American Politics

[Tiny 12]

He isn't a crook. He was jailed by a corrupt judge on faulty charges (no doubt masterminded by the real crook Bolsanero). His sentence was overturned and he was realeased, So yiou have no grounds to call him a crook.

When he gave up his presidency after 2 terms, he had an approval rating of 90%. He lifted 20 million Brazilains out of poverty. He pledges to preserve the Amazon RF. Why do you "hope won't happen in America (sic) in 2024" ?

Trump's supporters have and will make similar arguments. I don't think Lula or Trump should be jailed. However they're both crooks, and neither deserves to be president of their countries. The approval rating of his Worker's Party successor, President Dilma Rouseff, was 9% when she left office.

Lula and other Workers Party politicians were up to their knees in the Odebrecht scandal. He was convicted and sentenced before Bolsonaro came to power. The investigation commenced and Lula's home was raided when Lula's anointed successor, Rousseff, was still president. Yes, the Brazilian judge, Moro, who brought charges against Lula was biased. So was the other judge, Fachin, who released him.

Here's the entry from Wikipedia. I don't know why Themlio and Marcelo Odebrecht would have lied.

Lula and the Worker's Party.

Themlio Odebrecht said in a written report to the Attorney General of Brazil's Office (PGR) that he discussed donations to Worker's Party's (PT) campaigns with former PT president Lula. Financial support, according to the contractor, came even before Lula became president. Marcelo Odebrecht said that the "Amigo" account for former President Luiz Inacio Lula the Silva, was created in 2010 with a balance of are $40 million. In his statement, he said he gave the money to Antonio Palocci, former Finance Minister and Rousseff's chief of staff, who had been the PT contact with Odebrecht since the prior administration, when themlio Alves Odebrecht and Pedro Novis had handled payments. He said that in the middle of 2010, at the end of the Lula administration, he knew that Dilma Rousseff was going to take over and that the balance of the account would be "managed by her at her request". Thus, he set apart a sum that would be destined exclusively for the former president. He said that Lula never asked directly for donations and that everything was done through Palocci, but it became clear that the donations were ultimately for the former president.

On 4 March 2016, Lula was questioned for three hours as part of the fraud inquiry into the dealings of Petrobras, and his house raided by federal police agents. Lula, who left office in 2011, denied allegations of corruption. Police said they had evidence that Lula, 70, had received kickbacks. Lula's institute called actions against him "arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable", since he had been cooperating with the investigations. Lula, convicted of accepting bribes worth 3. 7 million reals (1. 2 million dollars), was sentenced on 12 July to nine and a half years in prison. He appealed the sentence to the Federal Regional Court-4, which increased his sentence to twelve years and a month. On 5 April 2018, Moro ordered his imprisonment, and he surrendered two days later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Car_Wash

[JustTK]

What we saw happen in Brazil is what you and I hope won't happen in America in 2024. A crook, Lula, who actually spent time in jail, was elected Brazilian president by a small margin. If a court puts Trump in jail, which I hope won't happen, I wonder what would happen come 2024. I bet he'd run for president from his jail cell, and I bet the "martyr factor" would help him.

He isn't a crook. He was jailed by a corrupt judge on faulty charges (no doubt masterminded by the real crook Bolsanero). His sentence was overturned and he was realeased, So yiou have no grounds to call him a crook.

When he gave up his presidency after 2 terms, he had an approval rating of 90%. He lifted 20 million Brazilains out of poverty. He pledges to preserve the Amazon RF. Why do you "hope won't happen in America (sic) in 2024" ?

[Tiny 12]

It's not surprising you love gridlock, after all, it's what Repubs do best. (....kkkk). I mean, "gridlock" is right out of the "right-wing playbook". Let's just waste taxpayers money while in office and do nothing meaningful, except blame the Dems, repeal meaningful law/bills put in place by Dems, taking America backwards to the 1800's , and lower taxes for the corporate welfare and the rich cronies. Sound about right.

