That was part of a 12-minute anecdote about Arnold Palmer, who was known for a long wood game. Trump was in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Palmer’s home town, and was speaking at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, which is known for having an exceptionally large windsock.
This is not the first time Trump has brought the subject up. In fact, he previously claimed to have seen it personally. From the 2022 book, Confidence Man:
There were countless stories attesting to Trump’s prurience, indulging in gossip and obsessing over others’ looks. In one of the most memorable, as he prepared for a trip to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, for a rally in late 2020, Trump recounted for Oval Office guests the time he had seen hometown golf legend Arnold Palmer disrobed at the Latrobe Country Club, and the size of his genitalia.
From one “big dick” to another! 😛 ok, almost too easy ~ please tip the waitresses …
A dickhead of all dickheads
12 minute rant about Arnold Palmer in the middle of a rally you say?
But I thought the current liberal talking point was that he is “exhausted”?
No just suffering from dementia. It’s obvious now.
His campaign team is pacing the old meandering, antiquated fascist.
It’s a process. 😉
Donald Trump’s vulgar rally ramble fuels questions about his state of mind. No less than his nephew has said he has dementia.
No, that “exhausted” crap came from his own campaign. Apparently, “he’s skipping another debate cos he’s a traitorous pussy” didn’t focus-group well.
Trump could walk around taking potshots with a rifle at random minorities, and his zombie pack would say, “See? He’s got a lot of energy left!” They’ve been so thoroughly brainwashed by his brand of bullshit that it doesn’t matter at all what he says or does; they’re just depressed, hopeless people who have effectively given up on the world and want to put some bitter, senile psycho in the White House because they think it’ll be entertaining. If he decides to jail or execute people he doesn’t like, hey, even more fun for us to watch. It’s right out of a Carlin routine that George once envisioned as comedic fantasy, but decades later became our reality.
None of it means anything, because he’s not even gonna come close to winning, then he’s gonna be jailed shortly after, then his weight & habits, or a killer’s bullet, are gonna catch up to him & put him underground for good. These idiots are supporting a loser in clown makeup whose dire fate is 100% predictable. Let them yammer for another couple weeks, then watch the lame excuses they come up with when the country says, “Don’t drop the soap, asshole.”
It also has to do with being in a group. Like when Spock was brainwashed by a plant into thinking he’s a lazy hippie. After he came out of it, instead of being relieved, he expressed sorrow instead, saying, “There was a sense of belonging.” Trump’s zombies are people who just want to belong. They fit in well with the rest because they dress alike, with the MAGA hats because they’re too lazy to wash their hair, and the unshaven faces because they’re too lazy to shave, and the combat gear that makes them feel pseudo-tough, and the mindless hatred for people who aren’t like them, so that they can all indulge in racist behavior together and feel good about themselves, I guess.
All Trump has done is to create an army of trailer park trash in great numbers, which sadly revealed how stupid millions of people are in this country. It’s even affected his opponents; Walz & Harris are rushing around screaming, “Hey, we like guns! We own guns, we shoot guns! We even wear hunter’s gear!” because they know they have to appeal to these violent Trump cretins to get their votes.
It might feel good to think that, but sadly we *need* these people, we can’t have ~45% of the country just check out. When D-Day for a cult comes and goes without the world ending, the members don’t just snap out of it and go, Well, looks like that was bullshit. Historically (& paradoxically) their belief often becomes stronger.
Trump himself has said he lost ‘by just a little bit’ or similar words. His people heard it *from*him* and still won’t admit it. Likely he isn’t too motivated to win because one or both of his oberfuhrers Steve and Steve at least think they have a plan to declare victory and make it stick. Trump’s idol never got 50% of the Germans to vote for him – barely slowed him down.
The only people more stupid than Trump are his supporters.
You know, people like TrutherBob.
Trump is fucking hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣
Senile guys don’t seem as funny now that I feel my own abilities starting to diminish.
He’s just the ultimate troll. The OG troll.
It’s quiiiiiiiite a stretch to think he’s even doing any of this on purpose. But let’s pretend.
What does trolling us with Palmer’s dick/39 minutes of something vaguely like dancing/’they’re eating the dogs’ *get* him? A giggle? An endorsement from the Extremely Silly Party?
Steverino’s just here to repeat a message, Nature Mom. He doesn’t do anything else. Watch, he won’t respond to your argument in any direct way.
He’s going to be awfully easy to replace with an AI bot
Roger, I don’t understand. I’m a successful, Ivy League educated, Jewish New Yorker. Yet you are iso quick to dismiss me. I get that you hate trump. You’re angry and jealous. I can’t imagine any other reason why you take things so seriously but also are intimated by trump. Are you just a beta male making excuses for being intimidated by conservatives or a liberal who simply hates individualism? I can’t peg you. You seem to be a former big government republican whio is so lost in the machine that you can’t see the reality in front of you.
Steverino. It’s hard for us to believe your credentials because it doesn’t seem possible that that there could be an educated man who actually admires Trump. Not only is the man a complete moron, but he’s also obviously a pathological liar and he demonstrates those things every single day. It’s not that at all that we hate Trump. It’s just that we have eyes and ears, so we see and hear Trump. In addition, you could make a good argument that he is a traitor. As far as I can see, there are only two kinds of people that like Trump – (1) those too stupid to see that’s he’s a dim-witted con man and (2) those who know full well that he is those things, but either fear him or want to ride his coattails. So if you’re the one guy in the world who has a good education and doesn’t realize that Trump is both stupid and dishonest, you are truly unique.
and I am Marie of Roumania.
The irony is someone comfortable with themselves doesn’t really feel the need to tout their accolades. As if a piece of parchment paper with a specific school on it means a ton of shit in today’s world anyway. Takes quite the alpha to run your mouth anonymously on the internet, but what else is new with Trump morons.
