It's taken a generation for the young to figure out that the high cost of education is an albatross around their financial future. Once saddled with the loan there is no way for the majority to ever pay it off and then have the American dream. Many of the young have turned to trade schools that will pay off sooner with less financial burden. While the payoff is sooner for making a living, it is not so good in the later years of their lives in the last stages of labor before retirement. That's when the vigor of youth has left and the wisdom of how to do the job shows up but the body is tasked with an increasingly difficult physical performance due to age.

Only Turnip would think this is something great to tell the public. In the process it gives you an idea of just how off track his mental processes are. Most people have mental filters that tell them this or that tidbit is not appropriate for public consumption.

The US economy added 64,000 jobs in November, but the slide in tech jobs continued, with the telecom sector and computer systems design seeing declines.

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-12-23 01:51 AM

This is probably the good news, sugarcoated. For one, no one can now believe the counts of government offices, since the DOGE treatment and the laying off of those who insisted on accurate data. Between the lack of manpower to put people on the data collection and analysts of said data, there are gobs of uncounted data reflecting the actual counts and trends. The second reason it is likely sugarcoated is that it is well known that the initial data has to be adjusted later for late reporting and analysts resulting in readjusted outcomes in the month following for the previous month. The readjusted outcomes never get the splash attention that the first inaccurate release gets, especially if the trend is negative.

Turnip is still trying to live in the 50s. Apparently no one has bothered to tell him that they now have killer battleship hypervelocity missiles. Even worse, China is producing weapons of war, including these missiles, at greater volumes than we can, given their ready access to rare earths and cheap labor, and have been doing so for some time.

I had read an article of the military running a hypothetical test of an invasion of Taiwan. One of the issues this test ran into as a negative, was that China had so many backups in quantity reserves that they could overwhelm ship defenses by saturation missile flights with plenty remaining to for redos should first attempt fail. The test also predicted we would win such a war but with massive losses.

The battleship has had a long run of being a fortress on the sea. Every time it's demise was predicted by obsolescence, new weapons or tactics helped continue it's reign as king of the sea. With the extended range of these hyper missiles, battleships stand a huge chance of being sunk, long before they are in effective fighting range; same with carriers.

The current polls are exactly that... the current polls. November 2026 is 11 months away.

#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-12-22 07:54 PM |

Precisely. Lots of things change over the space of time in politics and how voters feel about the current issues and how that affects their votes and opinions. Polls are more like an inflated balloon let go for free flight, you never know which way it will stay headed nor how long it will continue.

What worries me is that if the Dems should run on a ticket of 'we'll impeach trump', Turnip would likely try to seal his legacy as dictator before the election. He depends on fast response with the courts lagging far behind in catching up. By the time it arrives in the court's bailiwick, at least months have passed, if not years, and it will pretty much be appealed all the way to SCOTUS, which has shown extreme favoritism towards Turnip getting his way.

'I'm not Trump', worked for Joe Biden but is unlikely to work again. This time the magic words to re-election is 'It's the economy stupid'.

Merry Xmas to you all!

Jack will never have that chance as long as the Republicans have a say in it. This is why he didn't get a public hearing at the start. The Republicans wanted to know just how damaging Jack Smith's testimony would be without him being on a public stand. Now that they know, they will fight tooth and nail to prevent him from getting the public hearing.

You had to know this was coming. I mean you don't need a tea leaf reader to have figured out the Epstein files were going to be redacted mostly to protect the Republicans who might have been caught in these files as well as the Republican donors. The Dems were meant to take the fall first by leaving those in the clear with the hope it removed some of the politicians that don't agree with Turnip.

SCOTUS has determined that Turnip gets a get out of jail free card as long as he is in office. That doesn't protect him if he is impeached or once he leaves office. It also does not protect the rest of the administration. For the now, any movements towards impeachment or removal of Bondi and the rest of the administration will likely go no where as long as Republicans hold the majority.

Unless there is a serious blue wave come midterm elections, it will likely stay this way until there is a major turn over of who holds the supermajority.