Which is all a ruse or an attempt to make it look like a meaningful administrative tenure. So again, not surprising you love gridlock.

You and Tooms apparently don't understand what gridlock means. It's when one party does not control the presidency, Senate and House at the same time. Politicians aren't as able to "waste taxpayers money", "repeal meaningful laws / bills", or "lower taxes for the corporate welfare and rich cronies" when there's gridlock. As I already said in a reply to another of your posts, I wonder why some people blame Republicans for the welfare for corporations and "rich cronies," when the Democrats are arguably more guilty than the Republicans in promoting crony capitalism and corporate welfare. Maybe that's why you see more Democrats at country clubs and more Republicans at construction sites and and on factory floors these days.

A good friend of mine who's a Democrat prefers divided government (that is, gridlock). He's looked closely at deficit spending and says it's the least when you have a Democrat in the White House and Republicans controlling the House. That's what we had during Clinton's second term, which was the only time we've balanced the budget in many decades. And that's what we'll have for the next two years, God willing.

The Brazilians, on the other hand, weren't buying into the right-wing playbook of, "...it's election fraud, if we don't win, horse-pucky. Thereby categorically, refuting any such claims Pres. Bozo (Bolsonaro), had cooked up, from the "Trump playbook", about hacked/compromised election machines.

What we saw happen in Brazil is what you and I hope won't happen in America in 2024. A crook, Lula, who actually spent time in jail, was elected Brazilian president by a small margin. If a court puts Trump in jail, which I hope won't happen, I wonder what would happen come 2024. I bet he'd run for president from his jail cell, and I bet the "martyr factor" would help him.

Bolsonaro did not follow the Donald Trump or Stacey Abrams post-election playbooks. While he may not have come out and directly said "I lost", he's cooperating with an orderly transition, and has asked his supporters to do the same.

[GDreams]

"I always thought the red wave was going to fade after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade." Sure you did. That's why you made multiple posts criticizing Republicans for pushing extreme anti-abortion legislation in most Repub-run states. Oh, wait! I went back to the SCOTUS are v W time frame and counted all of your posts skewering Republicans. You know how many of them there were? None. Zip. Null. Nada..

Stupid Repubs will continue down this anti-abortion path. Who knows if they'll be dumb enough to try to overturn voting rights and LBGTQ rights but given that the sum total of the IQ of all of the MAGAts in Congress is less than 100, I wouldn't put it past them. They will continue to trot out morons like Walker and DeSantis and MTG and BoBo and Gym Jordan and the rest of the dumber-than-dogshit election deniers. Repub Congresspeople are so stupid that they'll try to impeach every Democrat in Government over the next two years. That's because they don't have anything else and they don't know anything else and they're simply too fucking stupid to get out of their own way..

They need a like button on this forum.

[EihTooms]

Classic whataboutism and completely irrelevant. Both parties approved ridiculous and unnecessary money printing during Covid. If you are a dumb Dem, you do not see the effect of $11 trillion printed out of thin air and inflation. If you are a dumb Dem, you do not see the inflation because inflation is a word Republicans made up. If you print up $11 trillion, somehow if you are a dumb Dem, you think corporate profits are not going to go up. If you are a dumb Dem, you think corporate profits should go down as the stock market goes up because you all have no fucking clue what causes the market to rise.

The economy is down because the Fed is raising rates to combat government induced inflation. But if you are a Dem, raising rates is Trump's fault and the fault of Republicans, and anyone who thinks otherwise is watching Fox News. LOL.

You guys cannot even define gridlock. Dems control both the Senate and House and Biden cannot get all that it wants and no president in history had more gridlock than Biden? Since when it is that gridlock? All you guys do is make stuff up. Even words do not have objective definitions.

And when I say I want gridlock, I want it with spending money. The entire Biden agenda has been throwing money at people: Ukraine, people with student debt, Build Back Better. Biden is tone deaf when it comes to saving money or making government more efficient.

