@#4 ... It might surprise a lot of disgruntled voters, but the U.S. economy is doing pretty well.

After all, oil prices have repeatedly breached $100 a barrel, driving gas prices above $4 a gallon. The U.S. government's borrowing costs are rising, pushing mortgage rates above 7%. Consumers are gloomy, and polling on President Donald Trump's handling of the economy is abysmal.

And yet, the economy is powering forward, driven by an AI investment boom, and everyday people who are still spending despite the strain of higher prices. ...

imo, the operative point of that quote is... everyday people who are still spending despite the strain of higher prices

OK, so, how are those everyday people spending?

Buy now, pay later plans?

Or, maybe, credit cards?

Either way, consumers do not appear to be able to pay for their purchases up front. But need to finance those purchases out to the future.

@#9

I thought that might be the case, but I did not know.

thx.

@#3 ... Well here's another lawsuit they will lose. ...

Maybe, maybe not.

When (if?) it eventually gets to SCOTUS, how might the Roberts SCOTUS rule?

Will it just bow to Pres Trump? Again?

@#63 ... Collins and Murkowski aren't moderates? ...

My guess is that Sen Collins will win the election in Maine.

But a moderate?

Hardly.

@#3 ... You libs say no one is committing election fraud, when in fact there are fraud cases popping up around the country! ...

OK, not sure if you are playing The Onion card or not.

But, allow me to say...

I've not seen elected "libs" saying that there in no election fraud, just that election fraud is not as major of an issue as Pres Trump asserts it to be.

@#4 ... The only people benefiting are the already wealthy. ...

Looks that way.

@#24 ... If it's not your thing, just change the station. No need to get upset about it. ...

Exactly.

And it is a main reason why I do not listen to "pop" radio stations.

Instead, I prefer a radio station that seems to present a lot of new artists, while also playing songs of the storied past of rock.

@#2 ... Both sides said they reached consensus on lowering tariffs for a $60 billion batch of non-sensitive goods, but there was no timeline for adoption. At the same time, a deadline for a broader trade accord was pushed into next year....

So, no definite timeline for what seem to be the major agreement of the summit?

And just saying that the deadline has been pushed into the vague future?

Is this Pres Trump's Art of the Deal?

Or was just Pres Trump out-maneuvered by Pres Xi?

@#14 ... Remember when Marco Rubio SWORE he wasn't going to run for another term as senator ...

Found this ...

@#4 ... When I attended university I knew of a girl who was raped by a star member of the basketball team, campus police went to great lengths to sweep it under the rug and the basketball team virgorously shamed her publicly. ...

Cornell U. seems to be responding in a better manner in this instance.

From what I've seen, ~cooperating and helping law enforcement."

And, appropriately, the chapter of the frat has been disbanded by Cornell U.

More from the OpEd ...

... Kraepelin, of Munich, helped lay the groundwork for modern psychiatry. Chief among his contributions are his descriptions of "mixed states" in manic depression (known today as bipolar disorder).

People with bipolar disorder do not toggle between euphoria (mania) and gloom (depression). Elements of both states can be suffered at once.

Extreme anxiety, for example, can produce excitement and depression together -- a mixed state.

In reading Kraepelin's book, one cannot help but notice that over and over again he is describing Donald Trump. Most of this column will simply quote Kraepelin, from R. Mary Barclay's translation of "Manic Depressive Insanity and Paranoia," (Ayer Co., 1987).

Anyone who reads the news can fill in the blanks.

"(T)he delusion formation peculiar to paranoia ... may develop in the two fundamental directions of ideas of injury and of exaltation. ... At first it remains within the limits of suspicious conjectures, arrogant and overweening self-conceit; but these draw ever-fresh nourishment from the prejudiced evaluation of the experiences of life, and they become more and more fixed. ... The patients become arrogant and high flown; when they are contradicted, or on other trifling occasions, they fall into measureless fury, which is discharged in outbursts of rank abuse."

