American Politics

[EihTooms]

Has the USA gone through two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth? Are two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth popularly considered to constitute a recession?

https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp#:~:text=A%20recession%20is%20a%20significant,%2C%20consumer%20demand%2C%20and%20employment.

What's the current USA fed funds rate? Answer: 3% to 3.25%

What is the most recent CPI YoY inflation rate? Answer: 8.3%

What is is the real interest rate based on the fed funds rate? Answer: In excess of NEGATIVE 5%

Why on God's green earth would someone criticize current Fed policy for being too tight and "artificially cooling down Biden's roaring job-creating, wage increasing economy into perhaps a mild recession or close to one"? Answer: Heck if I know. He probably hasn't lived or worked in a place like Argentina or Turkey, and doesn't remember the late 70's and early 80's too well.

The answer is that Powell is not very good at his job. How could he be? He was originally appointed by a Repub, Trump no less. No way he could have or for that matter would have handled the challenge better if at all.

Biden had to keep him in place only because to have switched him out in the midst of Trump's Pandemic Crash would have driven brave Free Market "job creators" even further under their beds in abject terror.

[Elvis 2008]

Yes, Donald Trump is responsible for COVID. And Joe Biden ended the pandemic! Or at least he said it at the auto show last week.

I've come around to your way of thinking. You haven't been interpreting American events through blue colored glasses, and there was nothing spurious about those correlations I questioned. The correlations were achieved through divine intervention! Democrats were anointed by the Almighty, and Republicans are instruments of Satan!

Tiny, you are finally catching on. Eih and PVM will post links to support their POVs, but I never remember either saying a Democratic has ever made a mistake. The only people who make mistakes in government are Republicans.

Scatmandoo and Spidy seem to be in a contest to see who can call Trump more names per square inch than anyone. Unlike the first two, I do not recall them doing anything outside of calling Trump and Republicans names.

Eih put himself out as this financial genius, which is ridiculous, because he seems to think all stock market gains or losses accrue simply due to who is president. So of course, he has been long with Biden. I told him in April that it was finally right to go short the market, and I am up 45% since then and he is down at least 20% since then.

The problem with investing based on whom is president of course is you are ignoring market conditions and what the Fed is doing. I hold Biden responsible for the mess he has made in the energy markets, but the other portions of inflation really are not on him. Outside of that, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Things are way worse now than they were in 2019, but guys like Eih are constantly showing Trump's numbers post pandemic to try to justify how horrible things were and how much better they are now. Of course, it is a false equivalence. By every measure, the Dems did worse economically with the pandemic than Republicans did.

[PVMonger]

This article might be of interest. Please note that Minneapolis, also known as "Murderapolis", hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1973.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/25/us/mi...nvs/index.html

https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-...police-problem

And before the Moron Brigade says anything, everything in this article is per capita so there goes the stupid "but NYC is bigger than Memphis" argument. Of course, the Moron Brigade doesn't know what "per capita" means, so there's that.

In recent years, Republicans have tagged Democrats as the party of "defund the police. " This political charge has at it roots an unfortunate choice of sloganeering and policy from a small number of progressive activists frustrated and fed up with longstanding police violence and abuse directed toward minorities. However intentioned, the defund charge proved damaging to Democrats. Republicans ran myriad attack ads in 2020 and the attack was credited with Republican upsets in swing districts that narrowed Democratic majorities in the House. This attack was so successful that during his 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden felt compelled to say, "We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. "1 The President also dedicated $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan for public safety, including $6. 5 billion in crime-fighting aid to state and local communities.

But is the Republican charge even remotely true? It has been taken as a given by much of the media just as Democrats have been pigeon-holed as soft on crime and being responsible for rampant crime across the country. Yet as our March 2022 report showed, the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump had a murder rate 40% higher than the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. And 8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates not only voted for Donald Trump, they voted Republican in every presidential election this century. Is the Democrats' defund the police portrait as inaccurate as its soft on crime portrait?

To answer this question, we compared the police budgets of the 25 largest Democrat-run cities and the 25 largest Republican-run cities. 2 We pulled FY2021 and FY2022 funding data directly from city operating budgets, as well as police force data from a mixture of police department websites, city budgets, and local news sources. Using this, we calculated several key metrics—the number of police officers, police officers per capita, police funding per capita, and percent change in police budgets from FY2021 to FY2022. Per capita data allows us to control for population and compare cities like New York City and Fort Worth.