Hate to inform you, but all the shitty credentials and social standing or credits you’ve accumulated amount to a pile of shit in the grand scheme of things. Just like everyone else, you’ll end up in the ground in the end just like everyone else, no better than any other person you look down on. Just with more metal and plastic shit to dump in the landfill in the end.
Damn Steve, Trump’s been busy – groping that chick with Epstein; 45 seconds over Stormy; MacDougal & all.
Now he’s intimating Roger?
At least Roger doesn’t have to worry about you pegging him.
To be clear, NO ONE is jealous of Trump. He’s been a hemorrhoid on this country’s ass for 50 years, his mind is Swiss cheese, money can’t buy taste.
What may look like anger is just despair for the country’s future
Scoop, there are more of us than you’d ever expect. There’s a lot of well educated, successful trump supporters. Here’s the bottom line. I don’t care what trump says. I don’t care how scary he is to liberals or how dumb you think he is. I don’t need a “leader” who spews out inspirational fake rhetoric. I don’t need someone to look up to or admire. I want someone who will do 4 things. 1. Boost the economy. 2. Secure the border. I don’t want illegals in this country. 3. Crack down on crime nationwide. I want criminals punished to the fullest extent of the law. 4. Peace in the world.
You all scream about trumps friendship with Putin yet Putin only invaded Ukraine under Obama and Biden. If friendship maintains peace, then thank god for friendship. Additionally I want Israel to wipe hamas, hezbollah and Iran off the map. There’s no place in modern day society for terrorism.
That’s it. That’s all I care about and all I support. Liberals are obsessed with small picture issues and that’s fine, but I don’t need a government dot do anything except keep the lights on and keep my family and friends safe.
And nature Mom, attacking someone for a typo is such a liberal playbook cliche. Even beneath you.
You want to achieve peace in the world by encouraging Israel to wipe Iran from the map or by the USA pulling out of NATO? Yeah, that’ll calm things down.
Liberals are obsessed with the small picture? Like Trump trying for the violent overthrow of the U.S. Government? Like Russia starting a war with another country?
I think the question you have to ask yourself is this, and try to answer it honestly. If Donald Trump has to choose between what is good for America and what is good for Donald Trump, which will he choose? If you truly think the answer is America, you have not been watching or listening to Donald Trump. If you truly think the answer is Donald Trump, you are more intelligent than we give you credit for, but we can’t understand why you would support such a man.
As for your other reasons, exactly what is your beef with the crime trends or the economic trends? Violent crime is about half of what it was in the Reagan years, and the rate is still declining, despite the country’s failure to achieve any meaningful weapons control. The economy has been about as strong as possible in the face of the Fed having raised interest rates. Over the Biden years, America’s economy has outperformed the other developed nations. GDP growth is good. Job creation is phenomenal. The stock market is breaking records. All three recent Presidents have done a good job of pulling America’s economy out of the Bush tailspin. Obama did fine, Trump did fine, and Biden has done fine.
Biden did wait too long to take action on the border, inexplicably in my opinion, but once everyone agreed on a plan, guess who killed it because he chose his own interest over America’s?
Steverino, assuming you’re not just a troll, your post doesn’t change anything because only a moron would think that Trump could accomplish any of those four things.
In fact, a reelected Trump trying to again enforce an ‘America first’ agenda all over the world is the greatest threat to the American economy because it makes it extremely likely that the rest of the world will bite the bullet and remove world reserve currency/petrodollar status from the United States.
If you understand economics as you claim you do, you know that would cause a significant decline in the U.S $ and a significant increase in (real) long term interest rates, which would lead to a significant decline in the U.S standard of living. People who think the United States economy isn’t doing that well right now will likely be shocked at the level of decline of the U.S economy if the U.S currency loses this status.
Think for instance of what happened in the U.K when Liz Truss tried to pass a budget with massive tax cuts that would have ballooned their deficit. It’s the exact same economics concept, but for the U.K, that was reversible.
There is no greater threat to the U.S economy than a reelected President Donald Trump.
Steve –
I didn’t attack you for a typo, just couldn’t resist such a brilliant accidental joke setup.
If I “attacked” anyone it was Trump and you don’t like Trump so that’s OK, right?
Scoop on your final point. I don’t like Trump. He’s a scumbag and a selfish human being. However, I don’t need to like my public servants. His interests and my interests are aligned and therefore he is the candidate I will vote for. And like I said, there are more of us than you can possibly imagine. We simply don’t talk about it, admit to it, or respond to polls. We simply vote.
Russia invaded Ukraine while Obama was president. Russia invaded Ukraine while Biden was president. They didn’t do a thing while trump was president. Clearly if you don’t understand the timing was intentional, you don’t understand strong man tactics. Trump does. I truly do believe that hamas would never have gone into Israel if trump was president. It’s fear. Now that they have… yes Israel has to wipe them off the map. The sooner the better and making them fight with one arm behind their back is dragging this out. Crime is not down. New York City and Los Angeles don’t report to the fbi. The police don’t do their job anymore out of fear of legal consequences. The law has been changed to allow shoplifters to take up to 1000 dollars of good and it’s not a crime. I live in NYC. I see it with my own eyes. Homeless are everywhere. Migrants are everywhere exploiting their own people. Creating old school Italian and Irish criminal networks. I want them gone. They are destroying a city I love.
