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#4 | Posted by Angrydad at 2025-09-27 03:50 PM
So...where are all of the "free market capitalists" who should be coming to Swift's defense?

Why should anyone be coming to Swift's "defense"? She is a big girl and can handle business negotiations all by herself (and her agent, if she has one).

It's not like NFL "made an offer she couldn't refuse" - and she will probably be at a nice private guest party booth at Superbowl if Chiefs will be playing.

|------- The speculation about Taylor Swift's possible performance at the Super Bowl has now reportedly come to an abrupt end. Industry insiders claimed that Swift made some demands to perform for the halftime show. However, the NFL refused to meet her terms, and the deal has thus fallen through. Taylor Swift wanted a Super Bowl deal that reflected her 'value,' says source.

For years, fans have eagerly anticipated Taylor Swift's performance at the Super Bowl. The anticipation increased this year after rumors of her deal with the NFL hit the headlines. **

The NFL reportedly does not pay the Super Bowl performers, and Swift was not okay with it. She demanded that the NFL let her reserve full ownership of her performance while also asking for slots to advertise her own projects during the show. The NFL, however, did not agree to the terms. A music executive told Shuter, "She wasn't asking for favors, she was asking for respect. ... She wanted a deal that reflected her value." ...
-------|

So where is the problem here? Looks entirely like "free market capitalism" to me, where the parties negotiate the value of the deal but can't come to an agreement on each other's terms. Happens every day.

Swift is also very cautious about not having ownership and control of her content, after selling her portfolio early and then having to re-record and eventually buy back her own songs. She may not want to be in the same situation again.

Frankly, I think half-time shows are much ado about nothing and was unimpressed by most recent ones, and not a fan of Swift material... but that's just me. It makes money for some and gives 'exposure' to some, and apparently many "capitalists" and "socialists" enjoy them.

** Sounds like NFL wanted to put some pressure on Swift and leaked that there are 'negotiations.'
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#27 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-24 09:20 PM
So yeah, so long as PM Netanyahu retains his office, he apparently will not have to face the legal charges against him.

Apparently you have no idea of how democracy in Israel works - Netanyahu has been investigated for since 2016 and charged with 5 [specious] counts of corruption against him in 2019, with trial starting in early 2020. It took so long because prosecution has no real case against him and not one of 333 "witnesses" they brought to the stand testified against him or took a plea. They had to rest and defense took over in December of 2024, starting with Netanyahu's testimony. He has been testifying still last month, and judge panel ordered for case testimonies to be 3-4 times a week to speed up the case.

That's while in office, through COVID, October 7 2023 and war against Hamas, neutralizing Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran, Assad and Putin in Syria, Yemen's Houthis, Iran nuclear threat, etc. etc.

I'm not looking for an explanation.
Why?
Maybe because of this ...

- - - - - ...Netanyahu is corrupt and holding onto power to save himself. ...


So how exactly is he "saving himself" while on trial and how could he be "holding onto power"?

There are parliamentary elections in Israel, just like in many European countries. Unlike Gaza, under "Hamas management" since 2007 and West Bank where Abbas is into his 21st year of 4-year term he's been "elected" to.

Re "corrupt" you are just echoing what you have "learned" right here, on "this most august of the august sites."

Check the cases 1000, 2000 and 4000 against Netanyahu and see if those qualify as "corruption" by our "democratic" standards, e.g., case 1000:

|------- In Case 1000, Netanyahu is accused of having a conflict of interest while he was the Minister of Communications and handled affairs related to Arnon Milchan's business interests. The prosecution alleges that Netanyahu received expensive cigars and champagne worth $195,000 from Milchan and James Packer, a friend of Milchan's, over a period of 20 years.

... As per the allegations, in the years 2013 " 2014, Netanyahu asked John Kerry on three separate occasions, to help Milchan in securing a US Visa. ...
-------|


Again, I do not disagree. So, how does all that affect the NYC Mayoral campaign?

Because propaganda rules demand (and pays only) that any thread is turned into anti-Israel, anti-Netanyahu, anti-Joo discussion (see Effeteposer et al) whenever possible.

BTW, the word HAMAS didn't appear once in this thread about "belligerent people"... that Israel and their governments had to defend against since its establishment in 1948.
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Reuters: "A loan for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook... shows that Cook had declared the property as a 'vacation home.'" Case closed.

People who Trump publicly accuses of mortgage fraud are credit-worthy enough to get loans at the best possible rates regardless of the properties' stated purpose so, unlike Trump - who was convicted of multiple counts of real estate fraud - they didn't actually need to commit fraud to get favorable terms.

#9 | Posted by visitor_ at 2025-09-20 05:14 PM
I've never claimed more than one primary residence at a time on loan or tax documents.

Good for you.

For taxes there may only be one "Primary" residence. For loans there may be several "Principal" residences if you spend substantial amount of time there (e.g., working or taking care of a relative in other city or state, etc.) and they are not "vacation" / "secondary" / "rental" or "investment" properties.

This is not unusual.

What is unusual - and much more interesting - is WHO dug this generally non-public info and WHY it was done the way it was:

WHO : Bill Pulte, current head of FHFA, who inherited PulteGroup real estate empire, currently worth $26B.

HOW : Did Pulte or his staff just happen to read some randomly chosen (from millions held by Fannie and Freddy) past mortgage applications and stumbled into the alleged abuses by NY AG Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff and Fed Gov. Lisa Cook? Mortgage files are not public, so what was the 'primary' reason for him to even start looking for this information?