The first sentence in my previous post re Gridlock:

No president in modern history faced more potential Gridlock in his first two years in office than Sleepy Joe Brandon.

Name the previous presidents who had fewer seats from their Party in the Senate and the House in their first two years in office AND with the opposition Party openly admitting their number one priority is to thwart and obstruct almost if not everything he tries to do along with their subsequent behavior proving it.

Coolidge? Nope.

Hoover? Nope.

FDR? Nope.

Truman? Nope.

Eisenhower? Nope.

JFK? Nope.

Reagan? Nope.

LBJ? Nope.

Bush 1? Nope.

Clinton? Nope.

Bush 2? Nope.

Obama? Nope.

Trump? Nope.

Now, you ever hear of a RINO or a DINO?

How about an opposition Party whose leader and then so-called potus led a violent, cop-killing Insurrection on the premise that the incoming POTUS was not even elected and whose slavishly devoted members in his Party spent every waking hour of his first two years repeating that lie to cheers from their voting constituents?

Any of the above listed Presidents have to go up against that in their first two years in office?

Do tell us which of them spent their first two years trying to get things done in the face of ALL of those factors, not just some of them, all of them, aside from Joe Biden.

I'm sure you and Tiny can put your minds together and come up with the names of which ones and include it in the same post with that citation of a meaningful and now revered legislation proposed, fought for and passed when Repubs held the White House, the Majority in the Senate and the Majority in the House.

You make a mockery of the concept of Gridlock by suggesting any POTUS in modern times came into office and was faced with less potential of it in his first two years than Biden.

[PVMonger]

Classic whataboutism and completely irrelevant. Both parties approved ridiculous and unnecessary money printing during Covid. If you are a dumb Dem, you do not see the effect of $11 trillion printed out of thin air and inflation. If you are a dumb Dem, you do not see the inflation because inflation is a word Republicans made up. If you print up $11 trillion, somehow if you are a dumb Dem, you think corporate profits are not going to go up. If you are a dumb Dem, you think corporate profits should go down as the stock market goes up because you all have no fucking clue what causes the market to rise.

The economy is down because the Fed is raising rates to combat government induced inflation. But if you are a Dem, raising rates is Trump's fault and the fault of Republicans, and anyone who thinks otherwise is watching Fox News. LOL.

You guys cannot even define gridlock. Dems control both the Senate and House and Biden cannot get all that it wants and no president in history had more gridlock than Biden? Since when it is that gridlock? All you guys do is make stuff up. Even words do not have objective definitions.

And when I say I want gridlock, I want it with spending money. The entire Biden agenda has been throwing money at people: Ukraine, people with student debt, Build Back Better. Biden is tone deaf when it comes to saving money or making government more efficient.

I always thought the red wave was going to fade after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Polls said it was way down on the list of voter concerns but with every woman I know, that is the most important issue with them. Fox News has said that the abortion issue is back in the hands of state legislators but it really has not been. They are too gutless to take this on. Prohibition was not ended by legislators but by citizens and the abortion issue is and should be settled by citizens voting.

You guys have no clue what the Fed is doing. They are raising interest rates to destroy demand and hoping not to cause a recession, a so called soft landing, which has never been done before. As I said, the bond market is predicting recession, and the last time we had inverted yield curves this bad was prior to the great recession of 2008.

Still as bad as the economy will be the Republicans need to change their tune on abortion. We can say we are anti-abortion and will not vote for abortion but if abortion is put on the ballot and it is the will of the voters to allow abortion, we will respect their wishes.

The current Democratic economic position, basically finger pointing with anything bad in the economy, is the worst I have ever seen, but if the Republicans do not address the abortion issue and get some better candidates, this absolute give me will be lost again.

"I always thought the red wave was going to fade after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade." Sure you did. That's why you made multiple posts criticizing Republicans for pushing extreme anti-abortion legislation in most Repub-run states. Oh, wait! I went back to the SCOTUS are v W time frame and counted all of your posts skewering Republicans. You know how many of them there were? None. Zip. Null. Nada..