And Adam, as far as the economy, I don’t understand it like an academic. I understand it as successful participant. Wall Street and multinational conglomerates are crushing it while small business, the lifeblood of the middle class is getting destroyed. Sure you can easily get a job at subway right now but you certainly can’t start your own sub shop. The interest rates have created a hidden time bomb. During the real estate crash, owners of commercial properties would pay rent on their own empty space to artificially reduce supply amd keep rents high which would satisfy the banks. Eventually they ran out of cash and the rent prices dropped below the mortgage payments and they were foreclosed on. Meanwhile, each of their other properties were secured by the previous one and so when one went under, it created a domino effect and the rest went under. There is something very similar happening today. Every small business took out debt in 2021 because it was basically free and they needed the cash to deal with the effects of Covid. No small business factors in rising debt payments in their forecasts. The result is that they service their debt with cash on hand hoping for something to change for their business or for the interest rates. Eventually they run out of cash and right now every small business in America is trying to swap out their debt for cash. Private equity is sitting on the sidelines watching all this. They won’t put a dollar in unless it’s a business that is generating tons of free cash flow. They are waiting for a collapse so they can buy these companies at bargain basement prices. But yes, if you work for a Fortune 500 company, life is good. Google should be broken up. Amazon should be broken up. Consolidation leads to all the wealthy in the hands of a few with everyone else being guaranteed a low paying job. Now maybe you like that. It’s basically how socialist economies work. We are headed there. I don’t like it. America has to care about America first. And Americans first.
Policing and prosecution is down. Not crime. And even the Fortune 500 are taking advantage of the timing and laying off thousands. This is not a good economy.
Some crime is up, but murder and violent crime continues to decrease from the unexpected 2020 spike. In addition to FBI or other crime counts, the murder rate can be calculated from medical records, and those calculations, independent of prosecution or policing statistics, show steep declines.
Four years ago, the pandemic temporarily brought much of the world economy to a halt. Since then, America’s economic performance has left other countries in the dust and even broken some of its own records. The growth rate is high, the unemployment rate is at historic lows, household wealth is surging, and wages are rising faster than costs, especially for the working class. There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.
There has been perhaps no time in history when the U.S. economy has diverged so fundamentally from its peers.
From 2019 to the last quarter of last year, the US GDP grew by 8.2%. The rest of the G7 has averaged 3% and none of them have exceeded 5%.
Of the same G7 countries, the USA is the only one where real wages have grown. (Wages have outpaced inflation) Well, technically, Canada has grown 0.2%. The others are down.
In that period, the lowest-paid decile of workers saw their wages rise four times faster than middle-class workers and more than 10 times faster than the richest decile, meaning that some progress has finally been made to combat income inequality.
Layoffs are an issue in the tech industry, but as far as I can see, that’s not because the companies are performing poorly in either profitability or stock value. It seems that they are just clearing out dead brush.
===============
But once again, you have to face that overwhelming question, more important than anything else. If Donald Trump had to choose between what was best for America and what is best for Donald Trump, what would he choose? If you really think the answer is “America,” then I can understand your supporting him, although I also realize that you obviously know nothing about Donald Trump.
Jaysus Steve, you even admit the facts, but your analysis is fucked.
Socialism is different from ‘something you don’t like’. All this wealth inequality is exactly the endgame for late-stage capitalism: if you’re a vampire squid, you’ll be fine – just keep hugging that face, your successful parasitism means you’re a winner; if you’re anyone else, sorry (but not really sorry,) you’re boned.
I see Steverino is back to ignoring actual crime statistics in favour of conspiracy theories.
Although I suspect in his case the usual maxim applies:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Being in private equity, its probably better for him that Trump wins. Tax cuts, less regulation, brown-nosing people who’s wealthier than him. I’m sure his understanding of economics is sufficient because it makes him money. Any other understanding is surplus to needs and might make other people money. That can not stand.
The resistance to illegal immigration is surprising. Who’s going to maintain his yard?
Scoop, all of the economic metrics you mentioned trail what’s happening on the ground. That’s how bubbles are created. If you saw them from a mile away, you’d pull all of your money, sell your business etc. The real trends lie with the banks. Watch their performance. Watch their ratings. The venture banks are in big big trouble. Silicon Valley bank failed. The rest are all filled with toxic assets in tech. The mortgage sector is in a free fall, particularly commercial mortgages. There’s a reason why all of the economists are saying things are great while the people in the trenches (most of America) think the economy is in the toilet. Check the polls. It’s not make believe or gaslighting. I see it every day. I can buy a company today for 60-70% less than I could in 2021. Those are the private markets. Not Wall Street but Main Street. You are about to see mass layoffs. Employment is also a trend that falls way behind because people in middle management or above get lengthy severances. Like I said, what’s in trumps best interests are what’s in my best interests which are in America’s best interests. Our incentives are aligned. If I believe that changes I’ll reassess. I’ve met trump on numerous occasions btw. I’ve done business with trump. He’s a scumbag, no doubt. I just don’t care. I want police to start arresting people again. I want criminals prosecuted and put in prison. I want the NYC police department to go back to broken windows policy. I want the border closed, not “fixed” letting in 2m immigrants a year. These our collective resources and it’s not the liberals right to spend our resources on people who don’t belong here. I want peace in the Middle East. I want Putin to stop invading countries. Agree with me on this items or don’t but Trump is certainly the person who will deliver my priorities. I could not care less about abortion or transgender rights, or men in women’s sports, or social justice. There are no indigenous people anywhere. Every nation by definition was taken by conquest. That’s what borders are. The British brought the slaves to the US. No one alive was a slave and no one alive owned slaves. As a Jewish American we dealt with pogroms more recently than slavery. We dealt with the holocaust way more recently than slavery. We were thrown out of Spain and Portugal. No people have been persecuted more than the Jews. And there’s not a single handout I feel I’m entitled to.
Sure Jan.
You mention one specific fact: Silicon Valley Bank failed. You mention a few other things that are concerns but you present as sensational like commercial loans and you throw in a bunch of buzz words.
I’m familiar with the proverbial ‘men who live in their parent’s basesment’ who present themselves as wealthy people in finance and I have no doubt that you’re one of them.
Once again, the only way you can measure the success of an economy’s management is to compare it to the rest of the world. The USA managed itself out of the pandemic better than anybody else did elsewhere.