WHY : If he really thought they committed a fraud, why announce it publicly instead of going through usual procedures of informing IG and eventually referring the case to DOJ for prosecution?

Obviously, as was the case with Jerome Powell, the intent is to intimidate and force out a member of supposedly "independent" agency to staff it with lapdogs who would do his bidding of lowering interest rates and devaluing the USD, regardless of inflation or other economic issues.

Pulte's RE company can also potentially profit from lower interest rates... but Trump's and his cabinet of flunkeys issue of conflicts of interests seems to be a feature, not a bug.

Maybe Pulte himself has some 'splaining to do?
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#26 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2025-09-17 09:25 PM
These late night shows are tanking in the ratings and it's no wonder why.
We need another Johnny Carson.

Actually, the reason you don't understand "why" is because you blinked and missed the rapidly changing "content creation and delivery" business landscape - "free TV" today is far from what it was when Johnny Carson was "on the air" competing only with a couple of similar OTA networks and a few "cable" news/entertainment channels, mostly CNN and MTV.

Today, number of digital CDNs ("Content Delivery/Distribution Network") is huge (YT / TikTok "channels" etc.) and content more fragmented than 3 or 4 OTA TV networks then, and people don't have to stay up late, especially in Western time zones, to watch "live" late-night network content.

So comparing today's "late night" ratings to old times or any other available content is nonsensical. If networks were really losing money on these shows, they wouldn't keep them on the air - the programmers and accountants there are not idiots and understand "ad and aux revenue" and change shows all the time - if they could make more net $$ doing that they would do it without "input" from Trump and FCC chair.

So maybe we should leave programming and accounting to the networks? We don't have to like or watch it. Or do you really want to be hypocritical and maintain that the reason Colbert and Kimmel are being "cancelled" is because they have "no talent" and their "low ratings," and Trump's clearly stated desires and threats had nothing to do with it?

Q: What were the ratings of the whatever show that replaced Kimmel's this week and how much money DIS made / lost with it?

Q: Do you really want your content choices decided by the Programmer-in-Chief? Be careful what you wish for.

FCC is not the only "weapon" Big Government has. Two largest Disney / ABC local stations owners, Nexstar (NSXT) and Tegna (TGNA), who suddenly refused to retransmit Kimmel show, have recently announced a merger, and are very dependent on FCC (e.g., ownership limits rules - www.lermansenter.com), FTC and DOJ antitrust approval:
"Nexstar to Buy Tegna for $3.5 Billion in Bet on FCC Reforms ... Nexstar-Tegna deal puts Trump move to eliminate broadcast ownership rules to the test - 2025-09-01

Very opportune moment for Trump to exact his revenge, no?

Disney also owns Hulu which is trying to acquire some of the "free / ad-supported / subscription" streaming services like Fubo and Philo, which also will need government approval. How do you think these would go if DIS doesn't indulge Dear Leader?

This is similar to Paramount (CBS) which received miraculously fast approval to merge with Larry Ellison son's company Skydance... just as soon as Sheri Redstone agreed to paying $16M+ to Trump to settle baseless lawsuit.

Q: Do you know of any "media company" that will chance not being subject to some government regulations or decisions affecting their business in next few years?

Using extortion and pretext of "Saint Charlie" Kirk's murder to muzzle "inconvenient" content used to be revolting, regardless of the party and grievances re "the other side."

Nothing like corruption AND an attack on free speech, rolled into one. Brought to us by "scum" who doesn't believe either exists.
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Trump has never stopped trying to make his boss his BFF:

olgalautman.substack.com - U.S. Starts Buying Eggs From Russia | And Treasury issues a waiver for some diamonds - 2025-09-06

reason.com - Trump Forcibly Returns Russian Dissenters who Fled Putin -2025-09-07

By Julie Roginsky @ saltypolitics.substack.com

saltypolitics.substack.com - Trump Working with KGB Successor on Deportations - 2025-09-09

saltypolitics.substack.com - Trump Unleashes the Dogs of War | Trump's greatest diversion from his failures is American carnage - 2025-09-07

Active Measures - Series on how Russia attacked the 2016 U.S. election to help Trump win

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 1 - Active Measures: An Intro To the KGB Playbook

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 2 - Active Measures: Laying the Groundwork (2008 " 2012)

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 3 - Active Measures: Guns, Spies and Trump

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 4 - Active Measures: Putin's God Squad

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 5 - Active Measures: Nazis, the Kremlin and Trump

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 6 - Active Measures: How the Kremlin Penetrated Fox News and Right-Wing Media

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 7 - Active Measures: The Kremlin's Troll Factory

saltypolitics.substack.com - Chapter 8 - Active Measures: The Trump Miss Universe Play

Diversion: "Russiagate Hoax" | "Not Russia, Russia, Russia..."

Just a sample of how wide Russian disinfo campaigns and networks spread - Operation Overload / Matryoshka:

www.wired.com - A Pro-Russia Disinformation Campaign Is Using Free AI Tools to Fuel a 'Content Explosion'
Consumer-grade AI tools have supercharged Russian-aligned disinformation as pictures, videos, QR codes, and fake websites have proliferated.

www.sgdsn.gouv.fr - Matryoshka - Operation Overload - A pro-Russian campaign targeting media and fact-checking community

There are Matryoshka trolls on this site. Effeteposer is the most obvious low-level Russian one, some others are paid or "influenced" by and into dis/misinfo and become true believers, seeking similar "content" to reinforce [sometimes newly found] confirmation bias.

That's how Putin / Bannon / Trump tactic of "flooding the zone with s**t" works.

