American Politics

[Elvis 2008]

It wouldn't surprise me, if this was your twisted MAGA belief and equivalent way of saying, that Jews were better off, having gone through the Holocaust and learned valuable job experience in the concentration camp

And it would not surprise me that when the South African president says kill the white man, you go along with it.

Either way, it wouldn't surprise me, if indeed you truly have "No idea...", given your cowboy Repub ideology, explains your lack of accurate historical 1913 taxation w/r to those Black, Chinese, Indian and slave labor, indentured workers, and immigrant in relation to taxation of their rich counterparts, to where it stands today with the 99% vs the 1%.

Okay, so you have no idea either.

So much for your bullshit posts, about feeling the hardships that hardworking Americans, are experiencing, not being able to afford dinner at Red Lobster or affordable housing, as the price of eggs and mortgage rates skyrocket, under the your Fuhrer's Tariff Tax, all while funding the tax cuts, for the wealthy billionaire robber baron class 1%.

Top 1% are not all billionaires, you dumb Democratic douche.

As Warren Buffett said: "The problem isn't that we tax too much, its that we ask too little from those who benefit the most.

Yeah, you still do not get Buffett's history. This is from Matt Taibbi, the guy who highlighted the greed at Goldman's Sachs, and called GS the squid that sucks its funnel into anything that smells like money.

Warren Buffett announced this month that he will retire from his position as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the fabled corporate conglomerate that made him a revered household name, at the end of 2025. Along with a mostly stellar seven-decade investment career, he carefully created an image of a down to earth midwesterner who lives in a modest home, drives a modest car and dines on Dairy Queen (he liked DQ so much he bought the company in 1997) while swigging Coca Cola (another great Berkshire investment) and dispensing sage advise the way your favorite uncle might.

However, my man-crush on Buffett ended in 2008.

One additional trait that many found endearing in Buffett was he could be very candid about his occasional losses and mistakes. He would often use these instances to impart some really great advice. However, the one thing I never heard him discuss was the times he should have lost but got the kind of help regular folks don't get.

Buffett's long-time business partner, Charlie Munger, once said "Suck it in and cope, buddy" in response to complaints that the government did more to help Wall Street than homeowners during the 2000's housing crisis.

The truth is, Buffett, Munger and Berkshire would have had to do a lot of sucking themselves if not for the massive government bailout of the financial system in 2008.

Warren Buffett announced this month that he will retire from his position as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the fabled corporate conglomerate that made him a revered household name, at the end of 2025. Along with a mostly stellar seven-decade investment career, he carefully created an image of a down to earth midwesterner who lives in a modest home, drives a modest car and dines on Dairy Queen (he liked DQ so much he bought the company in 1997) while swigging Coca Cola (another great Berkshire investment) and dispensing sage advise the way your favorite uncle might.

I have a six degrees of separation story where I sort of crossed paths with him. In fact, I can say that I played a small part in Buffett's dumping of one of his favorite and most profitable trades, Freddie Mac.

However, my man-crush on Buffett ended in 2008.

One additional trait that many found endearing in Buffett was he could be very candid about his occasional losses and mistakes. He would often use these instances to impart some really great advice. However, the one thing I never heard him discuss was the times he should have lost but got the kind of help regular folks don't get.

Buffett's long-time business partner, Charlie Munger, once said "Suck it in and cope, buddy" in response to complaints that the government did more to help Wall Street than homeowners during the 2000's housing crisis.

The truth is, Buffett, Munger and Berkshire would have had to do a lot of sucking themselves if not for the massive government bailout of the financial system in 2008.

This part of the story started between 2003 and 2004. Berkshire made huge option bets that four major global stock indices the S&P 500, the Nikkei 225, the Euro Stoxx 50 and the FTSE 100 would not end up lower than they were at the time of the trade, 10 or 15 years in the future. Berkshire sold these options to major Wall Street banks and in return, the banks paid Berkshire approximately $4. 9 billion in what are called premiums. If the stock indices ended lower than their current levels, Berkshire would pay the banks the difference and, if necessary, more than the $4.9 billion it was paid.

Normally, companies that sell these types of long-term options have to put up collateral. Berkshire did not. With Buffet at the helm, Berkshire was considered riskless. This was the key to the strategy. Berkshire could use the $4. 9 billion however it wanted without having to tie up any of Berkshire's other assets.