We found that despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, Democrat-run cities employ far more police officers and spend far more money on policing per capita than Republican-run cities. In fact, police forces in Dem cities are 75% larger than police forces in GOP cities. And Democrats spend about 38% more per person on policing than Republicans do. On average, Democrat- and Republican-run cities all saw an increase in police funding in 2022, with Democrats actually increasing police budgets by slightly more.

The data make clear—Republicans may talk about funding the police, but they trail badly as compared to Democrats.

The size of a city's police force is often seen as indicative of its support for law enforcement. Democrats have been accused of defunding the police and cutting police funding and staff. We compared the 25 most populous cities run by each party as defined by the political affiliation of its mayor to see if this potent political charge is true.

The 25 most populous Democratic cities run from New York City with 8,177,025 inhabitants to Memphis with 650,980. The 25 most populous Republican cities run from Jacksonville with a population of 949,611 to Glendale in Arizona with 248,325 residents. In total, the 25 most populous Democratic cities are home to 37,470,584 people, while the commensurate 25 Republican cities have a combined total of 10,415,763.

We found that in the aggregate:

Democrat-run cities employ 288.2 officers per 100,000 residents, compared to Republican-run cities with only 164.6 officers per 100,000 residents.

Police forces in cities with Democratic mayors are 75.1% larger than police forces in GOP cities.

Of the ten cities with the largest per capita police forces, nine are run by Democrats—Washington DC, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York City, Detroit, Philadelphia, Memphis, Boston, and LOS Angeles. Miami, coming in at ninth, is the only Republican-run city in the top ten.

We also compared the median per capita police force average since larger cities like New York and LOS Angeles can skew results. Among these same cities, those with Democratic mayors had a median of 195.3 officers per 100,000 residents, or 23.1% more than the 158.7 median for Republican run cities.

The size of a city didn't seem to be a determining factor in the per capita rate of police officers. For example, Phoenix, San Antonio, and San Diego ranked 5th, 6th, and 8th in population, but ranked 34th, 4 oth, and 42nd in police per capita. Meanwhile, Las Vegas, Detroit, Memphis, and Miami ranked 25th, 27th, 28th and 33rd in population, but ranked 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th in police per capita. Oklahoma City and Las Vegas have nearly identical populations (676,492 versus 675,592), but Republican-led Oklahoma City had a police force roughly one-third the size of Las Vegas with its Democratic mayor (162.6 officers compared to 444.1 per 100,000 residents).

Dem cities spend more money on policing than GOP cities.

Republicans have decried Democrats' attempts to cut police budgets in liberal cities across the country. But we found that Democrats spend more on policing than Republicans do.

Republican-run cities spend $361 per resident on police. Democrat-run cities spend $498 per resident, about 38% more than Republicans. Because aggregate police budgets can be skewed by larger cities, we also looked at the median per capita police budgets for these sets of 25 cities. Once again, Democrat-run cities had median police budgets 31% greater than Republican-run cities, $423.55 to $323.40 per resident.

Of the ten cities that spent the most on policing per capita, six of them are Democrat-run and four are Republican-run. Cities often criticized by Republicans for being "soft-on-crime"—New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle—are all in the top 15 on police funding per person. Republican strongholds like Bakersfield and Oklahoma City spend less than half of what New York City and Chicago spend on their police.

Dem cities saw slightly larger police budget increases than GOP cities in 2022.

Defund the police may exist as a slogan, but it does not exist as a policy–at least in the 50 cities that we reviewed. Between FY2021 to FY2022, Democrat-run cities saw a 4. 34% increase in police funding—from $17.89 billion to $18.67 billion, or about $775 million in the aggregate. Republican-run cities saw a 4. 11% increase–from $3. 62 billion to $3. 76 billion, or $148 million in the aggregate.

Twenty-one of 25 Democratic cities and 21 of 25 Republican cities showed budget increases in FY2022. Cities like New York and LOS Angeles are often mentioned in defund the police attacks–both cities increased their police budgets in 2022. In fact, the ten largest Democrat-run cities increased their police budgets in 2022, though Philadelphia's held fairly constant with a 0. 28% increase. New York City's increase of 3. 75% added $196 million. Chicago, Portland, and Seattle—cities often accused of defunding the police—all saw increases in their 2022 police budgets. Paradoxically, Washington DC had the largest budget cut of 3. 98%, but also the largest police budget per resident at $751.62.

Conclusion.

Democrats have been accused of defunding the police as a larger "soft on crime" message from Republican officeholders and conservative media. In a previous report, we found that homicide rates were significantly higher in the 25 states that voted for Trump compared to the 25 states that voted for Biden.

