American Politics

[QUOTE=Spidy;3060539]AEMO boss Daniel Westerman -- "Australia's operational paradigm is no longer 'baseload-and-peaking', but increasingly its a paradigm of 'renewables-and-firming'. It's a crucial point to understand:

Baseload is not so much a technical virtue as a business model the people who invest in coal generators, and nuclear in particular, count on those machines operating at or near full capacity most of the time.[/QUOTE]Now Australia is the new shining star of what to be? LOL. You need to follow the news better.

[URL]https://ieefa.org/resources/its-time-australia-reduce-its-oil-demand[/URL]

Australia has the largest trade deficit in refined oil products in the world, is the largest importer of diesel, and has the lowest oil stockpiles of all IEA members – all by a wide margin. Imports of Russian oil are currently banned in Australia; imports from the Middle East are disrupted; China recently banned exports of those three fuels; and its distance makes Europe unlikely to be a realistic supplier. The remaining candidates to provide fuel to Australia are the US, Singapore, South Korea and India.

And now the next link:

Hundreds of petrol stations across Australia run out of fuel as Labor inks supply deal with Singapore.

Concerns are now broadening to supplies of fertilizer and other chemicals, heaping more pressure on the Albanese government's leveraging of overseas exports of coal and gas in a bid to handle of the crisis.

"It's the only way, that coal and gas, that we're going to be able to keep our fuel and fertilizer coming to our country," he told a press conference.

"We are in the very lucky position that the countries we do import a lot of our food and fertilizer from are also the countries that rely on our coal and gas. So we should be making that point. ".

The shadow resources spokesperson, Susan McDonald, reportedly told the Nine newspapers that "if we can't get the straits open quickly, then lifting sanctions on Russian-produced fertilizer would be required".

End of link. Australian energy policy has left it with two options: send money to Putin or starve to death. Meanwhile, a nation dripping with fossil fuels does not have a way for most of its vehicles to run. You cannot make this stuff up.

You have neglected to mention that China, your ideal electrostate, has masssive refining capacity, and several of the regions where you climate nuts are active like Australia and California have pushed their evil refineries towards "clean" China. Well, those chickens are coming home to roost big time now. Will you climate nuts accept responsibility for your disasterous "clean energy" policies? Of course not! Hell, you are still pushing for them.

[QUOTE=TheCane;3060647]Inflation is up. But, we know the clown in the White House will continue to threaten, harass, and harangue the Fed to lower interest rates. Which would only serve to drive inflation up even more! What an incredible bozo of a clown we have in the White House right now! A totally stupid, ignorant, dangerous, and ineffective clown of a little man!

[URL]https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/cpi-inflation-report-march-2026.html[/URL][/QUOTE]3,3% inflation because of Trump craziness. One more failure for him after no peace, but making wars.

Would love to dissect whatever is going on in your head, dude.

No, the irrationality and the AIPAC lobbying are two different phenomena. The US's Govt lapdog sycophancy to its master Israel because of AIPAC and similar is not at all irrational. It's perfectly rational: Of course if your master gives you money, you do it's bidding. It's reprehensible, corrosive to democracy, utterly bad for America but it's perfectly rational.

The irrationality was referencing the fact that despite this successive Presidents have been able to hold off going to war on Iran for Israel because the quid pro quo they give to Israel (money, arms, changing US laws even) was deemed sufficient and going to war for them on Iran was a step too far. Even the walking dead Biden was able to say "no" to Israel. But this fucking idiot falls hook, line and sinker for Netanyahu's BS. There was no upside, none, for America, and multiple downsides. No rational person would have ever followed through on this. Even his own team were cool on this. This delusional fool got suckered by the Israelis that it would be over in 3 days.

It was a stupid, irrational and fucked up thing to do, and yet like I said you have deranged people like you who will still find method in his madness. There is no method, only madness.

Let's just hope and pray that this weekend's talks end in fruition, because it's causing pain to Americans, but it's causing far, far more pain to the ROW, such as the Indian who loses his job and has to move back to the village; such as the African who may starve if the fertilizers don't come through; such as. Not that you care at all about any of this suffering.