The NYT article which pissed off Trump didn't mention that son of Steve Witcoff, Zach Witcoff, a co-founder of WLF, became a buddy and crypto mentor of Barron Trump ('DeFi Visionary') before starting the company that is majority-owned by Trumps:
www.nytimes.com - Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches - 2025-09-15
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Godfather of AI Says His Creation Is About to Unleash Massive Unemployment

Luddites, you lot.

Every technological change led to disruption and change and obsolete whole industries, both in "manu-facturing" (literally L. "production by hand") and services - horse-and-buggy / pony express transportation to telephone switch operations etc.

Human workers have been replaced by robots and cobots, automation and computers for a lot less time than Industrial Revolution replaced manual labor, yet most of the people who want a job have had one.

For example, 3D-manufacturing, additive and reductive, as well as specialized robotics, have significantly improved the process and production times while reducing the need for human "brawn" in both manufacturing and service industries, as well as making it less expensive amortized over time.

I know, "this time is different" because this time "they are coming for white-collar jobs"... but the doomers (including those who have advanced the technology) told us that it was "different" all those times as well. And they were somewhat right - real progress is made by technology, not the politicians, especially ones who try to "stop or slow down the doomsday"... like Elon Musk recently suggested... for others, not his own "AI" development.

The point is that laws will stop no one else nowhere else from technological progress - which, as usual, brings with itself and can be used for good as well as bad.

New "industries" and services, adopting "AI" will come up, that you have no idea about yet, same as using technology before freed people for more productive endeavors.


#6 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-09-10 07:06 AM
Maybe trading our manufacturing and agriculture for desk jobs pushing numbers was a bad idea.
Too late now, people are complacent to pay $150 for a 55" HDTV. There is no way they will pay $1500 for the same thing.

That sounds awfully like "America First / MAGA" - "bring manufacturing and agriculture(??) home!" - this is exactly how Trump got so many of formerly reliable Democratic "identity politics" voters to abandon increasingly elitist (20%) "progressive" party.

The idea that "we" (the US government? the "rich"?) "offshored" manufacturing and the reason for our "problems" is that "we" (the people) no longer want to pay $1500 for items that cost less than $150 to produce somewhere else has been debunked many times over - it's called "pricing yourself out of the market" and "Money goes where it's welcome and stays and multiplies where it's well treated."

Damn those "globalists"! "Bring manufacturing home!" "America First"! "MAGA!"

Howard Lutnick's "army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones - that kind of thing is going to come to America" is not "coming to America" - it's a fantasy of the times long past by the "globalism deniers" and believers in Trump Org "Central Committee economic planning" - it plays on the voters' economic illiteracy and ignorance of history, and putting the "blame" on one or the other party / President / "the rich/elite" / "greed" for natural progress and adoption of technology.
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** Not even "single-payer" / "universal" medical insurance systems are the exception, e.g., even The Guardian (and Labour gov't) had to admit that British NHS is "broken" (inadequate funding and long wait times for routine procedures):

www.theguardian.com - Wes Streeting to axe thousands of jobs at NHS England after ousting of chief executive - 2025-02-25

www.theguardian.com - The Guardian view on Labour and the NHS: there is no miracle cure for a struggling health system - 2025-03-04

|------- Wes Streeting is building a team of reformers, but ingrained weaknesses in the health service will be hard to fix.

... But the conditions in which he must do this are hugely challenging. The UK has an ageing and increasingly ill population, and a health system which... has ingrained weaknesses. Some of these are to do with the workforce, with shortages in some areas and dissatisfaction with pay that makes further strikes likely.

Long-term underinvestment means technology and infrastructure are not what they should be. ... many of the problems are the same - notably long waiting lists and population health issues, including obesity. ...

It is one thing to endorse this as a concept. But with hospitals under huge pressure from waiting lists, restive staff and a lack of investment ... -------|


Does UK "universal" healthcare system "ration" services?

Maybe having the option to change insurance plan or company if their support center not responsive is not all that bad?

Attempts in several US states (CA, VT, CO) to find a version of government-provided healthcare insurance like "Single-payer" or "Medicare for All" (which guaranteed the "right" to healthcare yet wouldn't bankrupt the state) ran into funding problems and failed bigly, but differently:

www.latimes.com - Single-payer healthcare meets its fate again in the face of California's massive budget deficit - LAT, 2024-05-16

en.wikipedia.org - Vermont health care reform

cohealthinitiative.org - What's going on with universal health care in Colorado? - 2019-02-16

|------- "An insurance card doesn't necessarily guarantee you access either" ... Vermont, a state that spent years working on a single-payer health care system, serves as a cautionary tale. ... Likewise, the cost of Amendment 69 was estimated at $36 billion per year, more than the entire state budget. -------|

www.vox.com - Colorado single-payer initiative failure - 2017-09-14

|------- ... voters rejected ... single-payer system by... 79 percent to 21 percent -------|

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Article "Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures" - NYT, 2025-08-28, has no reference to Medicare "rationing" services, and for good reason - neither "traditional" Medicare (even with Medigap) nor Medicare Advantage, which already enrolls more than half of Medicare recipients and becoming more popular, ever provided all-you-can-eat services. **

Article also acknowledged that: "... There are clear-cut examples where Medicare has wasted billions on questionable medical care. The agency came under scrutiny earlier this year for spending billions of dollars on expensive "skin substitutes" of dubious value. ... A.I. screening tool would focus narrowly on about a dozen procedures, which it has determined to be costly and of little to no benefit to patients."