Stupid Repubs will continue down this anti-abortion path. Who knows if they'll be dumb enough to try to overturn voting rights and LBGTQ rights but given that the sum total of the IQ of all of the MAGAts in Congress is less than 100, I wouldn't put it past them. They will continue to trot out morons like Walker and DeSantis and MTG and BoBo and Gym Jordan and the rest of the dumber-than-dogshit election deniers. Repub Congresspeople are so stupid that they'll try to impeach every Democrat in Government over the next two years. That's because they don't have anything else and they don't know anything else and they're simply too fucking stupid to get out of their own way.

If you are a dumb Repub, you will see nothing wrong with this approach. Then, when you get trounced in 2024, you'll go looking for somebody to blame. Maybe the Jews. Or maybe Gen Z. Unfortunately, Repubs are too fucking stupid to simply look in the mirror.

[Tiny 12]

Sorry, that didn't make sense. I left out "of GDP. " The following should have read, "corporate profits increased by 938 billion, or 4% of GDP..."

That said, corporate profits increased by 938 billion, or 4%, during the 18 month period that started in 2Q 2020 and ended in the 4Q 2021.

[Tiny 12]

Both parties approved ridiculous and unnecessary money printing during Covid.

Absolutely. This is Tiny's hierarchy of blame for the matter at hand, who's the most responsible.

1. Democrats in the House of Representatives. Spending bills originate in the House.

2. Joe Biden.

3. Donald Trump.

4. Senate Democrats.

5. Republican representatives who will do anything Trump tells them to.

6. Senate Republicans.

I'll note the Republicans unanimously voted against the $1. 9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which fired up inflation in the USA before the rest of the world. And McConnell and Senate Republicans by December of 2020 had enough, and moderated the demands of Trump and Pelosi to keep spending like drunken sailor.

You guys cannot even define gridlock. Dems control both the Senate and House and Biden cannot get all that it wants and no president in history had more gridlock than Biden? Since when it is that gridlock? All you guys do is make stuff up. Even words do not have objective definitions.

Good point. Tooms' claim that potential for gridlock was at an all time high during the Biden administration is strange considering he NEVER criticizes the Democratic Party. Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the Presidency. So who else could you blame, besides Democrats, if they had failed to pass some of the beloved suck ass legislation that Tooms so admires?

And when I say I want gridlock, I want it with spending money. The entire Biden agenda has been throwing money at people: Ukraine, people with student debt, Build Back Better. Biden is tone deaf when it comes to saving money or making government more efficient.

It's crazy. You give the Republicans the presidency and Congress and they do the same shit, but not to this extent.

The current Democratic economic position, basically finger pointing with anything bad in the economy, is the worst I have ever seen, but if the Republicans do not address the abortion issue and get some better candidates, this absolute give me will be lost again.

Agreed. As to better candidates, the Republicans need to jettison Trump and stop picking candidates who kowtow to his election fraud bull shit. And yes, abortion is the other albatross across the neck of the party

[Tiny 12]

Corporate profits from the 2Q 2021 to the 2Q 2022 were up $219 billion, or 7.8%. That was less than the 9.1% YoY CPI inflation at June 30,2022. And the $219 billion only accounted for 0.94% (less than 1% for the mathematically challenged) of GDP. Corporate greed and excess profits thus did not account for a significant part of the inflation we've seen over the last year.

Katie Porter, clearly debunks your that myth and outlines exactly why it's corporate greed, that is the problem....

As I always point out to you and other BMs, that no one is saying you can't make a profit, but price gouging / price fixing, is on another level of greed and borderline predatory. Which BTW, is the same message Biden and Katie Porter are making.