As long as nothing went horribly wrong, this was a genius move. Buffett would just do his usual brilliant investing with the funds and even if the stock indices ended somewhat lower when the deals expired a decade or two later, the money he would have to pay on the options would probably pale in comparison to the money he would have made with those billions in premiums he received.

Again, unless something went horribly wrong.

In 2008, global equity markets finally woke up to the fact that the subprime mortgage crisis was a giant asteroid hurtling straight for the global financial system and began to free-fall.

At first it appeared Buffett saw what was happening as a great opportunity. One of his famous folksy quotes after all was:

"A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

In September of 2008, with Goldman Sachs taking on water with the rest of their Wall Street brethren, Berkshire invested $5 billion in perpetual preferred stock with Goldman. Berkshire would receive a 10% dividend as well as the right to buy $5 billion of common stock at $115 with a five-year term. On the day of the purchase, September 23,2008, Goldman's stock was at $125.05. Perhaps Buffett believed Goldman was already saved after AIG was bailed out the previous week. As long as Goldman survived, this could be one of the best returns Berkshire ever made.

However, despite the immediate bailout measures taken to save Goldman and the rest, the hits just kept coming with big banks like Citigroup, Bank of America, Wachovia and WaMu (which went into receivership two days later) on the ropes.

On October 10,2008, Goldman Sachs' stock closed at $88.80, down 29% from where Buffett made his Goldman investment just two weeks prior. Moreover, those options Berkshire sold on the four global stock indices, made a few years earlier were going against Berkshire as global stocks cratered.

Everyone needed a bailout, including Berkshire.

Interestingly, a few years after the crisis, CNBC wrote a piece, replete with the customary Andrew Sorkin boot-licking interview.

And October 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett made a late-night phone call to then-Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson, with an idea about how the government might be able to turn the economy around.

Paulson was asleep. He'd had a busy night working through various policy ideas with his team to restore confidence in Wall Street.

At the time, Congress had just passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, or the "bailout bill" as it came to be known, and created a $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program to purchase assets of failing banks. But these actions were not enough to calm investors.

Once he understood what was going on, Paulson says, he listened as Buffett "laid out an idea which was a germ of what we did."

What he told Paulson, Buffett recalls, is that, "It might make more sense to put more capital in the banks than it would to try and buy these assets."

Perhaps the CNBC piece should have been called How Warren Buffett Saved Himself During the Financial Crisis.

Remember, just a few weeks before Buffett's phone call to Paulson, Buffett had put capital into Goldman and now he was losing his ass. The government putting capital into Goldman and the rest of the major banks, at the time, would save him.

Naturally, in a government bailout led by a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, Hank Paulson, the USA Never exacted the price it should have for saving Goldman and the rest of the major Wall Street banks. In a fair world, the government bailout would have come with major strings attached.

Instead the government, aided by the Federal Reserve, saved the likes of Goldman and Morgan Stanley by giving them federal bank charters, life-saving capital and bailing out AIG. The bailout recipients then profited handsomely in the aftermath due to the Federal Reserve's unprecedented emergency policies such as zero interest rate policy and the massive buying of USA Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities, which the Federal Reserve kept until 2018.

Those bailed out then thanked the government for saving them by giving them back their capital. Incredibly, a Goldman Sachs story on its website says." The firm had neither sought nor expected such an infusion of capital from the Treasury." If you need further proof of how laughable this statement is, check out this email from a Federal Reserve Bank of New York official one day before Goldman was given a bank charter.

Berkshire's large bets on Goldman and the four major global equity indices were also saved and they also ended up richer after the crisis than before.

Meanwhile, the average American was left to "suck it in," cope and reflect on how greedy and silly they had been buying homes they couldn't afford.

Warren Buffett was a brilliant investor and a very wise and interesting man. However, in 2008 the "Oracle of Omaha" moniker did not fit. He was just another guy who didn't quite see just how big the bomb cyclone was that was coming right at him. He and Berkshire escaped financial ruin like all the other plutocrats by relying on Uncle Sam to come to their rescue.

[Spidy]

Yes, the income tax ended all that? And the Chinese workers and African blacks were better off in their native lands? LOL. The native Americans are a much more complex topic. Of course, I have no idea what they had to do with the income tax either.