[QUOTE=Elvis2008;3060624]And here your own hypothesis blows up in your face. Trump is irrationally bound to Israel but so is 90% of the Senate. And? Does that mean 90% of the Senate is irrational as well? Or does it mean 90% of the Senate and Trump are rational? Or is 90% of the Senate and Trump irrational but you are the rational one?

BTW, Kamala was not just married to a white guy but married to a Jewish white guy and was a senator to boot. So in your opinion, do you think she would have acted differently? LOL.

So now we have Kamala, 90% of the Senate, and Trump are rational but you are sane? LOL. It must be nice to be so confident that you are right and everyone else is off their rocker.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Tiny12;3060696]Please show a little initiative instead of always expecting me to spoon feed you. Look up Simpson's Paradox and you'll see it's a phenomenon in probability and statistics in which a trend appears in several groups of data but disappears or reverses when the groups are combined. And it's very relevant to the matter at hand.

If you combine all the people in all the states and counties and cities, you see that historically, before Trump, Republicans paid a lot more of the federal income tax than Democrats did. Republicans have historically subsidized Democrats. And yeah you may have 7 Democrat deadbeats in New Jersey for every three hardworking Republicans who paid a lot of federal tax. That doesn't change the fact that the Democrats were screwing the Republicans, based on your logic after considering Simpson's Paradox. Actually, what I truly believe is that everyone is getting screwed, Democrat and Republican alike, by a wasteful, inefficient federal government.[/QUOTE]So as long as you've got Simpson on hand to muddy the waters so hopelessly about who does what, who pays for what, which Party is represented anywhere at anytime until all you can conclude is everyone is getting screwed by everyone who gets elected even though we have only had horrific economic disasters and massive jobs destruction when Repubs are in the WH and mostly get their way and have only had historic jobs creation and boom times when Dems are in the WH and mostly get their way then you have truly earned your self-described position as a Bothsider / Neithersider.

But if you don't mind I will avoid delving into this Simpson influence that must have contributed in some way to your pathology and will continue to vote for the Party that has produced and presided over those boom times and historic jobs creation and never for the Party that has produced all of the Great Depressions, Great Recessions and Massive Job Losses over the past 100 years.

Which I can and am delighted to still do all the way here in Thailand even though I am literally on the other side of the globe away from where my tax payments carry the load for deadbeat Repubs in and out of Red states for projects, programs and benefits I don't benefit from in Thailand.

To all of you MAGAs, you're welcome for my doing that for you too.

[QUOTE=Canada;3060701]What is amazing that you keep claiming all the bad things Trump is doing but the majority of Americans voted Trump in because they knew that he couldn't and wouldn't be as bad as Biden was. And they knew Harris would be worse than Biden trainwreck. Regardless of what Trump does he is still better than Biden. Those are the facts and Americans were smart enough to vote for it. As for Canada we survived the Trudeau train wreck and Carney will probably be as bad. We are screwed. Thank your lucky stars you have Trump and not a Carney. Most of the people that hate Trump hate the USA also. Liberal news in USA is cheering for Iran. Hoping Trump plan fails. Iranians love what Trump is doing. He is their only hope for freedom.[/QUOTE]Biden did not get us stuck in another "forever" war. He made it worse by acting like Netanyanhu's *****. Now, Iran has more power than before they converted the Strait of Hormuz into the Panama Canal. Now, everyone has to pay to get their shit through. Thanks a lot Trump!

Even people on right Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson acknowledge that Trump is a colossal clusterfuck!

[QUOTE=Elvis2008;3060718]Because unlike you, Tiny lives and works in the USA, and he knows how many jobs are mobile. Look at this stat: [URL]https://www.yankeeinstitute.org/2025/10/24/one-in-four-state-employee-pension-dollars-flow-out-of-state/[/URL]

Yes, one in four pension dollars paid into the Connecticut pension system is distributed elsewhere.

