I've said this before, but in a society power is going to naturally coalesce somewhere. Either it's going to be in the hands of big corporations who upon finding capitalistic success will naturally use their power and resources to accrue more. Or alternatively it's going to be in the hands of govern...

Would the PGA not fall into this category? Same as Twitter, Google and Amazon? I would bet PGA was just making a business decision. Disassociating from Trump reduces the risk of damage to their brand. It could be that simple, and have nothing to do with censorship, the deep state or anything else. ...

<r><QUOTE author="SomeDude" post_id="219606" time="1610322049" user_id="3565"><s>[quote=SomeDude post_id=219606 time=1610322049 user_id=3565]</s> <QUOTE author="Maddy" post_id="219596" time="1610315091" user_id="2414"><s>[quote=Maddy post_id=219596 time=1610315091 user_id=2414]</s> It's being report...

There’s some liberals I engage in conversation with at my local coffee shop from time to time. Very different from the liberals on this forum. All of them seem to think Trump didn’t incite a riot and said this looked way more peaceful than BLM protests they attended. Right. It was a mostly peaceful...

Taking a stand versus Taking a stand

I can not disagree more. Kaepernick is a POS who in my opinion jump-started the whole BLM/rioting mentality of the last year. But there is no point discussing it, as neither of us will ever be convinced by the other. Not only that, he took the one symbol (well, two; the anthem and the flag) that sh...

I believe the conclusion is that it isn't worth it to try to force him out, and that he should (but probably won't) resign on his own. There was some interesting discussion on CNN this morning between David Gergen and former Congressman Mike Rogers. The upshot was that we ought to let President ele...

Of course breaking into the Capitol building and committing any kind of violence is unacceptable. But the easy and intellectually lazy response is "it's all Trump's fault". As often happens with these fast-moving events, it will take time to discover and understand all of the details and ...

Xan wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 3:37 pm
Update: Trump has apparently called for the protestors to go home peacefully. So he's not egging them on.

Xan, have you heard any of the transcript from his morning rally that led up to the events?

So it's looking like Georgia will likely hand both Senate seats to the Dems. Wow! I would have thought that the divided-government vote would be much stronger. Single-party government elected by a knife's edge is just about the worst thing I can think of in terms of keeping this country together. T...

Austin is mostly liberal, those people will be pissed. I doubt they can fence off that city and let them ban guns and ban freedom, just for themselves, so the liberals may all leave, who knows. What thoughts about secession does the forum have? Then maybe if Austin is pissed enough, it will just se...

This chart should be self explanatory in terms of source and methodology. However if it conflicts with what you already believe and your belief is non-negotiable, then it's probably worthless to you but I thought I'd give it a shot. I have read elsewhere that the excess death count in the US in numb...

Let's say that the rest of the world say's gold is a relic and dumps it all. Gold prices plummet... but so what, that only makes the US Dollar more powerful. A plummet in gold prices would make the US Dollar more powerful in relation to gold yes, but not necessarily in relation to other currencies....

I forgot who the person was....but after 9/11 he was put in charge of doling out the money from the 9/11 victims fund to the family of the victims. He had formulas to decide how much each person's life was worth. Basically how much in future earnings that were lost. I believe you are thinking of Ke...

Is anybody discussing the role of informed consent? How many nursing home residents are even capable of providing it? Does it even matter any more? If (as I suspect) the vaccine will become a prerequisite to admission or retention in any congregate care facility, you've essentially taken away any c...

I highly recommend this absolutely fascinating article (or really transcript, I suppose) discussing how the government attempts to put a dollar value on human life. Primarily it's for purposes of wrongful death lawsuits etc. It includes this bit: GONZALEZ: Valuing people differently was kind of tri...

For anyone into music, heists and car chase scenes, I recommend Baby Driver.
Highly creative movie. Especially the use of music, very cool music.

Another movie that used music very well is Bad Times at the El Royale.

Coincidentally Jon Hamm stars in both these recommendations.

Except that it can also be used for every transaction with every other party that will accept it as a medium of exchange. Which at this moment is everybody. True, but that could change at any time. On very short notice. If that were to happen, what do you predict will take it's place as a medium of...

I'm not sure what y'all are talking about. Maybe it's different in CA or NY, but here, all the constraints are self-imposed. My kids' indoor bounce place is closed because people don't want to go there. Nobody's hosting or attending dinner parties because they think it isn't a good idea. I think re...

An irredeemable claim is not a claim at all, because a claim implies that someone is obligated to do something at some point in the future. A "US Dollar", on the other hand, has no obligor and no payee. It is a green piece of paper that can be used to pay US taxes. That's about it. Except...

Sample size is too small but, anyone surprised by the results? I'm surprised more people don't think Pence will do something other than what the media is telling him to do. He's been going out in public saying he won't stop until every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote thrown out. That i...

In that case, why doesn’t the U.S. just print money to fund 100% of every foreign country’s expenses? As long as those countries are using their own resources and their own labor, our sending them money isn’t a drain on our wealth, right? Tortoise It depends on whether we are getting something in r...

Taxes become even more irritating when the govt spends $ on stupid things, regardless if they could just print more or inflate. Are you suggesting that the $900B Stimulus bill just passed that allocated $10M for "Gender Studies" in Pakistan is stupid? Because when COVID hit, my personal c...

To me, a very tough question would be whether the US might face a debt crisis and could default on its debt. Previously unthinkable, but with the debt to GDP getting as high as an estimated 130%? Of course it will probably be called a crisis driven "restructuring" or something cute. I thin...

What would we invest in to hedge against that? All I can think of are assets... In keeping with the Permanent Portfolio dogma, I suppose the hedge would be Treasury Bonds because the endgame of what doodle is describing would be deflation, maybe even a deflationary depression. In this case bonds wo...