"Prior approval" may prevent costly, unnecessary procedures and a lot of Medicare fraud, which is a well-known issue that cost CMS and law enforcement billions.

AI is being thrown right and left (see "AI Startup Once Worth $1.5 Billion Now Worthless" - drudge.com), but you could write these "screening tools" in COBOL, if you had to - most of them just compare the procedure request with the patient's plan tables of allowed/disallowed - whitelist/blacklist codes.

The "use of 'AI' for prior approval" resulting in high(er) rate of denials by UHC, Cigna and Humana was much discussed last year - the reason is that most were allowed after appeal when request was corrected and properly re-filed (e.g., often by providers/doctors not familiar with particular plan), which was in ~82% of the cases.

This research has a lot of data and charts:
www.kff.org - Medicare Advantage Insurers Made Nearly 50 Million Prior Authorization Determinations in 2023 - KFF, 2025-01-28

|------- Prior authorization requirements are intended to ensure that health care services are medically necessary by requiring approval before a service or other benefit will be covered. Medicare Advantage insurers typically use prior authorization, along with other tools, such as provider networks, to manage utilization and lower costs...

This analysis uses data submitted by Medicare Advantage insurers to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to examine the trends in the number of requests for prior authorization determinations, denials, and appeals for 2019 through 2023, as well as differences across Medicare Advantage insurers.-------|


US Healthcare insurance companies directly employ less than 900,000 people (not counting free-lancers/brokers) and are currently managing about 54% of Medicare, their average net profit margin is ~1.4% (outside of AARP's fav UnitedHealth which owns PBM, at ~3.5-5.0%) - exactly the reason government outsources some Medicare, VA and other healthcare services to them to increase efficiency and reduce costs, which includes limited plans that deny "unnecessary" - IOW, "unapproved" or not pre-approved proocedures - thus making THEM "bad guys," not the government.
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Trump and Melania's Crypto Grifts Plunge 88% and 98%

That's from the peak, not from issued price.

Still doesn't matter, all memecoins are expected to fall in very short time, they are there only for quick enrichment of tokens creators, [celebrity] issuers and insiders or few lucky gamblers and "snipers", and are primed for immediate "rug pulls" like this one:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wtf-going-fake-kanye-west-161604532.html - 'WTF Is Going On?' Fake Kanye West Coins Crash After Real YZY Token Launches - 2025-08-21

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kanye-west-yzy-meme-coin-143308494.html - Kanye West's YZY Meme Coin Bloodbath: One Trader Lost $1M - 2025-08-22

|------- Over 60% of YZY traders lost money, according to on-chain data. One address recorded a loss of more than $1 million, while a small number of insiders made massive profits.
The first major YZY buyer was linked to a known sniper and suspected insider named Naseem, who has been connected to other controversial meme coins like TRUMP and LIBRA. ...

.

#2 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-08-22 09:00 AM
If he was smart, he would've taken the $75 per coin he got from the suckers and converted it to cash leaving the suckers to eat the loss alone.

There is no "loss" for Trumps. They have already converted most of it into real "fiat" USD cash.

One, they received the tokens at no charge.

Two, whatever tokens they have left is gravy - they have already cashed out a huge amount of them, to the tune of $350M ($314M from tokens sale and $36M in fees) from $TRUMP "coin" alone as of March 2025.

Three, when someone trades or executes transactions in memecoins (or stablecoins), there is a transaction fee going to the token's chain owners, so it's beneficial to the creators and owners whose memecoins or stablecoins are used.

It pays to "print" your own money!

That's why GENIUS Act specifically prohibits Central Bank / Federal Reserve from issuing CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) stablecoin - a "digital US dollar" - there would be hardly a need or incentive for financial companies or banks to issue their own, if they couldn't lock in customer to their own chain network and extract transaction fees ("transaction tax") when one is used.


https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413677 - Day 5: Crypto Has Made Trump $1.2 BILLION Richer " and Counting - Washington, DC, July 17, 2025

And it doesn't even count more recent developments of essentially creating / converting his "brand" into so-called "crypto treasury companies" which are leveraged, i.e., paid for with Other People's Money.
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#45 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-26 09:22 PM
Is this Intel (et al) "investment" just another way Pres Trump is trying to reduce the huge Trump deficit?

Besides other things...

He is trying to establish "US Sovereign Wealth Fund" which could be (with an accounting sleight of hand) counted as a credit against US deficits (and, with an accounting sleight of hand, against debt), in particular by initially transferring into it all the Bitcoins (and other digital/crypto "coins") that have been seized by fed agencies from various busted cyber-fraud activities.

Of course, it also "strangely" coincides and helps with "fast and furious" growth of his own crypto activities, in particular essentially converting most of his "brands" and "investments" into so-called "Bitcoin/crypto treasury companies" (see MSTR / "Strategy) which is a bet - often "leveraged" - on growing valuation of crypto "coins".
fortune.com - Michael Saylor's company rebrands to 'Strategy' and calls itself a 'Bitcoin treasury company' - 2025-02-05

www.wsj.com - The Trump Family Cashes In on 'the Infinite Money Glitch' - 2025-08-24

finance.yahoo.com - Trump's Media Company Launches New Business to Buy Billions in Niche Crypto Coin | Trump Media, Crypto.com announce partnership. spin out exchange token SPAC - 2025-08-25

www.nytimes.com - Trump Crypto Firm (WLFI) Announces $1.5 Billion Digital Coin Deal | Trump Media Files Amended Registration Statement for Bitcoin ETF - NYT, 2025-08-11

fortune.com - Trump family's Bitcoin-mining company raises $220 million - 2025-07-01

etc., etc.