Ms. Porter sounds like Jim Jordan, that is, a partisan who doesn't necessarily know jack. She's there to supply the sanctimony and the outrage. The brains in the video is Mike Konzcal, one of the directors of the leftist Roosevelt Institute. The New York Times said Konzcal has "a cult following among progressives."

I was careful to say that excess profits did not account for a significant part of inflation over the last year. That's irrefutable. The numbers speak for themselves. Again, CPI inflation was 9.1% YoY to 2Q 2022 and during the same period, corporate profits only increased by 0.94% of GDP.

The chart that Porter's displaying goes from 2 Q2020 to the 4 Q2021, even though data was available through 2Q 2022. Again, Porter or Konzcal cherry picked data, in part by starting the chart during the depths of the pandemic induced recession, when corporate profits were at their lowest. That said, corporate profits increased by 938 billion, or 4%, during the 18 month period that started in 2Q 2020 and ended in the 4Q2 021. Total inflation over the same period was about 8%. So yes, in the mind of the Progressive shill, the increase in corporate profits accounted for a large percentage of inflation, during that cherry-picked 18 month period..

What was actually happening? Well, take out the word "Trump's" and Tooms has half of the explanation here:

Trump's Pandemic Supply-Chain Destruction was certainly the trigger and main cause of the recent hyper-inflation around the world.

(Aside: Tooms is bright. He'd be a lot brighter if he didn't insist on viewing the world through blue colored lenses.)

Problems with logistics, lockdowns, and in general a fall off in supply happened at the same time $5 trillion+ in COVID stimulus, over 25% of GDP, was pumped into the system.

What's the other half of the explanation? You had a big increase in demand, because people had lots of free money, at the same time you had a shortage of goods. In other words, demand was greater than supply. Businesses sitting on lower cost inventory jacked up their prices. When something like this happens, businesses realize outsized profits until something changes. Most often it's an increase in competition and capacity, but perhaps in this case a rejiggering of the supply chain (additional supply) will bring prices and profit margins down. At some point many businesses will lose money. The weak get knocked out of business, capacity is shuttered. Then it starts all over again. It's called the business cycle.

The Progressive shills believe the proper reaction to the business cycle is to impose price controls or windfall profits taxes on corporations, even though those have been tried and they only fuck things up worse.

There are things the Biden administration and the Democrats, who control Congress, could do to counteract this. One example is quit threatening to shut down the oil and gas producers, so that they're afraid to invest in increasing production. Another is to end the Trump tariffs. And a third is to cut out the corporate welfare. I don't know exactly what's in the Infrastructure legislation, the semiconductor bill, and the green legislation (that is, the inflation reduction act). But undoubtedly lots of pork that benefits businesses. The tariffs and the corporate welfare are crony capitalism, which will drive up corporate profits at the expense of the consumer. And don't let your prejudices get the best of you. The Democrats are just as bad or worse than the Republicans at this. Why do you think it's the Democrats now who hang out at country clubs, while the hard working men and women on the factory floors are Republicans?

And Spidy, I do not view you as a progressive shill. I'm referring to Porter and Konzcal. You are a respected board member.

[Elvis 2008]

Dude, just as soon as you stop watching FOXY News, which only serves to "dumb-down" America. Not too mention the number of lunatics, that have gone on to kill their family members and fellow Americans after watching and being radicalized by FOXY News. So Elvis, it not too late.

Classic whataboutism and completely irrelevant. Both parties approved ridiculous and unnecessary money printing during Covid. If you are a dumb Dem, you do not see the effect of $11 trillion printed out of thin air and inflation. If you are a dumb Dem, you do not see the inflation because inflation is a word Republicans made up. If you print up $11 trillion, somehow if you are a dumb Dem, you think corporate profits are not going to go up. If you are a dumb Dem, you think corporate profits should go down as the stock market goes up because you all have no fucking clue what causes the market to rise.

The economy is down because the Fed is raising rates to combat government induced inflation. But if you are a Dem, raising rates is Trump's fault and the fault of Republicans, and anyone who thinks otherwise is watching Fox News. LOL.