One hallmark of Turnip is continual chaos. This is who he is. This is what sets the stage for other things to top out over the public's interest in an attempt to move troublesome topics out of the limelight.

Do you smell carrots?

...usually reserved for a time when the Country, not the President, is facing some manner of a crisis.

Of course it's a crisis for Turnip. Since he views everything with him being the center focus. The MEs overwhelmed anything else he had to say about the good of the country. Take away the lies and misrepresentation of facts and you are left with little or nothing except momma's boy is in trouble. He knows he has between now and Nov. to make plans on how to steal the election. The gerrymandering isn't going as well as he had planned. It is possible he could be up for impeachment yet again should there be a real blue wave. Panic is setting in.

Turnip's Biden excuse has worn thin. Ever since the tariffs and government layoffs, this is now the Turnip economy. His easy out is no longer, it belongs right where the voters are saying. Hiding the numbers on jobs, unemployment, and inflation, is not needed when Joe Public goes to pay bills or buy groceries. No amount of gaslighting changes what the public sees as expenses and where they are in relation to pre-covid.

So when are the checks to be distributed for the drug companies paying us to use their products?

I refused to allow Phillips permissions to spy on my viewing habits in the app Roku that comes with the tv, preinstalled. Within a week, Roku stopped working. Screw em, I am not gonna encourage them in their second income stream.

No politicians in office means no uncomfortable comments on Epstein to deal with. No pesky forced voting the administration would look bad on dealing with. Johnson is setting up his retirement to be sooner rather than later.

Sounds to me like there are a lot of Republican politicians yet to move into the retirement slots or looking for other offices. Sure not gonna be pretty at this rate come mid-term election season. Understand I have no better faith in the Dems doing the right things, they too are invested in keeping the rich happy in order to have campaign funds. We need a third party badly, if for nothing else than to try and upset the apple cart.

The Republicans are beginning to read the tea leaves and find out where it leaves them. Want to see a politician get religion? Threaten their seats and you will find suddenly they can do an about face over what they are in favor of.

For years this has been a wet dream of the Repubs, to eliminate ACA. Well, they got it and will reap the whirlwind that comes with it unless they can actually lower the costs of the healthcare industry as it jacks costs for coverage. As the more of the public finds it can't afford the price increase, they'll fall off the rolls of the insured, along with those healthy enough not to have to worry about pressing healthcare issues in their lives. That will leave fewer in the insurance pool, resulting in yet more price increases in the future.

The Repubs will be held directly responsible for this issue come election season and a few are starting to wake up to the results of an unhappy voter base.

They had a boat with what? 3 or 4 outboards? We not talking a canoe here, we're talking a fair sized boat. I can tell you from personal experience that trying to right a canoe full of water while swimming is not an easy task. Just considering the outboards, that is an impossible feat while swimming. If the boat were whole, which it would not be if it sustained a direct hit, upside down it is useless. It is highly doubtful, they had a cell phone capable of surviving a dunking in the ocean.

The most likely reason to do a double tap is the stickiness of the circumstances. They go to rescue the survivors, they can't prove the drug running because they blew up the evidence. What if the survivors were mere fishermen? Then it becomes awkward. The military might be held responsible for paying the survivors for the craft and what ever else can be tacked on, along with criminal charges from a foreign country. No matter if the military pays it off or even if it is officially recognized. The damage would be to Trump and his administration involved through The Hague. They call it War Crimes. His immunity as president holds no water there. Easy way out, leave no survivors.

On the whole this looks just like so much misdirection we've seen time and again, telling you not to believe your lying eyes.

I've stated this before, I'll do it again. During yesteryear, the bread winner of the family could support his/her family with the money he was paid from working his job. The middle class especially had enough to go on vacations, have little worry about entertainment, pay for medical procedures, food, housing (not limited to just rent), pay for higher education without a loan, and the various other necessities of life.

Now none of that is true to any extent any more. People are struggling to stay afloat just to have the things necessary without any extras. It takes two bread earners to even pay the rent for some, and that is with overtime/side gigs/or a second job. Does no one ask were that money went? It should be obvious.