Meanwhile: apnews.com - CFPB ends investigation into buy now, pay later company linked to Don Jr - AP, 2025-08-20

...

BTW, while Kamala Harris was entertaining crowds with celebrities, and keeping herself and her base engaged on the wrong 20% side of most other 80/20 issues (Pareto Principle **), and DR folks spent weeks of utterly ridiculous meltdown on raging debates whether to unsubscribe from WaPo and LAT for leaving them in the dark about who to vote for/against because (oh horrors!) their "billionaires owners" didn't allow editors to officially "endorse" someone, Trump was successfully courting significant voting groups, like union workers, POC and Libertarians, e.g., by promising to pardon Ross Ulbricht and deregulate crypto, if elected.

www.nytimes.com - How Trump Was Persuaded to Pardon an Online Drug Kingpin - NYT, 2025-01-22

www.newyorker.com - Why Trump Freed Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts - 2025-01-27

---

** podcasts.apple.com - "Trump's 80-20 Strategy... Trump's focus is on the 80-20 issues that are widely favored."
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#2 | Posted by MSgt at 2025-08-24 01:03 PM
...I not surprised that none here are lauding Canada caving in on Trump's tariff negotiation. ...
TRUMP, Master Of The Deal! : )

So your answer to "Where Are Free-Market Cons After Trump Intel Shakedown?" is an obvious deflection and change of subject?

First, these were "retaliatory/reciprocal tariffs" on goods that already comply with NAFTA/CMUSA trade agreements, and the big tariffs on cars stay for now.

Second, and more important, Canada (and any other country) doesn't need to punish their citizens and businesses for wanting or needing/having to buy some things from the US. They made the point already. Boycotts of US goods and services have started, and the US small businesses felt it first and politicos heard it "loud and clear":

www.cnbc.com - Republican senators join Dems on bill to exempt small businesses from Trump's Canada tariffs - 2025-07-23

Vacay travel to the US from Canada is already down substantially, sales of US booze and many other US products are already down 67% because of boycotts and some provinces bans... you don't need tariffs (to make stuff more expensive to buy) when people are already pissed off enough at you not to buy your stuff at all...

"Manufacture" this!

www.jalopnik.com - The F-35 Is Losing The (Trade) War - 2025-08-22
|------- ... Not since World War II have so many American planes been taken out of the air. -------|

For example, India AF just ordered 97 of their own Tejas, with GE engines and Israeli AESA MMR radars. Of course, LCAs are not in the leagues of F-35 or French Rafale planes they also fly, but at 4x cheaper in cost and maintenance, "quantity has a quality of its own." Countries don't like to be coerced or held hostage to unpredictable whims and caprices of potential "kill switches" or threats of non-support... which until recently (BT / Before Trump) they didn't have to worry about:

www.cbsnews.com - Gabbard barred sharing intelligence on Russia-Ukraine negotiations with "Five Eyes" partners - CBS, 2025-08-22

But Trump "likes to win" especially if he has to cheat:

www.thedailybeast.com - Roger Clemens Outs Winner-in-Chief Trump as Golf Loser - 2025-08-25
|------- Trump told reporters that day "It's good to win. You heard I won, right? Did you hear I won? Just to back it up from there, I won. I like to win." ...
Trump... finished dead last... -------|

When will MAGA drones start understanding that Trump's "ego wins" are losses for everyone else, including them?

Just like his "wins" destroyed capital and bankrupted businesses he started (which is why so many of his former "partners" want nothing to do with him and his "businesses") he is now doing the same to the entire country - .

The more Trump keeps "winning" the more people and the economy of the US will be "The Biggest Losers" and, unlike unwinding Trump's "deals," rebuilding trust and relationships takes a long time.

"Art of the Con" is strong with this MAGA cult, eh?
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#3 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-21 01:53 PM
Darn it. It's a broken link.
I wanted to see why California isn't on the list.
We are usually number one in everything. I can't imagine what went wrong.

finance.yahoo.com - Florida is now the 2nd most financially distressed state in the US " topped only by Texas - 2025-08-19

Actual data list is here:

wallethub.com - States with the Most People in Financial Distress - 2025-07-16
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#29 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-08-21 07:36 PM
Also "union jobs"? Under Republicants? Seriously?

Unions lost membership over the years steadily "under" Republicans and Democrats, while the unions leadership have steadily donated overwhelmingly to Democrats: www.opensecrets.org - Labor Sector Summary

Rank-and-file, not so much.

Just one example: www.nytimes.com - Union Leaders Get Tough With Democrats as Members Drift Toward Trump - 2025-08-09

Do you know how Elon Musk (who, during visit at the Oval Office in 2020, called Trump "a f*****g moron" behind his back) got red-pilled and finally went all-in and spent hundreds of $millions helping elect Trump in 2024?

He was pissed that Tesla wasn't invited to the so-called "EV Summit" in August 2021, because he was told that was really a showcase for UAW. Biden administration was keen on emphasizing "good-paying union jobs" every chance they got:

amp.cnn.com - Tesla just got snubbed by Biden's electric vehicle summit - 2021-08-05

|------- ... "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn't invited," the company's CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet overnight.
One potential reason for the apparent snub: The United Auto Workers union will also be at the ceremony. ...

