24 Comments

Paul's essay today again reminds me of H. L. Mencken's quip: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”

And we are gonna get it good and hard, again and again, in some ways we can't even imagine right now and from which we won't recover for decades, if we ever do. And the perpetrators will skate.

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ANd don't lose sight of the fact that SCOTUS legalized bribery for any public official as long as it is after the fact. So look for his Chamber of Horrors cabinet to do favors for their friends and then collect the briefcase full of cash the next day. Also watch as Gaetz collects millions in protection money. He will make Tony Soprano look like a piker.

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How much will exemptions from tariffs cost, I wonder?

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I've read some variation of this stat over and over: "In the first nine months of the year, it lost $363 million," but can someone please explain how that money was lost? What was it spent on? Is that just a difference in spurious valuations? Could the loss be the point?

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yes it's a loss in spurious valuation. i suspect nobody lost any actual money except anyone who bought in January and sold in September. I really don't know anything about this, so if you really want to know, you should check with someone smarter than me.

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oh, i think that 363 million is what that one guy lost times the number of shareholders...i think. i have no idea how they compute the loss if all the people who bought on monday sold on tuesday to someone who sold on wednesday...etc.

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This article is truly depressing. And on point.

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That's my specialty!

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to something even scarier Reader Supported News 12:00 today

or Jonathan Chait @ The Atlantic re Trump pick for Secretary of Defence

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We had a good run

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Seems our only defense is that trump double up on those mcdonald cheeseburgers.

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And then we get President Vance...

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yes. that's the hell of it.

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Stephen Walt has also warned https://www.ceu.edu/article/2024-11-27/stephen-walt-return-trump-part-2 that the "transactional approach" is bound to involve "deals" that lead to corruption.

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So Joe Biden should pardon Hunter. Why the hell not?

Norms are out the window. Let the MAGAs complain. There’s not a damn thing they could do about it. Cmon Joe. They’ll put your son through more hell. Pardon him.

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I still get chills whenever I see Goya products in the grocery store

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Waldman

I am impressed with your scholarship. I think we already sorta knew this stuff, but you seem to be filling in the picture. Is it just me or does the picture of Trump smiling as he signs some paper look like he is just sitting down to eat his worst enemy?

but i do have a question" I think I heard during the election campaign that Harris was looking favorably at bitcoin? fake news? or reason to despair?

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She did! Didn't get all that much attention, and it had a real hostage-video vibe to it - you could tell that they realized the crypto goons were pouring tens of millions of dollars into the campaign, and her campaign didn't want them to do to her what they were doing to Sherrod Brown, so she said some kind words about crypto and moved on.

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I’m from the backwater state of Ohio. After everything that good and decent man, Brown, did for this state, I’m beyond disgusted that a lying, criminal like Moreno was elected.

Never has so many lies and misinformation been thrust upon us about him.

People clearly cannot think critically or disseminate any ads.

WTF is wrong with people?

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Paul, that is why I despair. If it were not for Trump, the crypto thing would have disinclined me to vote for Harris. Also true for some other issues I care about. For what it is worth, it is not Left propaganda that scares me about Trump. It is Trump himself.

Meanwhile politics is a guessing game with apparently no right answers. "Is she saying that only to win votes?" Or does she mean it, and will it do any good, or even get past Congress. Maybe "democracy " is the best we can do, but it doesn't seem to be working very well...and maybe never has

Left propaganda, as seen on the web struck me as coming perilously close to exaggeration and disingenuous innuendo...not in the same league with Trump , but still leaving a bad taste. You. by the way, are not one of those guilty of that.

But somehow we get morons in Congress. That word is meant literally and not just a political noise. I don't know any more than anyone else about most issues. But on those I do know sometihing (in one case a lot) about, II have never heard an honest word or well informed argument from anyone in Congress

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comment thread appears to be not working.

to "lynn and paul" if they see this: thanks for reply re cats and kittens. makes me feel better.

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Left propaganda? You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hearing about how your son would become a female after a day at school.

The lies are coming from the right.

Try again.

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lynn

try reading what i wrote again, not what you think i wrote. just to help a bit: i am very much on the side of the Left, but there is such a thing as Left propaganda, which at times exaggerates and misrepresents just like Right propaganda. Not as bad as the Right which lies to promote evil behavior. Left exaggerates in defense of decent behavior, but the exaggerations don't help persuade anyone, they only give the Right an excuse to call the Left liars.

i don't like images of swinging dead cats and it makes me wonder what is going on inside of your head.

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It’s just an old expression. I like kittens.

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