According to google, Connecticut is generally more expensive than Florida, with overall cost of living estimates ranging from 12% to 17% higher depending on the data source and specific cities compared. Connecticut is generally 20.1% to 27.9% more expensive than Texas, with housing and childcare being the primary drivers of this difference.

California is 21.8% to 30% more expensive than Florida overall, driven primarily by significantly higher housing costs which are 16% to 18.9% higher in California. Texas is significantly more affordable than California, with overall cost of living indices averaging 91.593.9 compared to California's 140150, making Texas roughly 4050% cheaper to live in.

So let's be real what you mean when you say that the people who live in blue states are carrying the nation. That means they are living on less and doling out 2/3 of their tax dollars to people like yourself who no longer live in the state and are using their hard earned money to be paying for your hookers.

You can call those living in blue states patriots; I prefer the word suckers to describe them.[/QUOTE]Tooms thinks we're idiots Elvis. He thinks we don't have common sense. He's obfuscating with his blue state / red state arguments.

Historically Republicans favored lower taxes, because they're the ones who shoulder an outsized part of the tax burden. And Democrats favored higher taxes, mostly because they want bigger government and more government benefits. Some also are class warriors, like Obama. Remember he told Charles Gibson raising the capital gains tax rate even if that lowered government revenues might just be a good idea. (People don't sell as much stuff when the capital gains tax rate is too high, ergo the government collects less in revenues from the tax.) Obama's reasoning, that makes the system fairer. Well, that's open to debate, but it definitely makes everyone poorer.

Anyway, historically, why would most of the people getting taxed out the ass vote for Democrats? And why would people sucking off the federal government tit vote for Republicans? That's a rhetorical question.

Admittedly, Trump was such a polarizing candidate that he drove a lot of Republicans to sit out elections or vote for Democrats, especially after his 2020/2021 election shenanigans. And Biden did the reverse. When you engineer high inflation that makes peoples real (inflation adjusted) wages go down, many poorer and middle class Americans won't vote for you.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;3060771]So as long as you've got Simpson on hand to muddy the waters so hopelessly about who does what, who pays for what, which Party is represented anywhere at anytime until all you can conclude is everyone is getting screwed by everyone who gets elected even though we have only had horrific economic disasters and massive jobs destruction when Repubs are in the WH and mostly get their way and have only had historic jobs creation and boom times when Dems are in the WH and mostly get their way then you have truly earned your self-described position as a Bothsider / Neithersider.

But if you don't mind I will avoid delving into this Simpson influence that must have contributed in some way to your pathology and will continue to vote for the Party that has produced and presided over those boom times and historic jobs creation and never for the Party that has produced all of the Great Depressions, Great Recessions and Massive Job Losses over the past 100 years.

Which I can and am delighted to still do all the way here in Thailand even though I am literally on the other side of the globe away from where my tax payments carry the load for deadbeat Repubs in and out of Red states for projects, programs and benefits I don't benefit from in Thailand.

To all of you MAGAs, you're welcome for my doing that for you too.[/QUOTE]Quit playing dumb Tooms.

In a deep research query, I instructed Gemini to update my previous query, and show (a) estimated average federal tax paid by Republicans versus Democrats instead of tax rates, (b) adjust for inflation and report in 2026 dollars, and (c) go back to 1988. Here's what it gives me. For each year, this shows average estimated federal tax paid by Democrats then average federal tax paid by Republicans. For example, the average tax paid by Democrats in 1988, adjusted for inflation, was $9210 and the average paid by Republicans was $31,260.

Year Dem. Repub.

1988 $9,210 $31,260.

1992 $8,240 $29,180.

1996 $6,730 $22,090.

2000 $7,290 $24,150.

2004 $6,290 $22,900.

2008 $8,890 $22,840.

2012 $5,030 $24,450.

2016 $11,280 $18,990.

2020 $17,230 $12,760.

2024 $18,990 $11,090.

Historically the Republicans have gotten fucked, big time. That changed after four years of Trump, in the 2020 election, when poor and middle class voters got sucked in by the MAGA movement and later rebelled against Bidenflation. But I bet after Trump's gone, people who vote for the Republican candidate for president will resume paying multiples more than "their fair share. ".

