorail pass, a stack of cashiers checks, a calling card (remember those?) and the pack on her back. Good times. ЁЯдЯ
Agreed. We wore a cloak woven from innocence, naivety, adventurousness, and curiosity. It seemed to make one invincible. I've passed it to my children, although now I cloak them with my prayers.
There are still some hostels around. IтАЩve met lots of folks who were staying in them in my (semi-recent) travels. Not so much in western Europe, but definitely in Eastern Europe, Australia and India. Not that IтАЩd feel safe sending my kids around the world at this particular moment in history. Although the late-80тАЩs (when I first started solo gallivanting around the globe prolly) wasnтАЩt so super safe either. :-)
When gas finally crossed $1.00/gal for good there was the same amount of craziness. There'd be stories about on the news every day.
Some people seem to be thinking, "well, we didn't have this problem when Trump was President, so that's a point in his favor. Why not put him back in and give him another chance?" I think that this is a fallacy, but I guess a lot of people disagree with me. I'm lurking in a pro-Trump fb group, and I sometimes see comments there along the lines of "I miss mean tweets and world peace." My guess is that almost no one in Ukraine or Israel is thinking, "you know, we never had these kinds of problems when Donald Trump was President of the U.S.", since not everything that happens in the world is about the United States, but apparently it is what some Americans think.
It's that logic that offends me, that post hoc ergo propter hoc bullshit. There is no leader in the world who considers Donald Fucking Trump a formidable leader. The Putins, the MBSs, the Orbans, and the Kim Jong Uns of the world look at Trump and see a mark. All they have to do is flatter him. And Russia knew this as early as 1986, if not earlier. From The New York Review of Books:
"In March 1986, Yuri Dubinin arrived in New York to assume his post as the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations. DubininтАЩs daughter, Natalia, was already a diplomat serving at the Soviet mission, and she picked her father up at the airport and drove him into a city to which heтАЩd never before been. (He wouldnтАЩt stay longтАФwithin weeks of his arrival, Dubinin was reposted as Soviet ambassador to the United States and relocated to Washington, D.C.) Their first stop, Natalia told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, was a Tetris-like black skyscraper on Fifth Avenue. Professing himself impressed by what he saw in this monument to American capitalism, the graying apparatchik asked to meet its owner. So the Dubinins traveled to the top floor and were introduced to Donald Trump.
"It was a mutually delightful encounter. тАЬThe first thing I saw in the city is your tower,тАЭ the ambassador exclaimed to the developer (it must have been an exceptionally cloudy day on the Grand Central Parkway). тАЬTrump melted at once,тАЭ Natalia recalled. тАЬHe is an emotional person, somewhat impulsive. He needs recognition. And, of course, when he gets it he likes it. My fatherтАЩs visit worked on him like honey to a bee.тАЭ"
This is the playbook on Trump.
"I miss mean tweets and world peace."
From what I can see we traded a forever war involving the US under Trump for a war draining one of our chief global rivals without our direct involvement. As for the ME, same as it ever was (yeah, I know it is more complicated than that).
Just checked the figures and we're spending less on Ukraine than we did in Trump's term on Afghanistan along with not having American boots on the ground to get killed and wounded. Beyond that, we know damn well that the blood and treasure poured into Afghanistan in Trump's term bore no real fruit. Supporting Ukraine seems very likely to be a big positive return for us, with a potential ally supported and a deadly advesary severely hurt.
Spot on.
It probably will be better for a lot of people...in the short term. I suspect that Trump will do all kinds of things to boost the short term at the expense of the long term.
But then you end up with inflation like 59% as in Turkey under Erdogan, an authoritarian. In Russia, I think inflation is like 12%, and itтАЩs higher in Europe. Inflation is a world-side phenomenon right now post-COVID. Americans are so frightfully insulated that they have no clue.
But thereтАЩs another thing that is a problem in the US and that is the price of health care. ItтАЩs ridiculous.
Hell, inflation is currently 6.7% in the UK right now! We're doing much better that the rest of the world.
I suspect big business (especially oil) raises (manipulates) prices during Democratic administrations, and lowers them during Republican eras, because the Republican agenda of low regulation and low corporate taxes are favorable, and they know how to control the masses into voting Republican - prices.
Also our "friends" the Saudis prefer Trump and may well get in the oil price manipulation game next year.
They're already manipulating the price of oil (taking 1Mbpd offline, driving up the price). You could argue that Trump being back in the WH would drive oil prices down (by expanding US production). But they support Trump because he's transactional (ignores human rights) and they would get arms and possibly nuclear technology.
True. I just think it will get worse. Right now gas is pretty decent where I am. Under $3 at Sheetz yesterday. But it's been higher than makes sense for a while now.
Another тАЬsword danceтАЭ is calling. Light up the orb! (Imagine if Obama had engaged in such a bizarre [almost Satanic?] display; he was pilloried just for tilting his head slightly upon introduction.)
Exactly like he did the last time he was in office. He's not capable of anything else.
Adulation and the animal instinct of self preservation. And I wouldn't put a 3rd term past him to try.