This is Turnip worrying about his own skin once he is out of office and no longer protected by his immunity clause granted him by SCOTUS. He could very likely wind up like Putin or Netanyahu in that he can't leave his country without worry about being arrested for war crimes.

That means he couldn't go golfing at his own courses in Scotland...so demeaning.

I am surprised to no end that Turnip hasn't already solved this issue with his sharpie.

Of course it's not enough. This isn't about making farmers whole again from Turnip's trade wars, it's about a bribe to say he did something. It's supposed to shut the farmers up.

You can expect the same thing if Turnip sends out money for individuals to help pay for the price increase to health insurance he proposes to do rather than extend coverage for Obamacare. Just like with the farmers, it won't be near enough, even though the public would still have to pay for their health insurance from the same companies. He proposes that if the public has more money, they can shop around for a better deal. Problem with that is the better deal (ie cheaper) merely means higher deductibles and less coverage which is no deal at all compared to what they had the year before.

Two or three is nice, but you don't need 37 dolls.

It's not the dolls; its the food, rent, utilities, the things that are basic survival needs. We'd haven't even gotten to insurance for anything, much less health.

Trump's idea is to hide the numbers on the economy. Makes it easier to gaslight if the government figures aren't there to be used to show him his happy talk is all lies.

"The economy is in such a terrible shape " no GDP report, no jobs report, and now no inflation report," entrepreneur Ivano Panetti posted on X.

"Tough to make biz decisions without all the data," economist B. Dan Berger posted on X. "So much for economic transparency."

Once again the most transparent president has shown his true colors. The Epstein files, economic data, the emigrant round up (of which was supposed to be the worst of the worst), the list just goes on and on as to what is uncomfortable grounds for him.

When you look back at the economy from a larger prospective, we've went from a single worker being able to support his family on his job alone, to it now taking two bread earners (usually with at least one side gig or working two jobs to make ends meet) in order to just stay afloat. It's not about avocado toast, it's about keeping the lights on, food in the home, and the rent paid. Heaven help you if you need medical treatment.

All this starts back with Regan and steadily progresses to today's economy where the rich are getting the lion's share and the rest are getting crumbs at best. All the financials flow upwards, leaving little for the rest.

Last year 61% of all bankruptcies in the US were medical related. As many as 500,000 people file for this reason alone. We are the only first world country without single payer medical. With medical costs being what they are, at minimum wage leaves, you don't even make enough to pay the rent on your own, and don't even consider needing medical assistance.

Face it, our economy is in sad shape and so far not getting better.

According to this, 21 trillion is a good chunk of change and Trump could give $116 billion to the rich in tax breaks along with another $20 trillion we could 'afford' by Trump's estimation to give guarantees to Argentina and we are getting $205 billion from the tariffs so far. Since we have so much money to give out, where's our single payer health coverage that all the rest of the first world countries have?

A 656 CC engine? Geeze, my motorcycle engine is bigger than that. To be honest I miss my small sized economy pickup truck. While it would not be competition for the Acty as far as capability goes, it was never meant to be, designed for a different market.

What I liked about the compact pickup, was gas mileage, cheaper to fill because of a smaller gas tank, and yet you could haul a bit of stuff with it. Today's monster sized factory pickups are not what I need nor what I desire. I want a truck that costs less than $20 to fill up, gets around 30 mph on the highway, and is not designed to move a house, just maybe a run to the grocery store for several months of groceries at one haul. Nor did they cost $50K+ to buy one new.

There is but one reason they use apps like Whatsapp. It's an attempt to get around Federal Records Act and in doing so not leaving a record by which they can be held accountable.

The Federal Records Act states:

Congress deemed federal records worthy of preservation for their "informational value," and also because they document "the transaction of public business" and the "organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government." The FRA requires executive branch departments and agencies to collect, retain, and preserve"or dispose of"these records.

Get out the micrometer, someone's gonna need it for actual measurements once they get in to the prove it stage.