American Politics

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2849422]Our YoY CPI inflation isn't out of line with other large developed nations and our largest trading partners. Yes, inflation is higher in the UK and EU, but about the same in Canada and Japan and lower in China and better developed, smaller east Asian and southeast Asian economies.

You wouldn't expect inflation in the USA to be higher now, in the summer of 2023. The huge excess savings that were created by COVID stimulus, most notably Biden's American Rescue Plan (ARP), have mostly been burned off. Higher USA Inflation, compared to other countries, occurred in 2021 after the ARP was passed, and is part of the reason real (inflation adjusted) median wages and salaries are lower now than when Biden took office.

[B]PLEASE. Blaming Trump for the COVID pandemic and thus for the 2020 recession makes "0" sense. [/b]Furthermore, characterizing what happened in 2020 as "supply-chain destruction" is ass backwards. A huge amount of stimulus was pumped into the economy.

True, no other nation engaged in the huge amount of stimulus spending (as a % of GDP) that the USA did in 2021 as a result of Biden's American Rescue Plan. And thus you didn't see inflation jumping up in other major economies in the first half of 2021. And no other country passed legislation to hand out $1 trillion of pork to renewable energy companies either. A number of our trading partners are up in arms because of American content requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act by the way. First the Trump tariffs and now the Inflation Reduction Act -- the USA just mocks the WTO rules it agreed to.

Here's a link to Wikipedia's list of GDP growth rate by country.

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate[/url]

For the July, 2023 table, the USA, with 1.8% GDP growth, ranked 140 out of 192 countries. For the 2022 table, the USA ranked 152 out of 193 countries with 2.1% GDP growth.

Baloney. We've been through this many times. Biden's stimulus was way over the top and ignited inflation. You seem to have no appreciation for the danger that our national debt poses. We can't spend like there's no tomorrow forever.

Sorry, I don't have time to address your other points right now, but I'm not sure pissing pink urine, sniffing Hunter Biden's feet, and getting foot jobs from Asian hookers merits a reply anyway. Although admittedly that was funny.[/QUOTE][B]Exclusive: U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak.[/B]

[URL]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv-idUSKBN21C3N5[/URL]

[B]Updated: Trump Says China Should Have Given Earlier Notice About Coronavirus, Disease Snuck Up On Us.[/B]

[URL]https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/03/18/trump-china-should-have-given-earlier-notice-about-coronavirus-disease-snuck-up-on-us/?sh=6d13b15d46cf[/URL]

[B]Trump says China should have told us about coronavirus. He removed the official meant to do that.
A US epidemiologist was embedded with the Chinese CDC. The Trump administration discontinued the position.[/B]

[URL]https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/23/21190713/coronavirus-trump-china-cdc-embed-quick[/URL]

[B]Bob Woodward Was Stunned By What Trump Told Young Son Barron About Coronavirus[/B]

[URL]https://news.yahoo.com/bob-woodward-stunned-trump-told-091902598.html[/URL]

[QUOTE]Talking to Woodward on March 19, 2020, Trump said Barron, then 13, asked what was going on and he answered: I said, it came out of China, Barron. Pure and simple. It came out of China. And it shouldve been stopped. [B]And to be honest with you, Barron, they shouldve let it be known it was a problem two months earlier ... the world wouldnt have a problem. We could have stopped it easily.[/b][/QUOTE]Yes, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE apply one of your E=MC2 formulas to this blatantly obvious reality or perhaps simply connect any two of those giant dots I provided and even you will come to the inarguable conclusion that no single person on Earth was more responsible for converting one of the typically 5-6 serious viral outbreaks per year the world experiences but gains control of enough to prevent a Pandemic into the worldwide economy-destroying and mass-murdering Trump's Pandemic it became than Donald J. Trump.

On a related note, for the first time since Trump laid the foundation for and converted a likely manageable endemic confined to a region of China into Trump's Pandemic, I actually heard pro-Repub Bothsider, Bill Maher, mention Trump defunding and eliminating the teams whose job it was to monitor, report and act to prevent and respond to those earliest cases and how that was connected to why we had Trump's Pandemic in the first place. I believe it was during his interview with Ramaswamy, in his effort to break through that dude's embarrassing ignorance on the facts thanks to his living in a Winger fake news media bubble.