In this report, we find that police funding and police personnel levels are far higher in the 25 largest Democrat-run cities compared to the 25 largest Republican-run cities. In the most recent funding cycle, these same Democratic cities increased their police budgets to a greater degree than cities with Republican mayors.

Our conclusion is that the defund the police charge against Democrats may be politically damaging, but it is factually inaccurate. If anything, Republican mayors have a defund problem.

[EihTooms]

Yes, Donald Trump is responsible for COVID. And Joe Biden ended the pandemic! Or at least he said it at the auto show last week.

I've come around to your way of thinking. You haven't been interpreting American events through blue colored glasses, and there was nothing spurious about those correlations I questioned. The correlations were achieved through divine intervention! Democrats were anointed by the Almighty, and Republicans are instruments of Satan!

I never said Trump was responsible for COVID. Too nuanced?

Ok, here is a pop quiz to identify the pro Repub Bothsiders. And you don't even need to research every nit-picky, inconsequential little detail about what some Senator did, who thought what at the time and all that drivel.

Looking back at the 4 most recent completed Presidential Administrations, 2 Dems (Clinton and Obama) and 2 Repubs (George W. Bush and Trump) history, all available data and the record of results show that from their starting points until the end, the 2 Dem Administrations produced among the best overall results of any Presidential Administrations ever while the 2 Repub Administrations produced among the worst if not objectively the absolute worst ever.

Does anyone honestly believe for one minute that had the 2 Repubs been in office during the years the Dems were and the 2 Dems been in office during the years the Repubs were, each facing the same challenges requiring decisions to be made about them during those years, that those years would have resulted in the same historically positive vs negative outcomes?

[Tiny 12]

5. Crimes up over 50% under Biden compared to Trump after Biden and democrats started defunding police.

This article might be of interest. Please note that Minneapolis, also known as "Murderapolis", hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1973.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/25/us/mi...nvs/index.html

[Tiny 12]

Ok, I'll just count that as a No, neither you nor anyone else can think of one damn effective and now revered legislation promoted and passed when a Repub was in the White House and Repubs controlled both houses of Congress....

I don't have much to add to what I already said. I question whether the bills you listed were all that effective in producing good results, except for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And 75% of the Congressmen and Senators who voted against that were Democrats. The bill was filibustered by Senate Democrats for 74 days. Now yes, some southern Democrats switched sides. But since you believe in spurious correlations that shouldn't matter.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1041302509432817073

There is one thing. You can similarly say that the Communist Party of China is responsible for all the good legislation that's come out of that country since 1950. Starting with the first piece of legislation on your list, Social Security, and going forward to present, Democrats have controlled the Presidency, Senate and House for 35 years. Republicans have controlled them for 8 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide..._United_States

[PVMonger]

Yes, Donald Trump is responsible for COVID. And Joe Biden ended the pandemic! Or at least he said it at the auto show last week.

I've come around to your way of thinking. You haven't been interpreting American events through blue colored glasses, and there was nothing spurious about those correlations I questioned. The correlations were achieved through divine intervention! Democrats were anointed by the Almighty, and Republicans are instruments of Satan!

Nobody ever said that Donnie the Dumbass was responsible for COVID. What everybody with a brain has said is that Donnie the Dumbass fucked up the US response to COVID. He did so by lying to everybody in the US and by ignoring his own experts. Because, according to him, he alone could fix it.

I could point out multiple instances of his monumental screwups but you won't listen. And the Moron Brigade will say it is all "fake news".

[Tiny 12]

Any investor doing just the most cursory due diligence and with any awareness of economic history at all would know immediately that "Reaganomics" was one of if not THE biggest losing proposition in economics.

The Great Repub Depression, Reagan's Great Repub Recession, W's Great Repub Recession, Trump's Repub Recession, the next Great Repub Recession, the one after that, etc etc were and will all be ushered in and exacerbated by dumb Repubs cutting taxes disproportionately high on exactly the wrong people and income margins:

Britain's lurch toward 'Reaganomics' gets a thumbs down from the markets.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/24/liz-...ndroidappshare

Oh, but Reagan and a Dem Speaker of the House once "saved" Social Security! LOL.

Yep. That was after Reagan damn near cleaned out Social Security and destroyed the rest of the USA economy by tripling the debt, skyrocketing the deficit and driving the unemployment rate into double digits for almost a year thanks to his idiotic "Reganomics" that by rights should have been called "Coolidge-Hoovernomics" because that is the Great Repub Depression / Great Repub Recession template that Repubs have been touting and applying to Crash the economy and wipe out millions of jobs ever since they discovered how effective it was for achieving that result in the 1920's.