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Tesla's absence at her briefing Thursday ahead of the event. ... Asked if Tesla being a nonunion company was the reason it wasn't included Thursday, Psaki replied, "Well, these are the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions."
-------|

Like Trump, Musk knows how to hold a grudge.

www.nbcnews.com - Elon Musk quietly visited the Biden White House in September - 2024-02-21

|------- ... Musk has for years complained that Biden officials ignore him and his companies, and he was still expressing frustration months after the September meeting, tweeting on Christmas Eve last year about perceived snubs. "Let's not forget the White House giving Tesla the cold shoulder, excluding us from the EV summit," he wrote on X, referencing an event from August 2021. -------|

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#11 | Posted by humtake at 2025-08-20 12:08 PM
So Trump's strategy is working then...

Fact. Yes, it's "working" exactly as expected - higher prices/"inflation" caused by higher taxes (on only ~13.5% of GDP which are imports, but many of these are components of other "domestic" products) while at the same time weakening exports which constitute more than 30% of S&P 500 companies revenues - double whammy!

Meanwhile, manufacturing actually losing jobs (-11,000 in July), and Philadelphia Fed Mfg index, which was expected to be only slightly lower, is back in negative territory (-0.3 from 15.9 in June) while all the 73K jobs gained were in health and social services.

Companies in America will see it's lucrative again to produce goods long since left behind because it wasn't worth producing given imports were cheaper.

Fantasy. Artificially increasing prices of imports through taxes (or [effectively] banning imports) is not going to make "companies in America see it's lucrative again to produce [expensive] goods" in the US and invest in the factories in the US. Been tried 'under Trump' and 'under Biden' - it's called 'industrial policy' (incentivized or repressive) - never mind finding "qualified/skilled" people to staff them... and for what purpose? Spending trillions of dollars to recreate what you could buy much cheaper from somewhere else, because Trump discovered he could con economically illiterate with "US trade deficits"?

Maybe try filling real deficit of ~400K people with "necessary skills" to be employed in manufacturing?

Trump's "Trade wars are good and easy to win" is nothing but "Back to the Future" from free-trade capitalism to the wars of failed pre-industrial pre-18th century mercantilism.

upload.democraticunderground.com - full text of Reagan's 1988 speech on free trade:
|------- "... We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helps strengthen the free world." -------|

"Progressives" used ["targeted"] tariffs to protect unions from competition - how well did that work out? When Trump does it, and on massive scale, MAGA-bots fully buy into right-left populist policies of protectionism (Trump got many union votes), while "progressives" are rethinking:
www.progressivepolicy.org - History Shows Tariffs are Anti-Prosperity - 2025-03-18

.

Thus, more people hired in America. Thus, more money being made and spent by those being employed. Thus inflation cools.

Fantasy. This clearly misstates/reverses the effects on job market and money supply - you are just reciting nonsensical Trump economic talking points here. We've been importing disinflation for 40+ years.

Moving people from one job "organically" created by "the economy" to another, artificially created by the government, doesn't lead to "more people hired" - it creates artificial shortages and inflation.

And with fewer/weaker USDs sent out of the US, who is going to buy growing US debt, especially if rates are low, as "Erdogan" Trump wants Fed to force?
theconversation.com - Turkey's economy is paying the price for years of policy mistakes - 2024-04-03

Higher costs = higher prices = higher "inflation" needing higher money supply growth and interest rates. And it becomes "systemic," not a one-off.
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#9 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-20 11:54 AM
Another "are going to, will have to" story.

Fantasy. Isn't that exactly what Trump wants you to believe about "Trumponomics"?

Buy american and it won't be an issue.

And buy "two dolls instead of thirty"? Very helpful. Thank you, Comrade Commissar Fishpaw!

But... how then will we get "Trillions of dollars flowing in from tariffs"?

And will it be one-size-fits-all, or be cheaper or better than what we used to buy, so we can choose or have enough money left for groceries and other things that went up in price since Dear Leader's "Liberation Day"?

If you didn't see the movie "Outsourced" (2006) (www.youtube.com), it's funny and "educational."

One scene at ~1h24m has a dialog between a call center in India and an American who lost his job to outsourcing ("whole operation moved to Mexico") when he wanted to buy a catalog item, but started complaining that it wasn't US-made:

|----- Operator: "Sir, don't hang up, I have a solution for you. See, we understand that many Americans are upset about outsourcing, so we have located American-made versions of all our products. If you have a pen, I will give you the website of an American company that makes an eagle statue very similar to ours; same size, same materials, only theirs is made 100 percent in America.

Caller (calmed down): Well, thanks, I appreciate it, but, uh, is the price about the same?

Operator: No, sir, theirs is $212 more.

Caller (silent): ...

Operator: Sir...

Caller (quietly): Yeah, all right, just sell me yours.
-----|

Enjoy the movie. Maybe remember it next time you think up great ideas to "move manufacturing or anything else home" or conjure up other central-planned ways to forklift and manage $30T economy.
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#3 | Posted by censored at 2025-08-15 11:27 PM
Trump putting on a show that he's not Putin's Beach.

He's been keeping keyfabe of "successful businessman" and "strong leader" for a very long time, it's wearing off.

"Krasnov" ("Red") Trump has been trying to Make Russia Great Again since at least 1987.

Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia | Trump - Russia relations


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#14 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-12 03:05 PM
No tariffs and 500 billion invested in the US

That's just another "pacifier" to baby-bully, who needs constant affirmation of his "deal-making greatness"... Apple's total annual capex for 2025 TTM was ~$12.4B including spending outside the US, which will continue.

To get to $500B will take 40 years of non-inflation-adjusted dollars, or 5 years of foregoing annual profits ($99B TTM to date). Of course, with new Trump-induced lower short-term interest rates, higher inflation and policy of weaker ruble, er, US dollar, this may come much sooner.