Now, mind you, Maher largely pocketed that kind of important reminder of how Repubs and Trump in particular operate and produce consistently crap results all through two critical election cycles the same as Bob Woodward did. Thereby helping Trump come damn close to winning re-election and that Pink Tinkle House Majority to happen, which will once again put worldwide economies at great risk of being plunged into another Great Repub Depression just as soon as classic Repub Loon Marjorie Taylor Greene figures out how to shut down the USA government for several months in order to achieve that persistent Repub Party goal.

[QUOTE=Xpartan;2849374]I hear what you're saying. And I agree he did unwittingly help Bush in 2000. But that doesn't make him "pro-Repub". Look, I'm not defending Maher, but I used to watch his Politically Incorrect for decades. I only stopped because he started annoying me too much with his narcissism (and because the HBO kept hiking the prices, so fuck them! But he's totally a liberal. Never did I get an impression that he shares any core Republican values, even when he would invite conservatives to demonstrate that he plays fair. That's also a liberal thing -- playing fair.

You do agree that a true liberal doesn't feel obliged to always stick with the party line, right? That's always a problem with liberals, but that's what makes them liberals.[/QUOTE]Read or watch Bill Maher in the link below repeat a litany of easily and routinely debunked Repub Party sucker social issues campaign talking points that they run and often win elections on that, even if they were true, which they are not really, offer absolutely nothing to refute the inarguable fact that Repub policies and stewardship overwhemingly result in historic disaster, massive jobs destruction and skyrocketing deficits while Dem policies overwhelmingly result in historic job gains, economic expansion and more balanced budgets.

Sure, Maher does not appear to even realize he is spouting and lending credibility to those classic nothingness Repub campaign talking points for lack of anything of real value for them to run on. So what. The result is he is elevating their nothingness to a level of "real issues" worthy of casting a vote on.

Rush Limbaugh could not have conjured up a more effective way to reach as many Dems and potentially suppress enough of their votes in order to place spectacularly destructive Repub loons like GW Bush and Donald Trump at the helm.

[URL]https://deadline.com/2022/01/bill-maher-fires-back-says-his-politics-have-not-changed-1234922380/[/URL]

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2849453][B]Exclusive: U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak.[/B]

[URL]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv-idUSKBN21C3N5[/URL]

[B]Updated: Trump Says China Should Have Given Earlier Notice About Coronavirus, Disease Snuck Up On Us.[/B]

[URL]https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/03/18/trump-china-should-have-given-earlier-notice-about-coronavirus-disease-snuck-up-on-us/?sh=6d13b15d46cf[/URL]

[B]Trump says China should have told us about coronavirus. He removed the official meant to do that.
A US epidemiologist was embedded with the Chinese CDC. The Trump administration discontinued the position.[/B]

[URL]https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/23/21190713/coronavirus-trump-china-cdc-embed-quick[/URL]

[B]Bob Woodward Was Stunned By What Trump Told Young Son Barron About Coronavirus[/B]

[URL]https://news.yahoo.com/bob-woodward-stunned-trump-told-091902598.html[/URL]

Yes, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE apply one of your E=MC2 formulas to this blatantly obvious reality or perhaps simply connect any two of those giant dots I provided and even you will come to the inarguable conclusion that no single person on Earth was more responsible for converting one of the typically 5-6 serious viral outbreaks per year the world experiences but gains control of enough to prevent a Pandemic into the worldwide economy-destroying and mass-murdering Trump's Pandemic it became than Donald J. Trump.

On a related note, for the first time since Trump laid the foundation for and converted a likely manageable endemic confined to a region of China into Trump's Pandemic, I actually heard pro-Repub Bothsider, Bill Maher, mention Trump defunding and eliminating the teams whose job it was to monitor, report and act to prevent and respond to those earliest cases and how that was connected to why we had Trump's Pandemic in the first place. I believe it was during his interview with Ramaswamy, in his effort to break through that dude's embarrassing ignorance on the facts thanks to his living in a Winger fake news media bubble.

Now, mind you, Maher largely pocketed that kind of important reminder of how Repubs and Trump in particular operate and produce consistently crap results all through two critical election cycles the same as Bob Woodward did. Thereby helping Trump come damn close to winning re-election and that Pink Tinkle House Majority to happen, which will once again put worldwide economies at great risk of being plunged into another Great Repub Depression just as soon as classic Repub Loon Marjorie Taylor Greene figures out how to shut down the USA government for several months in order to achieve that persistent Repub Party goal.[/QUOTE]Given the Chinese government's handling of the disease in its early stages, I don't see how a pandemic could have been avoided. Yeah it would have made for a good movie. A USA scientist implanted with the Chinese CDC single-handedly prevents a pandemic. But that's not the real world.

