#14 Translation: Ignorance is bliss - Excreted by the one, the only, TheBovineExcrement

#42 Poor BJ boi just doesn't seem to understand that it wasn't Kamala Harris who lost.

Nope.

She didn't lose whatsoever.

The losers were the American people.

You're welcome, BJ boi... wherever you are.

#19 I was told the exact same thing: foreign countries were paying the tariffs.

That's the 2025 Trump version of his 2015/2016 favorite hit: "Mexico will pay for the wall."

#20 #21

A tip o the Tilley to the Lamp...

#19 cont ...

And then there's THIS problem:

"A dividend of at least $2,000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone," the Trump.

OK, some simple math here

US Population: 342,000,000

US population minus the 10-15% or so ~high-income~ folk: 300,000,000

So, okay, let's go ...

300,000,000 people times $2,000.00 per person is $600,000,000,000.00.

Tariff collection so far in 2025 has been around $200,000,000,000.00.

But we've already determined that that $200,000,000,000.00 was going to go to corporations, right?

So, where will the $600,000,000,000.00 come from?

No matter how you slice or dice it ...

#19 I was told the exact same thing: foreign countries were paying the tariffs.

And then there's this bit of fun:

"A dividend of at least $2,000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone," says the president
...and just in time for Christmas

If and when SCOTUS overturns Trump's use of tariffs, the federal government will have to refund that $200,000,000,000.00 to corporations.

Not to those of us who had to spend more because of the tariffs.

Nope. That $200,000,000,000.00 will go to the corporations who imported goods and paid the tariffs.

So, you and I paid more for goods over the past whatever months to corporations who paid the federal government the tariffs.

So, when tariffs are refunded, they go back to the corporations, right?

And, will the corporations be sending checks to you and I, because that would be the right thing to do?"

LOL!

Just more transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the wealthy.

Almost like it was planned.

And then there's THIS problem:

con't ...

#30 A self-described incel gay man married to a b**** wife hates the very concept (woke) that enables him to life his life without fear (so far) in America.

See also: self-loathing

#32 When did you stop beating your b**** wife, BJ boi?

No answer = you are still beating your b**** wife,.

According to your rules, BJ boi.

Your rules.

#32 I'm sure that we can all agree that BJ boi is a simpleton who asks "simple" questions.

'Tis clear that when it comes to self-loathing (country or self), BJ boi is the clear winner.

By a country mile.

#8 Parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas can be found on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia/Maryland.

That's how powerful the Dust Bowl was.

snip ...

In June, J.D. Vance flew to Butte, MT, and then was taken by an SUV motorcade to a sprawling cattle operation outside of Yellowstone National Park. There he met the owner of the Beaverhead Ranch, a man you may have heard of: Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch bought the ranch from Billionaire Koch Brother Charles Koch for $200 million. There, Murdoch grazes cattle on 340,000 acres of land, two-thirds of which is public. Murdoch paid the government $25,000 last year to graze his cattle on the public land. That is 95% below market rates. There are more examples.

So a handful of wealthy ranchers are raising a lot of beef on Uncle Sam's dime. At least that increases the nation's meat supply, right? Yes, although there is plenty of private land they could use as well for grazing, only then they would have to pay market rates. However, because grazing fees are so low, they have too many head of cattle on the land, which is leading to erosion and degradation of the land. Overgrazing is part of what caused the great dust bowls of the 1930s, when large pieces of land in the Great Plains became useless and ranchers there were forced to move.

snip ...

...ProPublica found that rancher Stan Kroenke has a permit to graze his cattle on public land. For this, he pays about 15% of the grazing fees he would have to pay a private landowner in the area. He can also get cheap crop insurance, disaster insurance, funding for fences, and compensation for livestock lost to predators, and other benefits that actual private ranchers don't get. He doesn't really need this help since he is worth $20 billion and owns parts of multiple sports teams. This is not an isolated case. About 10% of the ranchers with federal grazing permits control over half of all federal grazing land. The 10% own two-thirds of the livestock eating for free on public lands. Before Kroenke bought the ranch, it was owned by a series of hobby ranchers who used it for multimillion-dollar tax deductions.

snip ...

You saw Donald Trump's 18th iteration of his affordability message yesterday, when he said of affordability, "It doesn't mean anything to anybody ... The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats."

The vibe is late Bourbon decadence and indifference, King Donald the Corpulent in his palace, while the peasantry starves. I'm going long on pitchforks and tumbrels.

At the precise moment when Americans are standing in the cereal aisle doing battlefield math over whether the kids get brand-name or generic Wheat-os, Donald J. Trump is obsessing over chandeliers, parquet floors, and the sightlines in his new, ever-expanding plan for a White House ballroom with the square footage of a large Costco.

snip ...

There is no universe, in this one or any alternate timeline, where "let's lock up the economic data and build a shiny new ballroom" is a winning affordability message.

Yet here we are.

#4 Which, in the case of certain MAGAts that you identified, a lifetime spent on very bad choices continues unabated with their choice to support of Trump.

#22 you thrive on the polarization, bell boi.

Hell, you actively contribute to it.

#71 Nope, Major DEI Boazo. They weren't "upgraded." Try again.

#63 We are not an English speaking country, Major DEI Boaz. English might be the predominant language spoken here, but it is hardly the only language.

#63 A misdemeanor is no one's idea of a violent crime, Major DEI Boaz.

#21 You make an asinine comment with no basis in reality.

That's Major DEI Boaz.

#5 Someone just came from their colonoscopy, "Water cannons" LOL

#27 Petrous?

snip ...

In medieval and early-modern Europe, the death of a king was less a constitutional process than a high-stakes reality show. Every court had its factions around sons, nephews, queens, favorites, and warlords. The Wars of the Roses in England were one long, bloody reminder that once "divine right" is attached to a bloodline instead of an office, every cousin with a sword and a herald (the medieval equivalent of a TikTok influencer on staff) has an argument for the throne.

The Ottomans solved this problem their own way. New sultans often began their reign by quietly strangling their brothers, because they understood exactly what ambitious princelings do once the old man is gone. "Succession planning," in that context, meant the Court Strangler had a job to do.

Strip the tapestry and incense away and you see a familiar pattern. Everyone closest to the throne claims perfect loyalty while the king is strong. Everyone closest to the throne also runs an internal calculation about what happens after his last breath. They are not there by accident. They got close because they like power, and they plan to keep it.

The twentieth century dressed the same story in ideological uniforms and party titles.

Stalin's death in 1953 did not produce a smooth, dignified transition to the next "wise leader of the working class."

It produced a cage match in the Politburo. Stalin left no clear successor, only a terror machine and a room full of men who had survived him by being ruthless and cautious in equal measure.

History may not repeat itself exactly, but often times it sure does rhyme.

#7 Thanks again! Very good information.

And I gleaned it from the Internet, no less. :-)