Paul Volker's interest rates were primarily what pushed the USA from stagflation into recession, and then back into growth mode again. You can really blame the recession and job loss on high oil prices and what came before Reagan. That's unless you're a believe of Recep Erdogan, and believe lower interest rates are the cure for high inflation. That hasn't worked very well BTW.

From having read David Stockman's book, I can say that Reagan wanted to cut spending, except for defense, but Congress wouldn't cooperate. Now I'm no fan of higher defense spending, but believe the increased spending during his administration was part of the reason for the end of the Cold War. The Soviets couldn't keep up. The result was that freedom and democracy came to Eastern Europe, and the USA was set up for a peace dividend. This manifested in lower defense expenditures going forward. And helped Clinton, Gingrich et al balance the budget in Clinton's second term.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countrie...defense-budget

When Reagan left office, federal debt held by the public was only 39% of GDP, far below the 100% that's been problematic for countries like Greece and Spain. It came down to 31% around the end of Clinton's second term.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYPUGDA188S

Finally, here's an article about Reagan and taxes that's enlightening. This link is from a friend of mine who knows a lot more about economics than any of us. He believes the changes in tax policy during the Reagan administration made the system more progressive, by eliminating loopholes and broadening the base:

https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/new...n_years_taxes/

[Elvis 2008]

I could go on for another 20 comments on how bad and reckless the Biden presidency has been but everyone knows this. Everyone sees this. Everyone is suffering from the Biden failed policies and presidency. There will be some fools that disagree. But they will be the dumbest fools you know.

I hate to disagree with you Cali, all your data points are right, but with inflation and the Fed raising rates, the dollar has gotten stronger under Biden. So an expat like Eih is laughing it up in Thailand with the stronger dollar while we suffer.

He is selfishly trying to convince us that we are doing better while in fact only people like he are.

[Canada]

Agreed. Biden presidency is a complete train wreck. There never has been a president in history that has failed the American people so badly. His foreign policy has shown the world that the leader of our country is fool. USA is the only country in the world with open borders. There have been record levels of drugs from Mexico that have entered USA. Record number of criminals, terrorists and traffickers have entered USA in the last 20 months. Gas prices are still $6 in our state and over $5 a gallon in Nevada. Inflation is at 40 year high. Stock market is lower now than it was when Biden took office. USA is in a recession. Americans are suffering. The world sees this. Complete idiots can't see the truth and are in denial. Mid terms are near. Biden and democrats running for this election are counting on the socialists / democrat voters to remain stupid. Biden wants you to forget the last 20 months as if they never happened. The socialists / communist democrats are doing everything in their power to deflect blame and talk about everything and anything to try to distract the voters from the crises they created. There will be a complete idiot that will probably disagree with this truth but remember. That he is a complete idiot.

Yes you are correct on the Biden train wreck and the problem is he is to incompetent to fix it and his diversified and unqualified staff have no clue.

Yes and you are also right that a complete idiot will disagree with your post and try to blame anyone and everyone but Biden. Possibly more than one idiot that is in denial over Biden failed policies.

[Elvis 2008]

The Moron Brigade will claim that "voodoo economics" (the real name for 'trickle down economics') works fine. They won't show any sources for this claim (of course), but they'll say it works.

They have as many sources for this claim as they do for "the election was stolen and we can prove it because we found that Italian satellites changed votes".

I must be missing something. What is the Democratic alternative? We just saw the Dems keep the carried interest tax break for hedge fund managers. Yes, those in the financial industry pay much less in taxes than the rest of us. It was the typical Democratic bullshit. All the Dems really, really wanted to end this but one senator said no, and they had no choice. Glenn Greenwald called the Dems out on this crap but you and Eih still buy it.

And then there was the Obama alternative. Let us print up a bunch of money and hand it to the banks after the banks engaged in blatantly illegal activity and many bankers should have been jailed. Maybe you all can brag about how great that was. Look at how great the numbers were after that.

If you compare apples to apples, the Obama and Reagan recovery were much the same. Unemployment down, stock market up, inflation was low, but debt was way up. And with Obama, you had trillions put on the Fed's balance sheet, an accounting gimmick to be sure.

The difference between Obama and Reagan though was how they campaigned. Obama put on the "we are going to be tough on the rich" mask but he tossed all his progressive economists off the boat as soon as he won. Even Jon Stewart of Comedy Central showed clips of Obama talking tough on the rich in his campaign and laughing it up with the rich once he was elected.