And you'll get no e=mc2 from me Tooms. But take a look at the Ro or R0 for COVID versus SARS or MERS. COVID is so much more infectious. It’s more infectious than Ebola.

[URL]https://dailystormer.in/watch-fauci-admits-coronavirus-masks-dont-work-but-says-actually-they-do/[/URL]

Can we move on to conspiracy theories about the next medical crisis? I've stocked up on masks that are cheaper now, for the 30 minute visit to grocery stores.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2849552]Given the Chinese government's handling of the disease in its early stages, I don't see how a pandemic could have been avoided. Yeah it would have made for a good movie. A USA scientist implanted with the Chinese CDC single-handedly prevents a pandemic. But that's not the real world.[/QUOTE]Yeah, that would make for an interesting fiction. But that isn't what happened. It was not just one person. You'll find the numbers and how they dwindled under Trump / Repub stewardship over more than a year. Trump began defunding and eliminating members of the Pandemic Prevention and Response teams beginning in 2018. Then he eliminated the final spokesperson for that particular job 5 months before the first coronavirus cases emerged.

Here, I'll help you with that; 5 (months) - 2 (months) = 3 (months more than required for a Pandemic Prevention and Response team to observe, report and alert responsible leadership within and outside of China to prevent a Pandemic from developing.) But nonr were left by then to do it. Thanks to Donald Trump.

Trump was exactly the wrong so-called potus at the exact wrong time to be deciding what National Security measures ought to be maintained and which should not.

DeSantis pulled the same shit in Florida and now he's presiding over unprecedented cases of Malaria and Leprosy in and around his unfortunate state.

[QUOTE=MarquisdeSade1;2849573][b]Por favor no mas mascaras[/b]

[URL]https://dailystormer.in/watch-fauci-admits-coronavirus-masks-dont-work-but-says-actually-they-do/[/URL][/QUOTE]OK Marquis, I'm going to tell you the only useful thing you'll ever learn from the American Politics thread. The word is cubreboca, not mascara. If you tell someone "no mas mascaras", you may get an ass kicking. He could think you're saying his face looks like a Halloween mask. Or if he believes you're speaking English or Spanglish, you're calling him a trannie. Best to use cubreboca.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2849625]OK Marquis, I'm going to tell you the only useful thing you'll ever learn from the American Politics thread. The word is cubreboca, not mascara...[/QUOTE]Pretty sure the most common translation of surgical mask is "máscara quirúrgica". En España the face coverings we wore during Covid were mascarillas, for sure. In Argentina, Peru, Bolivia barbijo! I've heard tapaboca somewhere. Nasobuco in Cuba. I'm sure I've heard plain old mascara = surgical mask somewhere, just can't say where. Spanish has a lot of regionalisms -- ask for a bathroom in some countries and they say, "you want to take a bath? Then you ask for the toilet in the next country and it turns out you just asked, "where's the shitter at?

OK Marquis, I'm going to tell you the only useful thing you'll ever learn from the American Politics thread. The word is cubreboca, not mascara. If you tell someone "no mas mascaras", you may get an ass kicking. He could think you're saying his face looks like a Halloween mask. Or if he believes you're speaking English or Spanglish, you're calling him a trannie. Best to use cubreboca.

Me get my ass kicked? Doubtful, not around here at least LMAO.

Google translate says mask = mascara.

[URL]https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/just-say-no-to-new-mandatory-covid-restrictions/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=third[/URL]

[QUOTE=MarquisdeSade1;2849573][URL]https://dailystormer.in/watch-fauci-admits-coronavirus-masks-dont-work-but-says-actually-they-do/[/URL][/QUOTE]Fauci is saying the wearing of masks did not and would not be expected to prevent Trump's Pandemic from spreading "as a whole" but that an individual person could better protect himself and others around him if he wore a mask.

Of course, the Wingers who edited his response cut away as he was about to elaborate on the response.

But I would surmise he might have gone on to explain the vast majority of mask wearers likely will not be wearing effective ones, wear them properly in order to get the most out of them or wear them consistently in higher risk situations for the "as a whole" wearing of them to prevent Trump's Pandemic from spreading far, wide and fast enough to still kill a lot of people directly because of it and even more due to the depletion of medical staff, facilities, equipment and rooms in hospitals due to so many people being infected in a short amount of time.

However, that "an individual" determined to wear a good quality mask, wear it properly and wear it consistently would he expected to lessen his chances of spreading it if he happened to be infected knowingly or unknowingly, which is the greater purpose of mask wearing BTW, or being infected by it from others.