You know full well why people believe the economy is worse than economists believe. That has nothing to do with reality. It has to do with the media bubble. Fox News keeps telling old people that the economy is bad, the streets are filled with crime, and Dominion is switching votes – retirees accept that because they know no better. They are comfy in Arizona or Florida, and they imagine the urban world is what Fox (and others) say it is. If Trump were in office this very minute with the exact same economy, they would be crowing about how good it is, and the low-info voters would be lapping it up/
And of course, with inflation, it requires a genuine understanding of the world, not just a trip to the grocery store. The right-wing crazies remind their audiences that prices are higher under Biden, and fail to mention that the USA has done the best job in the world in that regard – creating the only developed country where post-pandemic wages are rising faster than prices. In the old media world, there would have been an Eric Severeid or somebody to prevent people from simplistic thinking, but there are no such voices in the Crazysphere.
But you are still ducking the most important question. It’s an easy one – multiple choice and there are only two choices. When the time comes when Trump has to choose between what is good for America and what is good for himself, which will he choose? Now don’t try to bullshit us by talking around it with some nonsense like “right now he and I are on the same page,” but just answer the question honestly. Two choices: will he choose Trump or America?
I’m pretty sure you know the answer and you don’t want to admit that you still support such a man.
I don’t think that would be the answer for anyone else I can name on either side – not Vance or McConnell or AOC or Tuberville or Pelosi or even Marjorie Taylor Greene. They would try to do what’s best for America, as almost all of America’s leaders have done through history, even if it hurt their bankbooks, even if it meant sending their sons to war. even if it cost them the support of their base. I might not agree with what they think is right for America, but I would trust their sincerity. It’s not a left-right issue, it’s the fact that Trump is completely egocentric and has no concept of the difference between a “right” thing and a “good for him” thing. He thinks that the veterans who sacrificed their lives to give the world freedom and democracy are suckers. His question was “What was in it for them?” That’s the only way he’s capable of thinking. I realize that he’s mentally ill and that’s not his fault, but we have to keep a monster like that from power.
I’m possibly right of you politically, but I understand full well that Trump is a cancer that must be cut from conservative politics. And from the country.
Pulling out a bunch of emotional anecdotal arguments about reality and how you feel versus facts. Look up the violent crime rate under Reagan versus what it is now. It was multitude levels higher, yet conservatives speak of it as some utopian era. When one era is romanticized and the data shows it was much more dangerous then now, its only the prevalence of propaganda manipulating emotions that is the difference.
Funny how all the MAGA anecdotes of asking WHEN America was great always leads back to eras like the 50s or 60s when worker pay adjusted for inflation was much higher, CEO pay as a balance of average worker pay was much more balanced, housing costs were affordable, college education was affordable, among many other things people strive for nowadays.
All this, and why? Decades of Keynesian economics instead of trickle down econ plus authoritarianism or whatever this ‘MAGA solution’ is nowadays.Because investing in people as a system is far more effective at creating both security and productivity than anything else. The Trump system would rather spend thousands of dollars per person for deportation and imprisonment rather than a percentage of that to reduce recidivism and crimes of despair by actually helping people out. But that would go against the primal emotional ‘someone is getting something I’m not’ tribal mentality of the emotionally stunted.
Turns out, we already actually have thousands of years of using brute force authoritarianism in human history and we’ve seen how the Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, and Soviet Union among hundreds of others have turned out by trying to crush dissent and ruling with an iron fist does. All those states failed despite having some of the most brutal methods to crush dissent as possible.
Emotional reaction to using force isn’t an effective way to create a society that makes anyone more secure, resources allocated fairly, or anything that makes the world better. I think deep down, most people know that, and most people know chance or someone sacrificing to help them in life personally led to them being successful when they otherwise wouldn’t have. Yet most are too busy looking how to stomp down on others because of the propaganda train of emotional reactions to blame the disenfranchised for everything.
Yup. As it says on the Statue of Liberty: fuck the disenfranchised. Fuck the poor, fuck the tired, and fuck the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Keep those homeless, tempest-tossed motherfuckers in their own shithole countries.
Especially fuck the tired. I don’t want to pay for their naps.
Moreover, even at it’s most callous the whole sentiment still falls apart on its own merits. Lets say you go with the most dogged of neo-Nazi level Trmp supporter, there is no grand payoff to even the most hateful implementations of strategy.
Lets say you spend a billion dollars to try to round up as many immigrants as possible to deport them: congrats, you just took a bunch of hard laborers out of the workforce, which won’t be replaced. The drug dealers or cartel runners MAGA’ers complain about aren’t sitting around at a shelter waiting to be rounded up to be arrested, because ANY criminal isn’t sitting out in the open legal or not.
So you round up all these women, children, and male laborers and send them off to the tune of $2 billion – how is the country better? Far more debt added to the deficit, unfilled low wage positions no American wants leads to higher prices, no less crime because that’s not where the money went to begin with.
Go even further, deny even basic decency and don’t even treat them in public hospitals.What do you with communicable diseases? So let all the poors and illegals die in the street, who cleans it up? Still costs money, the coroner costs money, the cremation costs money.
Any option of brute force cruelty STILL is a cost, and the cost is more both on a societal level and a monetary level that’s worse than just trying to help to begin with. There’s no option where in the end someone says ‘aha, all the undesirables are gone now, everyone is rich, crime is forever gone, and the budget is balanced.’
That’s what’s so incredibly idiotic about it all. And anyone who’s taken a basic Western Civ history class has enough knowledge to know that.
Adam, I know a hell of a lot more about real world actual finance than you do. I have no doubt you read more books than me. I’m in private equity. Think what you want. It doesn’t change the facts. I see this stuff up close and personal. I don’t need a lecture from some over educated professor who has never made a dollar in the real world. That’s one of the reason we like trump. He knows you’re as full of shit as we do. You can’t study making money.