(...kkkk!) It wouldn't surprise me, if this was your twisted MAGA belief and equivalent way of saying, that Jews were better off, having gone through the Holocaust and learned valuable job experience in the concentration camps?

(...kkkk!) No idea, no clue...well I suggest you take sometime and do some homework. Either way, it wouldn't surprise me, if indeed you truly have "No idea...", given your cowboy Repub ideology, explains your lack of accurate historical 1913 taxation w/r to those Black, Chinese, Indian and slave labor, indentured workers, and immigrant in relation to taxation of their rich counterparts, to where it stands today with the 99% vs the 1%.

And so because you take your government handouts means you are on the side of the oppressed Chinese and blacks? LOL. Oh yeah, sure you are.

So much for your bullshit posts, about feeling the hardships that hardworking Americans, are experiencing, not being able to afford dinner at Red Lobster or affordable housing, as the price of eggs and mortgage rates skyrocket, under the your Fuhrer's Tariff Tax, all while funding the tax cuts, for the wealthy billionaire robber baron class 1%.

• As Warren Buffett said: "The problem isn't that we tax too much, its that we ask too little from those who benefit the most."

Spidy, if you are so fucking opposed to billionaires, shouldn't you be a Republican? Most billionaires are or were Democrats. I grant you there were a few who jumped ship when the Democrats abandoned Democracy and followed their demented candidate with a drunk, but in 2016, I cannot recall any billionaires who supported Trump. Hell, we had Zuckerburg paying nearly a billion to rig elections.

Why don't you provide the evidence that, "Most billionaires are or were Democrats.", instead of pulling bullshit outta your MAGA ass? (...kkkk!)

Meanwhile, we have Spidy going on about billionaire greed. Last I check the biggest holder of Walmart stock was the Walton family made up of several billionaires. So Trump tells Walmart to not screw over consumers and enrich the Walton billionaires, and you are condemning it? We all know that no matter what Trump says or does you are going to condemn it. It is all Dem good, Republican bad.

Yeah, meanwhile, Elvis 2008 is still once again complaining about Hardworking Americans, being greedy and wanting the billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes, '...from those who benefit the most.' ", from a fair and just democratic society.

BTW, your Fuhrer's 2.0 admin shit show, as taken your "Dems GOOD, Repubs BAD" mantra, to a whole new level of comparison, that some would say is at DEFCON 1.

I mean, fuck "BAD", I think Repubs have poll-vaulted, all the way to "down right FUCKING EVIL" (...kkkk!)

[EihTooms]

Note the word "Republican" accurately characterizing the economy-destroying legislation proposal?

That is a lovely and encouraging sign that typically and historically pro Repub Mainstream Media are finally coming to realize their constant False Equivalancies and Bothsiderism if not outright attacks on Dems in order to help Repubs win elections is fine for being provided the horrific, alarming and therefore effectively eye-catching and attention-grabbing economic headlines MSM craves and loves about Repub policies and stewardship. But under Trump it has now drifted into a nightmare of shake downs and extortion in their War Against Freedom of Speech resulting in millons going into his and his Party's pockets for reporting the truth about their lies, bullshit and cons.

So it is possible we will finally start seeing accurate reports that, say, Republicans in Congress are in disarray rather than "Congress" is in disarray, thereby unjustifiably punishing Dems by blaming them and Repubs equally for the disasters caused only by Repubs.

"Republican' Donald Trump laid the groundwork for, ushered in and exacerbated his Trump's Pandemic with his typically disastrous Republican economic and national security decisions and stewardship in 2018,2019 and all through 2020. ".

"Republican president GW Bush's incompetent leadership and his incompetent Republican Treasury Department caused the 2008 Financial Crisis. ".

"Republican president Donald Trump and his Republucan Congress skyrocketed the debt, deficit and crime rates on their watch. ".

Note how much more accurate that is vs nonsense like "there is plenty of blame to go around. " Hopefully, the accurate reporting and messaging will eventually sink in with the American Electorate.

This is an encouraging sign for Truth In The Media.

Republican spending bill driving up yields and creating a major market headache.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/21/repu...ndroidappshare

The U.S. debt-and-deficit situation is bad and facing real prospects of getting worse. Whether the recoil in financial markets continues is largely in the hands of policymakers.