Wow. Really? That is too complex a concept for Wingers to understand? And that is the kind of weak brain trigger that drove them to the point of wanting to lynch Dr. Fauci? LOL.

[QUOTE=JohnClayton;2849663]Pretty sure the most common translation of surgical mask is "mscara quirrgica". En Espaa the face coverings we wore during Covid were mascarillas, for sure. In Argentina, Peru, Bolivia barbijo! I've heard tapaboca somewhere. Nasobuco in Cuba. I'm sure I've heard plain old mascara = surgical mask somewhere, just can't say where. Spanish has a lot of regionalisms -- ask for a bathroom in some countries and they say, "you want to take a bath? Then you ask for the toilet in the next country and it turns out you just asked, "where's the shitter at?[/QUOTE]Damn Clayton, you're better than Dickhead! Dickhead used to be a frequent contributor to ISG and Argentina Private, and he lived and taught language in a number of Latin American countries. His knowledge of Spanish was second to none for a Gringo.

Cubreboca is used in Mexico. When you say mascara they think about something you might wear for Day of the Dead, or what the bad guys use in lucha libre (professional wrestling.) I've definitely heard and read mascarilla and I bet it was in Spain, as I was there for a couple of weeks during COVID.

"Where's the shitter at" reminds me of something that happened to me years ago. In the classroom I learned that "lengua" meant language. I was speaking with a bilingual hottie I worked with who was kindly letting me practice Spanish with her, and I asked "Te gusta la lengua?" I was trying to ask her if she liked the Spanish language. She got mad as hell and slapped the shit out of me! I'd forgotten that lengua also means tongue! So she thought I asked her if she liked the tongue (DATY). She was Mexican American. I suspect if she'd been from Spain, where I believe "lengua" is used more commonly to mean "language," I'd still have all my teeth.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2849733]Damn Clayton, you're better than Dickhead! Dickhead used to be a frequent contributor to ISG and Argentina Private, and he lived and taught language in a number of Latin American countries. His knowledge of Spanish was second to none for a Gringo...[/QUOTE]I feel a little too confident after a coupla' three drinks -- that's when I will blithely ask, at a nice dinner party, where the shitter is!

Re: Mexicanisms vs Castellano. The word everyone uses for fuck in Mexico is coger, which sounds incredibly weird in Spain. Alternately, Mexicans are shocked, shocked when they hear a spaniard talking about having to hurry to the airport to fuck his flight.

[QUOTE=JohnClayton;2849740]I feel a little too confident after a coupla' three drinks -- that's when I will blithely ask, at a nice dinner party, where the shitter is!

Re: Mexicanisms vs Castellano. The word everyone uses for fuck in Mexico is coger, which sounds incredibly weird in Spain. Alternately, Mexicans are shocked, shocked when they hear a spaniard talking about having to hurry to the airport to fuck his flight.[/QUOTE]Haha! Yeah, I knew about that one. My Mexican girlfriend told me to stop using the word.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2849484]Read or watch Bill Maher in the link below repeat a litany of easily and routinely debunked Repub Party sucker social issues campaign talking points that they run and often win elections on that, even if they were true, which they are not really, offer absolutely nothing to refute the inarguable fact that Repub policies and stewardship overwhemingly result in historic disaster, massive jobs destruction and skyrocketing deficits while Dem policies overwhelmingly result in historic job gains, economic expansion and more balanced budgets.

Sure, Maher does not appear to even realize he is spouting and lending credibility to those classic nothingness Repub campaign talking points for lack of anything of real value for them to run on. So what. The result is he is elevating their nothingness to a level of "real issues" worthy of casting a vote on.

Rush Limbaugh could not have conjured up a more effective way to reach as many Dems and potentially suppress enough of their votes in order to place spectacularly destructive Repub loons like GW Bush and Donald Trump at the helm.

[URL]https://deadline.com/2022/01/bill-maher-fires-back-says-his-politics-have-not-changed-1234922380/[/URL][/QUOTE]Eih, is Maher lying in that episode, knowingly or not? If so, where?

If he's not lying -- then, well, he's a comedian. He's not a Democratic operative. He has the right not to like everything Dems are doing and talk about it loud and clear.

And he even has the right to be wrong about it.

If he unwittingly influenced nudged some folks to stay home on the election night or even vote for the opposing candidate, well, it happened. What is he supposed to do if he feels a certain way -- lie? Keep his mouth shut?

And come on, at least Donald Trump is not on him. That's just wrong.

I guess, we'll have to agree to disagree here.