That is the only difference I see with regards to the Dems and Republicans on taxing the rich, the fake tough talk. Maybe a better way to put is the Republicans want to cut taxes for the rich while the Dems want to just cut taxes for THEIR rich.

Here is a classic example of a Dem talking tough on the rich.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is calling on the wealthy to return to New York City from their weekend homes in the surrounding suburbs, fearing they may choose to stay and file taxes there.

"I literally talk to people all day long who are now in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, 'You got to come back, when are you coming back? Cuomo said at a press conference Monday.

"'We'll go to dinner, I'll buy you a drink, come over, I'll cook, Cuomo added in jest.

I was in Cabo recently and the property tax on a $300,000 house, I was told, was $300 a year. In Texas, it would be about $6000. God knows what it would be in California.

And of course, we have Eih doing the same thing. Instead of staying in high tax California, we have Eih living it up in Thailand. Yes, he is all in favor of taxing the rich in the USA but how about those expats in Thailand? Why are we rewarding those people who live abroad and are not paying their "fair share" of taxes?

I was in France in the 1980's and talked to a family who voted for the socialist Mitterand. The joke was that I voted for Mitterand because he said he would tax the rich. He won, became president, and then turned to me and said, "You are rich. ".

And Eih is bragging about being rich and "helping out" a young gal in Thailand in college. Excuse me but isn't that trickle down economics in action? LOL.

[Tiny 12]

Has the NBER issued an official statement on whether it is or isn't currently a recession but nobody heard about it?

Trump's Fed Chair appointee is certainly trying hard to artificially cool down Biden's roaring job-creating, wage increasing economy into perhaps a mild recession or close to one. But, being originally appointed by a Repub and, worse, by Repub Donald Trump, he's not very good at his job.

But replacing him in the midst of Trump's Pandemic Crash and Recession was not really an option for Biden without making the horrific conditions Trump made of everything and left behind even worse.

Interestingly, the Dow has yet to close in Bear Market territory even once so far and the S&P 500 Index has only barely closed below 20% from its all-time closing high. That's within a small handful of percentage points of their decline under Trump in 2018, a time many delusional Trumpsters identify as the "great" part of Trump's so-called presidency before his disastrous economic decisions resulted in, you know, disaster.

Has the USA gone through two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth? Are two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth popularly considered to constitute a recession?

https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp#:~:text=A%20recession%20is%20a%20significant,%2C%20consumer%20demand%2C%20and%20employment.

What's the current USA fed funds rate? Answer: 3% to 3.25%

What is the most recent CPI YoY inflation rate? Answer: 8.3%

What is is the real interest rate based on the fed funds rate? Answer: In excess of NEGATIVE 5%

Why on God's green earth would someone criticize current Fed policy for being too tight and "artificially cooling down Biden's roaring job-creating, wage increasing economy into perhaps a mild recession or close to one"? Answer: Heck if I know. He probably hasn't lived or worked in a place like Argentina or Turkey, and doesn't remember the late 70's and early 80's too well.

[Tiny 12]

This time I will concede that you are "probably right".

No doubt about it your lord and savior Trump saved America from a 3rd /4th term of historic economic boom times, near all-time record high jobs creation, NO Recession, fantastic stock market gains, debt / deficit reduction leading to budget surpluses, exemplary National Security response and protections, incomparable Peace and Prosperity.

In fact, no other so-called potus dragged us away from any of those dreaded outcomes faster and further than did your lord and savior Trump.

When Repubs take over after Dems have shouldeted all the heavy lifting and assumed all the political risk of proposing, fighting for, negotiationg and passing complex but necessary and ultimately revered legislation, creating conditions that produce the only great economic results America has seen in 100 years and none of the major downturns that are the signature achievements of the Repub Party, they typically proudly announce something like "We're going to turn this economy around"!

Believe them.

Yes, Donald Trump is responsible for COVID. And Joe Biden ended the pandemic! Or at least he said it at the auto show last week.

I've come around to your way of thinking. You haven't been interpreting American events through blue colored glasses, and there was nothing spurious about those correlations I questioned. The correlations were achieved through divine intervention! Democrats were anointed by the Almighty, and Republicans are instruments of Satan!

[Tiny 12]

There is no doubt that most Americans are unhappy with the state of America due to Trump's Pandemic mass-murder of at least a million Americans, Trump's extraordinarily irresponsible defunding of our Pandemic Prevention and Response Teams where they were most needed contrary to all expert warnings not to do something so dangerous and stupid, his critical year of lies about it on the world stage as if he were writing an "I Was a Pandemic-Producing World Leader" script. Well, let's say having someone else ghost write it.