You guys cannot even define gridlock. Dems control both the Senate and House and Biden cannot get all that it wants and no president in history had more gridlock than Biden? Since when it is that gridlock? All you guys do is make stuff up. Even words do not have objective definitions.

And when I say I want gridlock, I want it with spending money. The entire Biden agenda has been throwing money at people: Ukraine, people with student debt, Build Back Better. Biden is tone deaf when it comes to saving money or making government more efficient.

I always thought the red wave was going to fade after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Polls said it was way down on the list of voter concerns but with every woman I know, that is the most important issue with them. Fox News has said that the abortion issue is back in the hands of state legislators but it really has not been. They are too gutless to take this on. Prohibition was not ended by legislators but by citizens and the abortion issue is and should be settled by citizens voting.

You guys have no clue what the Fed is doing. They are raising interest rates to destroy demand and hoping not to cause a recession, a so called soft landing, which has never been done before. As I said, the bond market is predicting recession, and the last time we had inverted yield curves this bad was prior to the great recession of 2008.

Still as bad as the economy will be the Republicans need to change their tune on abortion. We can say we are anti-abortion and will not vote for abortion but if abortion is put on the ballot and it is the will of the voters to allow abortion, we will respect their wishes.

The current Democratic economic position, basically finger pointing with anything bad in the economy, is the worst I have ever seen, but if the Republicans do not address the abortion issue and get some better candidates, this absolute give me will be lost again.

[Spidy]

I responded to some bozo on FB who asked (and I am paraphrasing) "How could it have gone so badly for Repubs?

My answer was, in effect, "Because you kept breathing your own exhaust". The Repubs wanted a "red wave". All of their pollsters predicted a "red wave". They were too stupid to know the difference between calm, measured leadership (Biden) and chaos (Donnie the Dumbass and the rest of the Republican party).

The chorus of right-wing FOXY News pundits and others with their "Red Wave / Tsunami" rhetoric and brainwashing, was another attempt to begile Americans into thinking "the polls" are these "beacons precise accuracy".

The Repubs found out, thankfully, that the majority of Americans don't want to turn the clock back to the 1850's. The Repubs found out that the majority of Americans do not believe that anything further left than shooting people of color for sport is "socialist".

Good to see Americans standing up for democracy at the ballot-box, and exercise their right to "vote-out-the-bums", be it Dems or Repubs.

[Spidy]

I am happy with the results. Gridlock has been achieved. Hunter Biden is finally going to be investigated.

It's not surprising you love gridlock, after all, it's what Repubs do best. (....kkkk). I mean, "gridlock" is right out of the "right-wing playbook". Let's just waste taxpayers money while in office and do nothing meaningful, except blame the Dems, repeal meaningful law/bills put in place by Dems, taking America backwards to the 1800's , and lower taxes for the corporate welfare and the rich cronies. Sound about right.

Which is all a ruse or an attempt to make it look like a meaningful administrative tenure. So again, not surprising you love gridlock.

... The nation of Brazil takes in hundreds of millions of votes and results are spit out in 3 hours, yet Arizona takes weeks for a fraction of that many. Gee, I wonder why. ...

No need to wonder, why....listen up and I'll tell ya. The same stupid Repub right-wing playbook at work in Arizona, wanting to count the ballots by hand, after the dumb-ass recommendations by the Repub/Trump approved "Pillow Guy (Mike Lindel) "Cyber Ninjas "forensic audit", was a tell-tail sign the Republican-controlled Arizona state Senate had gone "cockoo for cocoa-puffs".

The Brazilians, on the other hand, weren't buying into the right-wing playbook of, "...it's election fraud, if we don't win, horse-pucky. Thereby categorically, refuting any such claims Pres. Bozo (Bolsonaro), had cooked up, from the "Trump playbook", about hacked/compromised election machines.