In mixed-state insanity, patients "display exalted self-consciousness, are pretentious and high-flown, but by no means of cheerful mood; they rather appear dissatisfied, insufferable, perhaps even a little anxious. They have something to find fault with in everything, feel themselves on every occasion badly treated ...

"Mood is permanently exalted, careless, confident. The patients have very marked self-confidence, put an extremely high value on their own capabilities and performances, boast with the most obvious exaggeration. They wholly lack understanding for the morbid imperfection of their temperament. Rather they are convinced of their superiority to their surroundings."

Kraepelin calls this a "grumbling mania." ...

@#13 ... but Stateline reports that experts have cautioned that the stat "doesn't reflect the effects of new federal policy changes that will be hitting households hard this year" -- such as cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. ...

Yeah, Pres Trump's Big Beautiful Bill purposefully seems to have delayed some major cuts until after the 2026 election.

Almost as if the GOP Congress knew those cuts would not be A Good Thing for the voters.

Another view ...

@#13 ... The main issue for most individuals is going to be the fact that prices and inflation is outstripping wage growth, and so that's obviously some diminution of real incomes for some people ...

Yeah, that's the problem

The inflation caused by Pres Trump's tariffs and war of choice in Iran are causing price increases that outstrip the rate of increases of wages.

So, the bottom line is that while workers may be getting pay increases, the value of those dollars they receive is diminishing more quickly than the rate that their wages are increasing.

And the crazy current price of diesel has yet to make its way to the grocery store shelves.

@#9 ... TRUMP: "We have the best poverty numbers ever." ...

From the cited article ...

... It is true that, according to US Census Bureau data released earlier this month, the poverty rate dropped to a historic low of 10.2 per cent last year, but Stateline reports that experts have cautioned that the stat "doesn't reflect the effects of new federal policy changes that will be hitting households hard this year" -- such as cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

"The main issue for most individuals is going to be the fact that prices and inflation is outstripping wage growth, and so that's obviously some diminution of real incomes for some people," Steven Durlauf, of the University of Chicago, told the outlet. ...

From the #7 link

... President Trump visited soldiers Tuesday at Walter Reed Military Medical Center, but chose not to meet with 14 who were injured in the war in Iran.

CBS reports that Trump made time to meet service members while he was at the medical center for his six-month physical, but did not meet any of the ones who were recovering from the recent war, and the White House refused to discuss the matter. ...

Whoa, wait, what?

Pres Trump did not meet with the service members recovering from his war of choice in Iran?

And the White House refused to respond to questions on that?

@#15 ... I'm always a little skeptical when people who presumably wouldn't have minded Taylor Swift's fame have a problem with it. ...

Yeah, Ms Smith's fame seems to be the commented-upon issue here.

For me, I don't care one way or they other about Ms Smith. I don't see anything in what she creates that catches my attention.

So, for me she is a huge... who cares?

@#9 ... TRUMP: "We have the best poverty numbers ever."

No where else has poverty like us!

Our poverty is Yuge!!

USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! ...

That seems to be a pretty correct interpretation.

Everything that Pres Trump does seems to be, in his opinion, the best and greatest of all that has been done before him.

So now, Pres Trump is also crowing about the poverty his administration has rained upon Americans.

... Why Abortion Faded from America's National Conversation? ...

Simple ...

Rising costs, leading to the dinner table discussions about the ability to live and feed the family are currently a higher priority.

@#6

The Moody Blues have some great lyrics.

The lyrics you quote are from the end of the album version of the song Nights in White Stain.

Lemme see what I can find ...

There's this ...

@#1

So, private equity seems to have found a very profitable area, with low regulation.

An area, health-care for profit, where it seems to prioritize profits over patients?

More from the article ...

... Private equity transactions are difficult to regulate and often not reviewed by antitrust authorities, as they tend to be below the federal mandatory reporting threshold (Federal Trade Commission A, 2020). More than 90% of PE-related takeovers or investments are not reviewed as there is little regulation of PE investment (Schulte, 2022). The acquisitions that are reviewed can still have widespread impacts on health care markets. ...