You certainly can study making money if you’re actually running a company, running market research for a company, or doing strategic planning for a company (as I was). Almost every aspect of almost every business that sells things can be studied if you know how to go about it. If you’re going to start a new business in retail or fast-food – how much online vs bricks and mortar, how much in-store vs delivery vs pick-up, how much of your traffic is drive-by vs destination shopping, how much do competitors and other nearby businesses help or hurt you, how much do competitors affect you if they are between you and your target customers, how big should your outlets be, do they need to be free-standing, how much space to each product line, how do you alter your product selection in ethnic neighborhoods, how big should your warehouses be, is vertical integration worthwhile or should you use your marketing muscle to leverage suppliers, how many of your type of outlets can go into a market, is the answer to that question dependent on wealth distribution? age distribution? ethnic composition? If you are going to acquire another company, how much can your synergies create a new level of profit that neither of you can capture on your own?
OK, I’m tired of typing. I could keep that up all day. In my consulting days, I found that approximately zero percent of top executives could answer those sorts of questions, even if the matters were specifically in their bailiwicks. There were some exceptions. The CEO at Pitney-Bowes was already ahead of me. On the other hand, the top marketing people at the top Shell affiliates were not able to answer even much simpler questions – how much of your store business comes from people buying fuel? What percent of your fuel customers go in the shop? How does that vary when they pay at the pumps? On the average, how much do they spend in the shop? How much do your customers steal from you? How much do your employees steal from you? You would be shocked at the blank stares and ridiculously incorrect answers I would get from the people in charge of those very matters. I found that most people who succeed in business do so on blind luck, and could probably use a business professor to help them refine their thinking process. (And an economics professor to steer them along on other matters.)
Scoop, I dont rely on the Statue of Liberty for my ideology. I rely on the constitution. Regardless, I like where Indy is going here because rather telling I’m wrong, he’s respecting the fact that I care way less about the poor, the homeless, and the illegals than he does. Finally we are getting somewhere. As for crime, I already said this multiple times but I’m looking for the old broken widows law enforcement policy. I want stop and frisk. I want loiterers, vandals, thugs, and illegals off the streets. I work too hard and spend too much to share the streets with criminals. Giuliani and even Bloomberg had NYC in a great place. Now all of a sudden broken window policy is racist. Don’t break windows. I have zero tolerance for crime. I’ll honestly answer your multiple choice question but I don’t think it’s a yes or no. I think if trump was faced with what’s best for America vs what’s best for hi, financially, he will do what’s best for America. I think if it’s legal or life threatening, he chooses himself. I think AOC, and MTG, and Menendez would choose themselves. There have been plenty of corrupt politicians who have used their position to make money. Pelosi, Biden etc. Pulling the fox news card is no better than pulling the cnn card. They both have low information and high information viewers. That’s a gross generalization. You probably are more right wing then me. I’m a libertarian. I voted for Clinton. I voted for Gary Johnson. The first republican j ever voted for was Mitt Romney because there has never been a greater “threat to democracy” then Obama.
OK, you did answer the question, and it proved that you know nothing at all about the man you are supporting. We have already seem many instances when he has had to choose, and he always chose himself over America. There’s no sense in continuing the conversation. I have to admit that I don’t believe your answer. I think you know very well that Trump would choose himself in every matter large and small, but don’t want to admit you support such a man.
Biden corrupt? This is completely Trumpy nonsense with absolutely zero basis. It is not only untrue, but the complete opposite of the truth. I have said this many times and the evidence totally supports it: Joe Biden is probably the single most honest man in the history of American politics. (Possibly excepting Reagan’s pal, Tip O’Neill) Biiden was in the Senate for a zillion years, and came out with a lower net worth than when he started. He was then vice-president for eight years and again lost net worth. When he went into private life in Trump’s administration, he made a big chunk of money (by his modest standards), as retired politicians often do. These last four years, his net worth has increased in the White House by about a million dollars, but that’s just because of the same thing that helped so many of us: real estate. The value of his houses has increased by about two million, while his remaining net worth has declined. After all of his years in powerful positions, and despite a successful working wife, his net worth is a modest ten million, and more than 100% of that was accumulated in Trump’s presidency. He made $15 million in the first two years of Trump’s presidency from the usual junk (appearances, speaking fees, books!) Excepting Trump’s presidency, Biden’s net worth would be under water. (Thank you, for a good economy, pre-COVID, Trumpy.)
Biden has many weaknesses that could have kept him out of the White House. He is kind of pervy, unpolished, and dumb as a rock. Luckily for him, contrary to any reasonable expectations, he somehow managed to run against maybe the only possible candidate who was pervier, coarser and dumber. Yes, Biden is probably not qualified to lead the free world. We’ve been lucky that he hasn’t screwed anything up that can’t be fixed. But he sure as hell ain’t corrupt.
Maybe the Libertarian police should be deployed to NYC to solve all the problems?
Stolen from anonymous, but it would go like this:
I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”
“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”
The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”
“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”
“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”
He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”
I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.
“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.
“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.
“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”
It didn’t seem like they did.
“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”
Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.
I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.
“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.
Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.
“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”
He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.
“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”
I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”
He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.
One final point. I don’t understand why comparing the US to other nations is the “gold standard” of economic comparison. America first means there is no benchmark except our own. Countries with 10m people don’t count. The only other country that does count economically is china.
If you were really into private finance it’s simply impossible you wouldn’t know about the U.S $ being the world reserve currency and the importance of that status to the United States given the improtance of interest rates in private finance.
Again, it’s obvious you’re a pretend wealthy person living in your parents’ basement.
Indy I just laughed my ass off at that post. We are on the same page. You understand me and hate what I represent. Respect. The fountainhead has been my bible since 1992
Actually I don’t hate Libertarians, at least they’re “somewhat” consistent as compared to Republicans who choose when and where to implement the state based on random moral standards. Usually just boiling down to what the other guy is doing, unless they’re doing it too, then it’s affairs, abortions, and homosexuality to me and not for thee.