What its meant in market terms has been a severe leg up in Treasury yields and a sell-off in stocks.

I feel like the dam is finally starting to break a little bit, and theres too many holes in the dike to put our fingers in, said Mitch Goldberg, president of ClientFirst Strategy.

[SubCmdr]

Sirioja let stop with making things personal. Trump is the President of the Dis-United States of America. His is not my old fat stupid Trump any more than the alleged drug user who currently heads up France is yours personally. You got that?

Would you like to quote a reference that shows that France supports Ukraine more than the Dis-United States of America has?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts!

I think France support more Ukraine and Palestinians than your old fat stupid Trump who prefer to rob Ukraine, when lying, and to suck Putin. Explain to your so stupid You elected twice: only way to stop war is to economically isolate Russia to make criminal Putin broke. Also to stop to give weapons to criminal Netanhyaou. But wars are always good business for USA, so, when USA can t compete for economics now, but they are interested wars keep on, making dirty money for USA, now land of shame.

[Sirioja]

Why is France (who considers themselves the leader of Europe) not make a move to help Ukrainians independently of the Dis-United States of America by putting boots on the ground?

Who has supplied the majority of weapons to the Ukrainians?

The Defense Rests!

I think France support more Ukraine and Palestinians than your old fat stupid Trump who prefer to rob Ukraine, when lying, and to suck Putin. Explain to your so stupid You elected twice: only way to stop war is to economically isolate Russia to make criminal Putin broke. Also to stop to give weapons to criminal Netanhyaou. But wars are always good business for USA, so, when USA can t compete for economics now, but they are interested wars keep on, making dirty money for USA, now land of shame.

[EihTooms]

You mean your lying link when you include the pandemic years in Trump's first term economic performance? Or when you lie and blame Trump for the pandemic versus China? Oh right, Trump had this team of scientists that he axed who could have saved the world. You do not know what they could have done but you are sure they could have done something.

And the Chinese who fucked up and let a pathogen out of their lab destroying so much wealth and killing so many? Oh yeah, they are great, but Trump sucks.

So Biden can turn his head and you are saying he is mentally fine? Where do you come up with these bullshit lies?

If Trump were cognitively impaired and Biden was not, Oatmeal for Brains, then Trump should not have been prosecuted and Biden should have been. And if Biden was so mentally sharp, why did you Democratic douches kick him off the ticket? You are so cognitively impaired you cannot remember what you posted five seconds ago..

Uh, yeah, no reason for anyone to study that post looking for a shred of substantiation for his assertions. They aren't there.

Because there aren't any to be found.

[SubCmdr]

No, oatmeal for brains, you do not diagnose Stage 4 prostate cancer with a PSA. Do you orgasm with all your lies? And what is your point? Do you think Biden's doctors did not know he had prostate cancer? Maybe you should know how stage 4 prostate cancer is diagnosed first before you think you know so much.

Excuse me! I have been reading your posts for years Elvis 2008 and you failed to mention you had a MD.

Does this idiot get the concept of supply and demand or is he another socialist that he thinks that he deserves better service because of his virtue signaling?

While you are at it can you explain why you called me a socialist?

But do not worry. SC swears it is going up so you should buy it. Maybe he can lecture everyone on these things after the racist comments and how big his dick is. And BTW, did he mention the killing he is making in gold?

Have you checked the price of gold lately?

[SubCmdr]

Why is France (who considers themselves the leader of Europe) not make a move to help Ukrainians independently of the Dis-United States of America by putting boots on the ground?

Good photo, Putin playing with your too old, orange Pitbull who claimed to stop war in only 1 day, but when only bullshiting like for everything else, result is Putin just makes fun of him and keep on killing many Ukrainians.

Who has supplied the majority of weapons to the Ukrainians?

The Defense Rests!

[Elvis 2008]

As usual, your links to support your contention that I was wrong or lying and you were right are compelling and inarguable except, oh wait, you HAVE NO links to support your contention and I posted several to support my contention and could have posted hundreds more! Lololol.

So your lord and savior Trump only pretends to be a know nothing, do nothing, deadbeat numbskull as a clever tactic to achieve his brilliant ultimate goal of producing The Worst Economic Results Since Herbert Hoover, does he?