Please recall that Gemini used exit polls, and assumed that if the person voted for the Republican presidential candidate, he was a Republican. And vice versa.

Here's the link to the complete report, which includes references.

[URL]https://gemini.google.com/share/1a8bf9dc2943[/URL]

[QUOTE=Canada;3060701]the majority of Americans voted Trump in[/QUOTE]Incorrect. Trump did not receive a majority of the popular vote.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;3060830]Quit playing dumb Tooms.

In a deep research query, I instructed Gemini to show estimated average federal tax paid by Republicans versus Democrats i
[URL]https://gemini.google.com/share/1a8bf9dc2943[/URL][/QUOTE]I must have missed the line on the Form 1040 where taxpayers identify by political party, most likely because there isn't one. So must throw the bullshit card.

[QUOTE=KeviKev68;3060792]Biden did not get us stuck in another "forever" war. He made it worse by acting like Netanyanhu's *****. Now, Iran has more power than before they converted the Strait of Hormuz into the Panama Canal. Now, everyone has to pay to get their shit through. Thanks a lot Trump!

Even people on right Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson acknowledge that Trump is a colossal clusterfuck![/QUOTE]Iran war was started 47 years ago by Iran. It is 6 weeks in and Iran has lost their air force and navy. 6 weeks in and USA is in a ceasefire. Biden didn't start any wars but because he was so weak Putin started the Ukraine war thanks to Biden incompetence. The Biden war is now 5 years in. Every competent president in the past 47 years knew that Iran would have to be stopped one day but didn't have the balls to do it. CNN poll just showed that people on the right support weakening a terrorist country with nuclear weapons. All the children and grandchildren world wide will be thanking Trump in years to come. I know western Canada will be thanking Trump. The one thing I noticed over the years is Canada is more patriotic now than ever before and now only 50% of the USA is patriotic. Only republicans are patriotic. Democrats are pretty much anti American as was shown in the paid No Kings protests. Not one democrat was carrying an American flag. They were carrying Mexican, Palestine, terrorist, and communist signs. That shows the world what democrats stand for. I understand you do not support the USA and that is free speech so more power to you.

[QUOTE=Canada;3060701]What is amazing that you keep claiming all the bad things Trump is doing but the majority of Americans voted Trump in because they knew that he couldn't and wouldn't be as bad as Biden was. And they knew Harris would be worse than Biden trainwreck. Regardless of what Trump does he is still better than Biden. Those are the facts and Americans were smart enough to vote for it. As for Canada we survived the Trudeau train wreck and Carney will probably be as bad. We are screwed. Thank your lucky stars you have Trump and not a Carney. Most of the people that hate Trump hate the USA also. Liberal news in USA is cheering for Iran. Hoping Trump plan fails. Iranians love what Trump is doing. He is their only hope for freedom.[/QUOTE]The majority of Americans never voted for Trump. Ever. Not in his three tries at it.

The majority of the American electorate never voted for Trump either. In 2024, the majority of the votes went to "Not Trump. "

[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election[/URL]

In 2024 Trump got 49.8% of the vote. "Not Trump" got 50.2% of the vote with 48.3% going to Harris.

With Trump only getting 1. 5 of a percentage point more votes than Harris, a swing of approximately 0. 75 of a single percentage point of votes from him to her would have given her the plurality of votes instead of him. That doesn't speak well for the difference, as you would have it, between a president so great you want him to do to your country what he has done to the USA and a "train wreck. ".

In fact, looking at the approximately 3,000,000 fewer votes Trump got than Hillary Clinton, the approximately 7,000,000 fewer votes he got than Joe Biden and the approximately 2,200,000 more votes he got than Kamala Harris, he is still losing vs his opponents in these races by at least 8 million votes.