Mostly I just find Libertarians funny. It’s like anarchism without a pair. Like wishing for society to collectively agree upon the value of currency, collectively agreeing upon paying the state to provide protection of personal property, but then only allowing the individual or private groups to control the ‘invisible hand’ of the market but not the collective of the nation being allowed to market their value through representatives that make up the state.
It’s just this hilarious concept, like a group of people saying ‘F U everybody, but just don’t touch my stuff bro!’ Like a group of people coming together to invent this naive system where everyone comes together to just say ‘hey yeah I kind of don’t give a bleep about anyone else, but can we just kind of have the honor system that you won’t mess with me while I do it.’
It’s like if they made a book called the ‘Libertarians Cookbook’ the emergency briefcase would be an Ayn Rand novel, three bitcoin wallet passwords, and a gold bullion IOU redeemable at Ft. Knox.
Indy, I think your characterization of libertarians is fair. I spent too many years as an idealist before realizing the libertarian utopia in the mountains isn’t happening. Be spent the last 20 years picking and choose my priorities and living my life. Far easier that way.
I will admit that causing the U.S economy to collapse might solve the border crisis.
On public debt, there is a greater appreciation that not all debt/deficits are the same. Singapore has a very high government debt to GDP ratio, but because it invests that money in high quality public infrastructure, it maintains a Triple A credit rating and is said to have zero ‘net debt.’
On the other side there is Venezuela which is one of the few other countries to have a debt to GDP ratio higher than the United States and is an economic basket case.
(Japan has the highest debt to GDP ratio in the world, more than double that of the United States, I honestly have no idea how Japan has not had to declare bankruptcy.)
The United States has high quality public and private infrastructure but it also has both one of the highest debt to GDP ratios in the world and one of the highest deficit to GDP ratios in the world (a government deficit over 7% of GDP in 2023.)
Most economists believe this is only sustainable because of the U.S $ having world reserve currency status. What this means is that investors all over the world continue to buy up U.S $ without the U.S having to attract these investors with higher long term interest rates.
So, this explains why the U.S economy has done so well relative to every other advanced nation in the last few years – the various infrastructure packages of the Biden Administration seem to have been largely wisely spent and have boosted American GDP.
If any other nation (except for maybe Singapore) tried to do this level of government deficit spending, it would have resulted in what happened to Liz Truss in the U.K. So, good for the United States and the Biden administration to make these high quality investments that have paid off in solid employment and GDP growth, but understand that only the U.S government could do this and that the U.S government could not do it any longer if the U.S $ did not have world reserve currency status.
Adam go back to your classroom. Seriously. You wouldn’t last a day in the real world. Nonstop personal insults coming from an “academic” is too much to handle. It’s a joke.
Look, I’m not saying Trump *is* Andy Kaufman in a latex mask, just that it would be a classic Kaufman prank to pull and no one has seriously looked into it.
What a maroon!
I know his rally crowd does not care but WTF is he actually trying to say?…. “you know I love women but Palmer’s big penis could change me?”
That’s more what he is actually trying (with limited success) NOT to say.
Thanks, Nature Mom! That made me LOL.
Not that this will impress anyone, especially not Steverino, I began my political leanings scarcely interested in macro or micro anything, how society runs, or power. I took what I saw as the principled belief system of libertarians. Conservative messaging drew me in.
I didn’t come to know better easily or readily. I won’t bore you with my long road except to say I eventually realized what Indy has been saying. OK, I’ll say I needed an explanation once I figured out that conservatives were two-faced liars, saying freedom-friendly things purely as political camouflage. What was libertarianism’s answer to bad-faith hijackings? The answer was… crickets. That’s why strongmen are so successful using a free society’s rules meant to empower the individual & the masses against the society itself. Guardrails fail because they are never solid rock. That’s why U.S. guard rails, while they did kinda barely work, are now ripped to shreds & will not work again.
And guys like Steve who think they’re smart when it’s plain to everyone else that they’re a fool are so dangerous. It doesn’t take as much as we like to think to sink the ship.
As for private equity people being so smart. I don’t dispute that they may be as smart as me. I’m pretty smart. But seriously not smart enough. Them, too. Lemme say this about the kind of people we’re dealing with, since Steve proudly drapes himself in that flag.
Consider Red Lobster. They were a decent chain. Not speaking to the food quality, but the customer base seems to have liked it. But many of its outlets were a solid business. A vulture capital LBO’d them. What’d they do for them? To build the business? Oh, that. They bought the land out from under the restaurants, also on borrowed money. Turned around & leased it back to the business. Squeezed them by raising the rent. Made it so hard to be profitable, they had to make choices that were bad for business. Customers were unhappy. Outlets failed or barely stayed afloat. After a few years, the capital folks had extracted all the low-hanging fruit, so then they sold off the scraps to a seafood supplier. That’s where the Endless Shrimp fiasco came from. The parent company used its children as captive buyers. Who were forced to buy a ton of shrimp. Of course, they weren’t actually making money hand-over-fist just giving away all this free shrimp.
Steve, so maybe you’re smart. But that’s who you are. You’re these assholes.
Mykey, I actually agree with you here. I actually despise the people in this industry. And what happened to red lobster is a sham. They basically siphoned all of its assets by selling as much shrimp as they could while actually owning the shrimp distributor. They should be investigated. We are an activist firm dedicated to improving marginalized communities through opportunity and aligned incentives. Not handouts. I would not do o this job otherwise. I don’t like finance bros. I got into into because a company I founded was acquired by them.
And which POTUS would investigate Red Lobster’s owners?
Trump or Biden?
And it sure is hell ain’t the former.