You mean your lying link when you include the pandemic years in Trump's first term economic performance? Or when you lie and blame Trump for the pandemic versus China? Oh right, Trump had this team of scientists that he axed who could have saved the world. You do not know what they could have done but you are sure they could have done something.

And the Chinese who fucked up and let a pathogen out of their lab destroying so much wealth and killing so many? Oh yeah, they are great, but Trump sucks.

Right up until the past six months I have seen and heard Joe Biden look to the left, look to the right. People with significant or notably moderate cognitive impairment can't do that.

So Biden can turn his head and you are saying he is mentally fine? Where do you come up with these bullshit lies?

Donald Trump can't do that.

If Trump were cognitively impaired and Biden was not, Oatmeal for Brains, then Trump should not have been prosecuted and Biden should have been. And if Biden was so mentally sharp, why did you Democratic douches kick him off the ticket? You are so cognitively impaired you cannot remember what you posted five seconds ago.

Men aged 70 years or older continue to be overscreened for prostate cancer despite US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations against routine PSA screening for men in this age group, according to investigators. Shhh. Nobody tell the MAGA numbskulls over there on Fux News about this information that I have heard and understood for years and years without even doing serious research on the subject!

No, oatmeal for brains, you do not diagnose Stage 4 prostate cancer with a PSA. Do you orgasm with all your lies? And what is your point? Do you think Biden's doctors did not know he had prostate cancer? Maybe you should know how stage 4 prostate cancer is diagnosed first before you think you know so much.

I cannot believe someone so cocky posts such stupid things.

[SubCmdr]

USGOV is letting South Africans in (insert their color here) and keeping people of color (insert their color here) out. This strikes me as interesting policy. Rooted in the true nature of the Dis-United States of America.

Nope, sorry, the US Constitution is for Americans not people who come to our country illegally and commit crimes, and when we were founded as a nation, we had slaves and only land owners could vote. Before an income tax and women could vote, the USA was the #1 economy in the world.

Here we have an example of a Republican (I don't even need to add the term everyone knows should be here) advocating for slavery again in order to: make America great again!

MAGA!

[Sirioja]

Trump's thousands upon thousands of lies, cons and bullshit finally reached the breaking point in the Real World of Real Business with Real Money:

Why Walmart decided to say it would raise prices and risk Trump's fury.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/20/walm...ndroidappshare

Good photo, Putin playing with your too old, orange Pitbull who claimed to stop war in only 1 day, but when only bullshiting like for everything else, result is Putin just makes fun of him and keep on killing many Ukrainians.

[EihTooms]

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...oval-soars-55/

Aw, so sad. That wildly outlier Insider / Advantage poll sure looks isolated and lonely out there.

See screenshots below:

https://www.realclearpolling.com/pol...pproval-rating

My god. How heavily must they have weighted that "Immigrants Eating The Cats and Eating The Dogs" nonsense question to come up with a 55% job approval rating for that numbskull? Lolol.

[SubCmdr]

Our Lord and Savior could single handedly come up with the cure for all cancers today and he would ***** about it.

Our Lord and Savior is an Awesome God

Are we discussing politics or religion up in dis *****?

[SubCmdr]

While individuals who don't know anything about founding documents or how the legal system of the Dis-United States of America are making a poor attempt to school me on the country I grew up in, they are falling into the trap that the government that they supposedly opposed have set for them.

They are being distracted by racism

The real issue in the Dis-United States of America is wealth inequality. I've already covered that in a earlier post. The only way one would reject that thesis is they have never actually been to the Dis-United States of America.

[MarquisdeSade1]

Hey, guess what? It turns out many if not most top medical institutions and practitioners don't recommend the current prostate cancer test screening for men over age 70:

Men Older Than 70 Years Continue to Be Overscreened for Prostate Cancer.
April 17, 2023

https://www.renalandurologynews.com/...ostate-cancer/

When is it time to stop being checked for prostate cancer?
March 12,2014

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-...rostate-cancer

Shhh. Nobody tell the MAGA numbskulls over there on Fux News about this information that I have heard and understood for years and years without even doing serious research on the subject!

https://www.thefp.com/p/when-did-bid...-he-had-cancer