Then there was the worldwide economic and supply chain collapse and inevitable hyper-inflation that Trump's astonishingly incompetent stewardship triggered.

And we'll never forget the ongoing damage done to America and the cause of democracy around the world by Trump's unprecedented attempted coup against America, trying to overturn a free and fair American election, overthrow American democracy and all that.

But apparently most Americans are smart enough not to blame Biden and the Dems for it. And the polls clearly show they must appreciate the historically positive legislation and measures Biden and the Dems have taken to pull is out of the horrific mess of everything Trump and his classic Repub policies and stewardship produced and left behind:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/

To update, Biden's Job Approval Rating is still higher than any other Party leader, higher than both the House and the Senate, higher than Trump's were in each of his first two years in office. The "good" Trump years, LOL. It is higher than Trump's was for his entire miserable 4 year term.

Also, Biden's Favorability Rating is still higher than jobless Trump's. And he still routinely beats 2024 Repub Front Runner candidate Trump in the hypothetical match up polls.

Oh, and more pertinent to the upcoming election, Dems continue to lead Repubs in the Generic Ballot question, something rare for the "in the White House" Party for these particular midterms.

Here too:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/

Did you look at your 538 link? OK, you said Biden's approval rating is higher than any other party leader. I'll buy that. There are three party leaders, in the White House, Senate and House. His rating is higher than Nancy Pelosi's. And his rating is higher than McConnell's because both Democrats and pro-Trump Republicans hate his guts. But Biden's approval rating sucks. The September 21 ABC News poll shows him at 39%.

Also in your 538 link, the most recent general election poll for 2024, on September 22, shows Trump ahead of Biden by 51% to 45%, and ahead of Harris by 51% to 42%. I don't know how meaningful one poll is, but in general Trump's leading Biden. Look at this table.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...iden-7383.html#polls.

Think about that. Trump not that long ago tried to upend over 200 years of American democracy. He's constantly in the news as a result of various investigations into his business dealings, treatment of confidential government documents, and post election shenanigans. And yet still, in large part because many Americans disapprove of Democratic Party policies, he's leading Biden in the polls! Incredible!

I'd say the same about Republican chances in the midterms. Despite all the damage the Republicans have done to themselves, by an ill timed abortion decision in the Supreme Court and their support of Trump, and Trump torpedoing many good Republican general election candidates who wouldn't support his lies, punters still believe there's about a 75% probability Republicans will take control of the House:

https://www.predictit.org/markets/de...-2022-election

And that's not to mention that Biden and Democratic Congressmen are pulling out all stops to win the mid term elections. Biden will be continuing to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, at least until November, to bring down gasoline prices, even though the price of oil is down to $78.74 per barrel. And even though the SPR was meant to be used for real emergencies, not to improve a party's chances at the polls.

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...ry-2022-09-19/

https://oilprice.com/

Then there's some of the legislation you highlighted in your post below, among the bills passed when Democrats controlled the presidency, the Senate and Congress. During the Biden administration, it included pork for Democratic Party contributors and Democratic Party controlled districts, tax subsidies for upper middle class Democratic Party greenies, and, in 2021, plain cash, through the American Rescue Plan. Like someone told me the other day, Joe Biden bought his big screen TV! Right, and supercharged inflation.

You think these investigations of of Trump coming to a head around the time voting is getting started for the elections is a coincidence?

And finally how about Biden's appearance at the auto show the other day. He didn't wear a mask, and he declared that COVID was over, just in time for the mid term elections. Who does that sound like?

[JustTK]

Not that the sentiment isn't worth reflecting on. It's just that it will never change anything. Yeah, Capitalism and the advantages of the well connected is so unfair. Then what?

And therein lies the problem. You are an educated person yet you are not willing to stand up and be one of the drivers for change, because you doubt it will lead to anything. Becuase people have this attitude, you condone and maintain the neo-lib status quo. That is exactly what I am getting at here. You prefer to stick to your own "hackneyed homilies" - how wonderful the Dem Party, and what a monster Chump and the Reps are. Don't you see that?

I assume those two authors of nothing new and Harry Shutt hand over all the profits from their book sales to poor farmers, right?

Complete strawman! No one claims people shuld not be able to earn a living, especially while we navigate a path through this capitalist world.

BUt ET, a sincere thanks for watching the video, at least.