Assume Steve is cleansed by this good-intent dodge. Playground, the problem with should be or will be investigated is, if nothing is going to happen, no one will investigate. That’s a problem with our system. No one gets any consequences unless there’s something against the law going on. When they do get punished, it turns out no one goes to jail. The fines are nowhere close to clawing back all of the profits. So the incentives are to do the evil deeds, take the slap on the wrist.
Activists in this environment are a drop in a big bucket. Pissing into the wind. Commendable, but assigning blame isn’t a thing I want this to be about. Fixing stuff like this, actual punishment that might change incentives? Nope. We’re nowhere close to that. Nor making any real progress, either. This is one actual case of Both Sides.
Honestly I was just fishing for a response before dropping a few facts:
1 – Trump and conservatives in general are more reluctant to investigate any form financial impropriety.
2 – The Dems aren’t great at these things but they will hire people who will at least do the work. Consider Richard Cordray vs Mick Mulvaney.
3 – Trump’s cabinet picks were often very corrupt.
4 – Trump pardoned a lot of financial criminals,
.im pretty sure Ayn Rand is looking up from hell and scowling at Stevo For daring to suggest that the government investigate a capitalist for engaging in capitalism.
Dear Psycho: I endorse your comment. I’ve used these facts myself. Currently, I believe a lot of the college-educated Trump vote isn’t interested in Trump’s character or anything like it. They’re only in it for your reason #1. They have an image to protect, so are unlikely to talk about that motivation publicly. I also agree violently that Ayn Rand was a grievance activist so dead set against all government intervention that she indeed would’ve opposed any impediment of business tactics being immoral, unethical, or even illegal.
Steve, just like the other day when you accused Rumpy Boy of having planning and rational-thought skills – maybe so, maybe not (bets?) but let’s pretend…
OK, you have been the asshole you said you were, but now you will undertake to be a kinder, gentler VC asshole. You will have ethical constraints, your asshole-asshole counterparts will not. You are fighting with one hand tied back. Unless you are way smarter than the rest of the field, you will lose.
Clearly you have thought this through; you’re no fool. So *are* you that much smarter or will losing be the win for you here? Actually curious.
Do you actually believe that Steve is a successful venture capitalist?
Adam, the current euphemism is private equity. Like priv eq, vent cap is an umbrella term. Vult cap is the slang for the bad guys. The dominant colloquial is simply LBO. I’m a layperson, FWIW, not an expert.
Prrivate equity not VC Adam. Go back to your books.
Mykey, VC is very different from PE. VC bets on startups and takes height risk high reward. PE is the next level. They buy VC backed companies who have free cash flow and healthy growth. VC writes 5-20m dollar checks. PE writes 100m to billions and ends up with majority ownership. VC gets a company off the ground at higher risk. PE buys companies that have succeeded.
Steve, whatever. Either way you’re playing pretend living in your parents’ basement.
Private equity doesn’t always buy companies that succeed, many of them buy husks of companies (see companies like Yahoo and AOL, among other failing companies) and basically strip everything except the studs off of walls and attempt to make their return by primarily consolidating staff to the bare minimum among acquisitions, raising prices on whatever niche they have, turning whatever asset they have into adware, and utilizing legal to sue under convoluted intellectual property laws and hope for a settlement.
I’ll grant you moderately more respect if you are a part of non-profit or public benefit corporation, at least the embedded intent isn’t infinite grown and profit for the benefit of the richest investors and executives. Even better if the intent is to embed opportunity into it to provide value for society.
Typically though, private equity, venture capitalist, for-profit corporation, M&A, etc – all of these are just playing the meta to obtain wealth without providing any net benefit to society. This perpetual playing the meta, which is run by the wealthiest in society as some sort of high score game, is the foot stepped on most of society. Really, you don’t have to go any further than the history of the computer industry started to understand how the world works.
Just an anecdote to illustrate this from one of the biggest acquisitions in the past couple years when Microsoft purchased Activision. Activision’s executives and biggest shareholders made gigantic sums of money, with small shareholders making a much more modest sum.
Microsoft in return laid off several thousand employees as redundancies, and raised prices of their products to pay for the cost of making the acquisition. Many companies incur debt to do so, and its even more extreme – Broadcom purchasing VMWare had some very heavy price gouging.
Meanwhile Microsoft just gave it’s CEO a large compensation increase of $31 million more up to $79 million this year due to the ‘increased responsibilities’ and stock manipulation associated with an acquisition.
This is what I mean by playing the meta and why when people talk about GDP, the stock market, inflation, or unemployment measures it’s not telling the story. The above types of actions with Microsoft happen perpetually on smaller scales to manipulate the system. Microsoft isn’t producing any better or more products. Prices are up, not down. More employees lose their job and don’t have an income. And revenue trickles upwards to beget more income and resources to be obtained and hoarded in a feedback loop to do more of the same.
It’s not rocket science why society becomes what it is when the above happens constantly and is praised as being smart, when being the business version of Ted Bundy is praised in society and the ordinary Joe can’t figure out why he’s continually fleeced.
Awesome comment, Indy. OK, so I have a favorite example. HDD maker Rodime morphed into a shell company the sole activity of which was suing HDD makers enforcing royalties for their ridiculous that it was ever granted patent on the 3.5″ HDD form factor.
Did you miss the “let’s pretend”?
I’d say 20-25% chance. More importantly, we’ll never acvually know
Natureboy, I do lose more than I win. I sold my business and did very well and I continue to do well but not as nearly as well as I could if it took advantage of the system. So u,it ate,y you are correct. This is a losing proposition but I believe in it.
NM id rather lose doing the right thing than win doing the wrong thing. It’s not even close. But I will try to win with one hand behind my back.
One detail I’d like to straighten out here. Shrimp made the headlines but was not a primary reason underlying the bankruptcy. Sure, it’s obviously bad. But the original LBO guys, they’re who weakened the business to the breaking point. Restaurants became extremely vulnerable to any external shock. Needless to say recent times have been rife with those.