IOW, "Art of the Con" artist Trump is ---------- us, and Apple and those who depend/relied on NORMAL economic relations with the US are just playing along and for time, until "This, too, shall pass". Trump (and MAGA cult) didn't even understand the backhanded slap in the face when Tim "Apple" Cook presented him with the "golden calf"... er, plaque.

Same with the countries and blocks he made supposed "deals" with, e.g., Japan ($550B) and Korea ($350B) - they don't know what he was bragging about: there was only specific commitments to buy $16.5B worth of US goods, the rest was vague promises of "investment" in loans and IOUs ... and there was nothing about "90% of 'profits' going to the US" ... and nothing was formalized, of course.

Some countries make "deals" only to lower "tariff rates" (taxes on Americans), others don't, but every one is waiting and hoping for lawsuits in US courts to strike tariff authority down.

And as far as "not causing inflation" - remember that companies pay tariffs to Treasury immediately and they did inventory front-running, so we didn't see increases in the consumer pipeline yet... but core CPI moved up at fastest pace in 6mos to annualized 3.1%, and the latest PPI / wholesale core and headline numbers hit 0.9% for July - far above 0.2% expected, most of which will be passed along to consumers and some possibly absorbed by the companies while they are cutting tariff costs by layoffs and automation. So we have both weakening economy and employment, and rising prices - consistent with some forecasts of what was called "stagflation" in the '70s.

And some tariffs increased on August 7, so we haven't seen the effects of that yet.

Something that Trump doesn't [want to] understand : money from tariffs is not "flowing into the US" from other countries - they are paid/transferred to Treasury from American businesses / importers - IOW, it's an internal tax on imports, which was about 13.5% of US economy in recent years. Exports, which represent about 30+% of revenue by S&P 500 companies may also shrink as consumers of other countries "buy local" and boycott American goods if there are alternatives. Las Vegas and other tourist destinations already see some of it.

In July 2025, 71 large US companies filed for bankruptcy. Year-to-date 446 bankruptcies, already surpassing full year totals for 2021, 70 of them in the industrial sector.

IOW, Trump's tariffs may reduce meaningless metric of "US trade deficits" ("Yay, success!") but they are also shrinking world trade... and economies, including the US... which you may not see clearly due to lower USD.

Oh what a tangled web we "weave"...

And CBO projection of One Big Bloody Bu**-Ugly Bill creating additional $3.5T in debt in the next 10 years? I think we can do "better" and do it in 3-4 years, despite all of the imagined DOGE "savings" and "trillions or hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in" in tariffs.

US deficit hit $291B in July - that's an annual pace of $3.5T. July tariffs brought in $25B - Trump called it "incredible revenue" - but the government spent $630B.

"It's the spending, stupid."
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#14 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-12 03:05 PM
No tariffs and 500 billion invested in the US

That's just another "pacifier" to baby-bully, who needs constant affirmation of his "deal-making greatness"... Apple's total annual capex for 2025 TTM was ~$12.4B including spending outside the US, which will continue.

To get to $500B will take 40 years of non-inflation-adjusted dollars, or 5 years of foregoing annual profits ($99B TTM to date). Of course, with new Trump-induced lower short-term interest rates, higher inflation and policy of weaker ruble, er, US dollar, this may come much sooner.

IOW, "Art of the Con" artist Trump is ---------- us, and Apple and those who depend/relied on NORMAL economic relations with the US are just playing along and for time, until "This, too, shall pass". Trump (and MAGA cult) didn't even understand the backhanded slap in the face when Tim "Apple" Cook presented him with the "golden calf"... er, plaque.

Same with the countries and blocks he made supposed "deals" with, e.g., Japan ($550B) and Korea ($350B) - they don't know what he was bragging about: there was only specific commitments to buy $16.5B worth of US goods, the rest was vague promises of "investment" in loans and IOUs ... and there was nothing about "90% of 'profits' going to the US" ... and nothing was formalized, of course.

Some countries make "deals" only to lower "tariff rates" (taxes on Americans), others don't, but every one is waiting and hoping for lawsuits in US courts to strike tariff authority down.

And as far as "not causing inflation" - remember that companies pay tariffs to Treasury immediately and they did inventory front-running, so we didn't see increases in the consumer pipeline yet... but core CPI moved up at fastest pace in 6mos to annualized 3.1%, and the latest PPI / wholesale core and headline numbers hit 0.9% for July - far above 0.2% expected, most of which will be passed along to consumers and some possibly absorbed by the companies while they are cutting tariff costs by layoffs and automation. So we have both weakening economy and employment, and rising prices - consistent with some forecasts of what was called "stagflation" in the '70s.

And some tariffs increased on August 7, so we haven't seen the effects of that yet.

Something that Trump doesn't [want to] understand : money from tariffs is not "flowing into the US" from other countries - they are paid/transferred to Treasury from American businesses / importers - IOW, it's an internal tax on imports, which was about 13.5% of US economy in recent years. Exports, which represent about 30+% of revenue by S&P 500 companies may also shrink as consumers of other countries "buy local" and boycott American goods if there are alternatives. Las Vegas and other tourist destinations already see some of it.

In July 2025, 71 large US companies filed for bankruptcy. Year-to-date 446 bankruptcies, already surpassing full year totals for 2021, 70 of them in the industrial sector.

IOW, Trump's tariffs may reduce meaningless metric of "US trade deficits" ("Yay, success!") but they are also shrinking world trade... and economies, including the US... which you may not see clearly due to lower USD.

Oh what a tangled web we "weave"...