[Spidy]

The censorship troll blocked my last post. Thanks for listing your source of that bird brained notion that corporate profits are going up. When Dems want to say 200 is greater than 250 or Republicans made up the word inflation, 2024 is more of a Republcan lock..

That must look something like that so called the Repubs 2022 Mid-term "Red Wave" (....kkkk!)

No, no, wait, ....I stand corrected, "Red Tsunami" (...kkkk)

OMG. Spidy. Turn off the MSNBC and move to to CNBC. Learn something. Half of what they talk about is what the Fed is doing and why. Then let me know when the subject of the Fed screwing Biden over comes up because it has not come up. Not once.

Dude, just as soon as you stop watching FOXY News, which only serves to "dumb-down" America. Not too mention the number of lunatics, that have gone on to kill their family members and fellow Americans after watching and being radicalized by FOXY News. So Elvis, it not too late.

[Spidy]

... Corporate profits from the 2Q 2021 to the 2Q 2022 were up $219 billion, or 7.8%. That was less than the 9.1% YoY CPI inflation at June 30,2022. And the $219 billion only accounted for 0.94% (less than 1% for the mathematically challenged) of GDP. Corporate greed and excess profits thus did not account for a significant part of the inflation we've seen over the last year.

Katie Porter, clearly debunks your that myth and outlines exactly why it's corporate greed, that is the problem.

YoY CPI inflation increased from 1. 7% in February, 2021, before the the government started sending out stimulus checks as required by the Democrats' $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP), to 5.4% in June, 2021. Now what do you think the reaction of the Democratic Party politicians would have been if the Fed had aggressively used monetary policy to counteract the excessive fiscal stimulus from the ARP? Maybe by raising interest rates in lockstep with inflation, to 5. 5%? There would be hell to pay. None of the governors would have been reappointed when their terms were up, if a Democrat were in the White House.

As far as I understand it, the stimulus package help to bolster the economy, where most of the stimulus was expeditiously spent in earnest to keep the money-flowing in the economy and did not contribute significantly to inflation. Where as greedy corporations rising prices, above and beyond reasonable price increases, does put a drain on the economy and has significantly more to with increases in inflation.

BTW, Repubs were only to happy to spend millions in media exposure, billboard ads, TV / radio ads, and shamelessly take credit for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, they ALL voted against.

FWIW, polling shows a majority of Republican voters have said they somewhat or completely support it.

As to Katie Porter, please note that she's highlighting an increase in corporate profits, from the 2Q 2020, the depths of the pandemic induced recession. Yes, of course corporate profits went up a lot. As a result, the stock market went up a lot too. Democratic politicians, you and some other board members are only too happy to give Biden and the Democrats 100% of the credit for higher stock prices, increased employment, and a higher GDP, that resulted from the rebound from the recession.

Biden's following in Porter's footsteps, by blaming the evil oil companies for the run up in gasoline prices, and putting an albatross around their neck so they'd pump less oil and gas, and then taking credit for the decline in gasoline prices, which had nothing to do with his policies.

As I always point out to you and other BMs, that no one is saying you can't make a profit, but price gouging / price fixing, is on another level of greed and borderline predatory. Which BTW, is the same message Biden and Katie Porter are making.

[EihTooms]

And you just said your head is in the sand with regards to your investment, and I agree with that. You would have to have your head in the sand to ignore all the corporate projections that directly contradict your rosy belief. So yeah, you ignore corporate earnings calls and the bond market.

No, I didn't say my head is in the sand with regards to my investments. I said I haven't bothered to check the performance of my stock market portfolio in months to explain why I would not be turning Cartwheels (your assumption) over the gains in the S&P 500 Index lately. That would be because I don't need that money, am not worried about it, have no reason to check it monthly, weekly, daily or hourly the way some other poor souls do.

What would that have to do with "knowing" what is in my portfolio anyway? Do you think if we don't check our portfolios for a while some gremlins will get in there and change our stock market choices without us knowing about it? LOL.