[QUOTE=TheCane;3060647]Inflation is up. But, we know the clown in the White House will continue to threaten, harass, and harangue the Fed to lower interest rates. Which would only serve to drive inflation up even more! What an incredible bozo of a clown we have in the White House right now! A totally stupid, ignorant, dangerous, and ineffective clown of a little man!

[URL]https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/cpi-inflation-report-march-2026.html[/URL][/QUOTE]If Trump is a clown for 3% inflation then what does that m add me Biden with his 10% inflation? Biden inflation over his 4 years was over 22%. It is amazing that Trump has done so well after Biden regulations and policies drove inflation to the highest in 40 years. It takes time to stop a train wreck.

[QUOTE=KeviKev68;3060792]Biden did not get us stuck in another "forever" war. He made it worse by acting like Netanyanhu's *****. Now, Iran has more power than before they converted the Strait of Hormuz into the Panama Canal. Now, everyone has to pay to get their shit through. Thanks a lot Trump!

Even people on right Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson acknowledge that Trump is a colossal clusterfuck![/QUOTE]With Reagan, Trump is less clever ever president of USA. Some members of his family tell who he is for real.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;3060828]Tooms thinks we're idiots Elvis. He thinks we don't have common sense. He's obfuscating with his blue state / red state arguments.

Historically Republicans favored lower taxes, because they're the ones who shoulder an outsized part of the tax burden. And Democrats favored higher taxes, mostly because they want bigger government and more government benefits. Some also are class warriors, like Obama. Remember he told Charles Gibson raising the capital gains tax rate even if that lowered government revenues might just be a good idea. (People don't sell as much stuff when the capital gains tax rate is too high, ergo the government collects less in revenues from the tax.) Obama's reasoning, that makes the system fairer. Well, that's open to debate, but it definitely makes everyone poorer.[/QUOTE]Just because your kiddie-diddling hero Larry Summers favored his Trump / Epstein Cult friends with that horseshit about Biden causing inflation shouldn't mean a well-informed person ought to fall for it.

Please explain how Biden "engineered" double digit inflation in over half the world's economies during and in the aftermath of Trump's Pandemic while still keeping the USA inflation rate no higher than 9. 1% for only 2-3 months in 2022 while also producing one of if not THE best and strongest recovery from it on Earth.

[B]In the U.S. and around the world, inflation is high and getting higher.
June 15, 2022[/B]

[URL]https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/06/15/in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world-inflation-is-high-and-getting-higher/[/URL]

[B]The US recovery from COVID-19 in international comparison.
Oct. 17, 2024[/B]

[URL]https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-us-recovery-from-covid-19-in-international-comparison/[/URL]

[B]Mapped: Cumulative Global Inflation by Country (2020-2025)
Sept. 29, 2025[/B]

[URL]https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-inflation-by-country-2020-2025/[/URL]

You cannot possibly claim to know anything whatsoever about the Real World Economy while still hanging onto that Repub MAGA bullshit about how Joe Biden "engineered" the inflation suffered around the globe as the result of the worldwide economic disaster of Trump's Pandemic.

Next you'll be telling us Joe Biden made the price of eggs skyrocket, nevermind the Avian Flu epidemic, but then the hens had a meeting and decided to celebrate the razor-thin squeaker of an election win for Donald Trump by laying cheaper eggs.

[QUOTE=Canada;3060837]If Trump is a clown for 3% inflation then what does that m add me Biden with his 10% inflation? Biden inflation over his 4 years was over 22%. It is amazing that Trump has done so well after Biden regulations and policies drove inflation to the highest in 40 years. It takes time to stop a train wreck.[/QUOTE]You're misguided. Biden's peak for the CPI increase occurred in June 2022 at 9.1%, not 10%. Inflation at the end of his presidency dropped all the way down to 2.9%. Trump's initial number was one in decline, not one in the middle of a wreck.

The present number under Trump stands at 3.3% from March 2026, marking the highest rate since May 2024 thanks to the Iran war and tariff actions. The gas prices have crossed $4 per gallon, and it looks like the train that Trump supposedly stopped is accelerating once again.

Stopping a wrecking train is one thing, but being its driver is something else entirely.