And CBO projection of One Big Bloody Bu**-Ugly Bill creating additional $3.5T in debt in the next 10 years? I think we can do "better" and do it in 3-4 years, despite all of the imagined DOGE "savings" and "trillions or hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in" in tariffs.

US deficit hit $291B in July - that's an annual pace of $3.5T. July tariffs brought in $25B - Trump called it "incredible revenue" - but the government spent $630B.

"It's the spending, stupid."
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#14 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-08-12 03:05 PM
No tariffs and 500 billion invested in the US

That's just another "pacifier" to baby-bully, who needs constant affirmation of his "deal-making greatness"... Apple's total annual capex for 2025 TTM was ~$12.4B including spending outside the US, which will continue.

To get to $500B will take 40 years of non-inflation-adjusted dollars, or 5 years of foregoing annual profits ($99B TTM to date). Of course, with new Trump-induced lower short-term interest rates, higher inflation and policy of weaker ruble, er, US dollar, this may come much sooner.

IOW, "Art of the Con" artist Trump is ---------- us, and Apple and those who depend/relied on NORMAL economic relations with the US are just playing along and for time, until "This, too, shall pass". Trump (and MAGA cult) didn't even understand the backhanded slap in the face when Tim "Apple" Cook presented him with the "golden calf"... er, plaque.

Same with the countries and blocks he made supposed "deals" with, e.g., Japan ($550B) and Korea ($350B) - they don't know what he was bragging about: there was only specific commitments to buy $16.5B worth of US goods, the rest was vague promises of "investment" in loans and IOUs ... and there was nothing about "90% of 'profits' going to the US" ... and nothing was formalized, of course.

Some countries make "deals" only to lower "tariff rates" (taxes on Americans), others don't, but every one is waiting and hoping for lawsuits in US courts to strike tariff authority down.

And as far as "not causing inflation" - remember that companies pay tariffs to Treasury immediately and they did inventory front-running, so we didn't see increases in the consumer pipeline yet... but core CPI moved up at fastest pace in 6mos to annualized 3.1%, and the latest PPI / wholesale core and headline numbers hit 0.9% for July - far above 0.2% expected, most of which will be passed along to consumers and some possibly absorbed by the companies while they are cutting tariff costs by layoffs and automation. So we have both weakening economy and employment, and rising prices - consistent with some forecasts of what was called "stagflation" in the '70s.

And some tariffs increased on August 7, so we haven't seen the effects of that yet.

Something that Trump doesn't [want to] understand : money from tariffs is not "flowing into the US" from other countries - they are paid/transferred to Treasury from American businesses / importers - IOW, it's an internal tax on imports, which was about 13.5% of US economy in recent years. Exports, which represent about 30+% of revenue by S&P 500 companies may also shrink as consumers of other countries "buy local" and boycott American goods if there are alternatives. Las Vegas and other tourist destinations already see some of it.

In July 2025, 71 large US companies filed for bankruptcy. Year-to-date 446 bankruptcies, already surpassing full year totals for 2021, 70 of them in the industrial sector.

IOW, Trump's tariffs may reduce meaningless metric of "US trade deficits" ("Yay, success!") but they are also shrinking world trade... and economies, including the US... which you may not see clearly due to lower USD.

Oh what a tangled web we "weave"...

And CBO projection of One Big Bloody Bu**-Ugly Bill creating additional $3.5T in debt in the next 10 years? I think we can do "better" and do it in 3-4 years, despite all of the imagined DOGE "savings" and "trillions or hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in" in tariffs.

US deficit hit $291B in July - that's an annual pace of $3.5T. July tariffs brought in $25B - Trump called it "incredible revenue" - but the government spent $630B.

"It's the spending, stupid."
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#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-08-07 06:04 PM
Are corporations using their new tax cuts to buy back their stock, raising the stock price?

There were no significant "new" corporate tax rate cuts or increases in One Big Bloody Budget-Busting Bill - it mostly stopped the tax rate set in 2017's TCJA from expiring at the end of 2025, making it "permanent"... unless and until Congress changes them. It was the same 2017 rate throughout the "great economy" and deficits of both Trump and Dark Brandon. There are some accelerated deductions and amortizations for R&D and other expenses but these are not "new tax cuts" that would materially affect corporations decisions to "buy back their stock."

Also, I don't know why "stock buybacks" would be considered "evil" or such a sore issue for anyone.

They aren't necessarily "raising the stock price" - many public/listed corporations routinely buy back stock to account for dilution, i.e., issuance of new stock as compensation to its employees, including directors, executives, pension and 401(k) plans, stock mergers/buyouts, outside contractors etc.

It's also a tax-preferred way of returning some value to the stock owners, as opposed to direct dividends, which usually drop the price of stock ex-dividend and are taxable, unless in tax-deferred or tax-free accounts.

For example, "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway ($1T market cap) doesn't pay dividends and has often used buybacks, especially during NZIRP times, when he didn't see a better opportunity to invest somewhere else and excess cash from profits didn't yield much in safe deposit accounts.

Buyback is a responsible way for the boards, CEOs and CFOs to manage corporate cash. Large buybacks are often presented to stockholders for a vote.

www.investopedia.com - Buyback

Here's Buffett dropping some wisdom:

www.fool.com -- Warren Buffett Just Issued a Stark Warning to President Trump About the Impact of Tariffs. Buffett calls tariffs "an act of war..." - 2025-03-08

www.fool.com - Warren Buffett's Warning to Wall Street on President Donald Trump's Tariffs Is Deafening - 2025-08-09
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