I thought the economy was awesome right now?
I was talking about COVID supply shocks & all the aftershocks. Yes, inflation was one of those. I say, was, because it’s over. Persisting higher prices are a big political problem. But, many consumers are miscalculating as their wages have more than kept up. Yes, some other consumers are underwater. But I blame the president for external shocks only when specific actions under government control actually caused those shocks. Or inaction. This would include a conservative president, regardless of whether overall I approve or disapprove of their leadership.
Also, to be clear, I was talking specifically about the Red Lobster restaurant owners who became more vulnerable. It had nothing to do with the economy. These owners did suffer supply problems & pricing squeezed them. That’s actually not inflation per se.
Steve –
Trickle-down risk, trickle-up reward.
No, the economy isn’t awesome, just better – and better-handled – than most of the rest of the world.
Stay tuned for the thrilling sequel to The Thread That Wouldn’t Die: TTWD II: The Rebobbining
Things like what happened with Red Lobster are all discussed in the book The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America―and How to Undo His Legacy
Jack Welch and Donald Trump were friends and Trump admired Welch’s leveraged buyouts and downsizing and offshoring that devestated much of the American economy.
I don’t know where the bullshit comes from in regards to the Trump Administration.supposedly enacting Democratic ideas on the economy comes from. Trump was standard far right wing economics: deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthiest.
For what it’s worth, Adam, this book wouldn’t be the first you recommended that I take seriously. It’s only 4/5 on GoodReads, but a topic I’m interested in. I was able to order it used for under $10, so I did. Will have in 2wks, not sure when I’ll get around to it, but now on my list. Which is extensive. A race against death. But such is life.
Are we still talking about Arnold Palmer’s dick? It is still unclear to me why the nominated Presidential candidate of the Republican Party of the United States spent time discussing this subject during an official campaign speech. All else aside, is this not pretty strange just on its own terms?
And maybe with that, perhaps this particular thread could be brought to a close (if Scoop does such a thing with individual threads).
Yes, the strangeness of this subject was Scoop’s original post’s purpose. Your idea that maybe the thread has run, or ought to be considered to have run its course, has merit. On the other hand, violent thread drift like this is one thing I think of as a hallmark of this forum. There’s never been a policy of shutting threads down based on its activity. In the old site, there was a fairly strict automatic closure based on age. I’d always thought that was itself against the spirit of the forum. But now, probably only for lack of implementation, there doesn’t seem to be an expiry mechanism anymore. Anyway, my vote cancels yours. It’s not a democracy, though.
Fair enough, let’s get back to discussing Red Lobster management challenges.
As much as I hate to see these kinds of shenanigans, I have to admit that Golden Gate Capital pulled off some real sleight-of-hand there. They bought Red Lobster, sold off its real estate on a sale-leaseback transaction, then sold Red Lobster in two stages to Thai Union before all those leases started to turn sour.
That left Thai Union in charge. They are seafood suppliers, so they kicked out other suppliers and forced Red Lobster to buy from them (thus ending Red Lobster’s negotiating leverage).
Thai Union just wanted to unload as much seafood as possible – thus came the infinite shrimp deal, which made lots of money upstream, but hurt the Red Lobster division (remember RL couldn’t even negotiate prices for all that shrimp because they were forced to buy from their corporate masters).
America’s changing tastes were a contributing factor to the chain’s decline, and Red Lobster would have had to deal with that sooner or later, but the other factors just blew them out of the water in short order.
Can they restructure successfully? Maybe. The best thing they have going for them is that their cash crunch was caused by having too many customers, not too few. “Too many customers” is at least something to work with.
Yeah. if I think about it real hard, I could come up with something that’s slick but we make it illegal because, well, you know, because it’s wrong. Can you think of anything that’s like that, Scoop?
Based on the speculation, Trump’s victory has started to be priced in by the entire crypto market in the past few days/hours.
It will become clear in 1 week, in any case, if this speculation comes to pass, I recommend everyone to connect and get rich in time.
It’s not just in the easily-manipulated crypto markets. Trump is now a favorite in all the traditional betting sites as well.
Bet 365: Trump -188
Bovada: Trump -185
BetOnline: Trump -200
Oddschecker: Trump -152
On Polymarket, Trump “shares” are now up to 67 cents.
I don’t agree that Trump is an especially smart bet. 538 is calculating that Trump has about a 53% chance of winning. On Polymarket, you are essentially risking two cents for a 53% chance to win one. In every 100 simulations, your average result would be a loss of 21% of your money. You are paying a premium share price based on a 67% chance of winning, but assuming that 538’s estimate is accurate, you are overpaying for that bet.
If you believe that Trump’s chance of winning is 61%, then a bet at Oddschecker (at 152 risk to win 100) would be in your favor.
The bet at Betonline is essentially the same as buying shares on Polymarket – it’s a losing proposition unless Trump’s chance to win really is 67% or higher.
But if you are that confident, you do you.
These types of betting sites make no sense in my opinion. We can see that most of the young people in America prefer memecoin casino…
However, I used the crypto market as an example, because here is the biggest difference between the two candidates and there can be a lot of inside information on the market, which is less spectacular elsewhere. And now Blackrock is also present, so we can get a somewhat realistic picture, but we don’t really know. There are still 7 days left until the final result and really anything can happen in such a fierce competition.
I only hope for one thing, that there will be no fraud on either side and that there will be clean elections.
for example, the republican staff deliberately timed the idea of tax reform until the last days. I wonder if there will be a strategic response from the democrats.
Benzinga now establishes the likelihood of Trump winning each state. The swing states shake out like this
Arizona 75%
Georgia 67%
North Carolina 67%
Pennsylvania 62%
Nevada 60%
Wisconsin 53%
Michigan 50%