29 Comments

I wish that people understood that inflation being “down” to 2.5% is still an increase, and higher than the 2% dream goal for the last 4 years. Secondly, gas prices have fallen after the summer season, so a drop in fuel prices and subsequent costs in other areas of goods being transported are components in this drop.

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What would Trumps problem be with Brett Bear. Why does he think he’s going to get Hanity? Brett would be challenging them equally and isn’t that what we need from journalists? Not really a question

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Harris represents the well-off globalist corporatist establishment. The well-off are doing well. They have been doing more well for over 40 years. And they are committed to doing better. Unfortunately their "doing better" has been at the expense of the lower income class including the middle class.

The fact is that buying power of average wage earners has declined significantly since 1979. And there is great class disparity in trends... with the upper professional class seeing income and wealth increases exceeding inflation, but below the top 20% it falls off drastically.

When it comes to the pace of annual pay increases, the top 1% wage grew 138% since 1979, when it started to diverge, while wages for the bottom 90% grew 15%.

Why 1979?

"In 1963, President Kennedy created a new Office of the Special Trade Representative (STR) in the Executive Office of the President and designated two new Deputies - one in Washington, D.C., and the other in Geneva, Switzerland. Through the mid-1960's, STR had the chief responsibility for U.S. participation in the Kennedy Round of multilateral trade negotiations held under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

In the 1970s, the Congress substantially expanded STR's responsibilities. Section 141 of the Trade Act of 1974 provided a legislative charter for STR as part of the Executive Office of the President, making it responsible for the trade agreements programs under the Tariff Act of 1930, the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and the 1974 act. The act also made STR directly accountable to both the President and the Congress for these and other trade responsibilities and elevated the Special Trade Representative to cabinet level.

Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1979 consolidated and further broadened STR's responsibilities. The 1979 reorganization and Executive Order 12188 of the next year renamed STR as the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), centralized U.S. government policy-making and negotiating functions for international trade, and greatly expanded the office."

Basically government officials and politicians involved in this role of international trade became corruptible to pursue economic policies good for the investor class, but bad for the working class.

The economic destruction from the Great Recession, then the global pandemic and now the run-away Biden inflation... these are all salt on the wounds that have been festering for decades... that are apparent in the social and economic decay in so many once thriving communities.

Trump is a significantly flawed president that is the only one on the stage that is aligned with policies that are targeting a fix to these problems. MAGA is economic. It is about returning the US to its industrial might. Harris is of the party of THEM... those committed to extending the US-funded Global Order that is primarily focused on increased Wall Street returns. THEY... hate the working class. They really do.

Any working class or low income class voter that supports Harris is a dope that deserves their own misery.

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Except the rest of us are going to be dragged into that same misery

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Elon / Taylor

It is unclear whether the SpaceX founder, 53, was offering to impregnate the “Cruel Summer” singer, 34, or give her one of his 12 kids...

I would have said it's unclear if Elon was high on heroin or peyote.

Perhaps Elon wants to be Elton John's "Levon".

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Erick, please post the link for the lacrosse player and 9/11.

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Pradheep Shanker: “The worst part about all of this is, even after this debate, we really don't know what Kamala Harris would do as President. Nobody knows. Hell...I am not sure she knows.”

No, the default is she will do what she has a record of doing. There is no surprise, no shock except for the *feigned reactions of the media as shallow plausible deniability to maintain credibility as "journalist".

*OMG we had no idea Biden was in such bad shape. Last week he was an animal behind closed doors

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I haven’t watched a presidential debate since 1988. This wasn’t any different. They are entertainment - bad entertainment. Question: how would you solve the war in Ukraine, you have two minutes to respond? How is this serious?

If we truly wanted to have a debate where candidates could lay out what their policies and positions were then it should be at least 90 minutes. Each candidate gets 30 minutes to lay out their policies and positions and then each has 15 minutes to rebut their opponent or correct/refine what they have said. No moderators - just a timekeeper.

That would be worth watching…otherwise there are reruns of Gilligan’s Island that are more entertaining and enlightening.

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Re: "Millennials and Gen-Z":

Give it 20 or 30 years, and there won't be enough skilled technicians available to keep the lights on, clean water running from the tap, or to keep all the surveillance/compliance technology functioning.... but there will be more than enough people running around whining about "white supremacy", "systemic racism", and "the patriarchy"...

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Eric,

I am detached from politics as well. the main reason I listen to you. I find it boring and taking up more gig space in my brain than I really want. Its why I listened to Paul Harvey and Rush.

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Why it is so easy for the GOP to win the US presidency w/o getting the most votes. It has happened twice since 2000 and could easily happen again this time. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/sep/03/electoral-votes-swing-state-margins-explained

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Harris - still not definite on unrealized gains, tax on SS, Iran, etc.

Harris was say anything to win and then be a Socialist.

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Socialism is generally defined as an economic system where the government owns or controls the means of production. This is consistent with historical patterns where when socialists take control of a country, they soon begin "nationalizing" key industries.

So which industry are you expecting Harris to take over?

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Inflation numbers 2.5??? is that annualized or for the month.? 2.5 times 12 is 30?

I just know my cost is increasing alot.

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Was Trump trying to secure another debate at a different site?

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You have to begin now, asking yourself, what goes first? Your 401k or the Bill of Rights?

Thanks DJT, you moron!

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The bar was high for Trump and low for Harris. She got under his skin with the help from the dishonest and unethical ABC moderators.

She was better prepared, and so much so... I would really challenge that she did not get the exact questions in advance. This is ABC... it is so filled with woke Trump-haters that one of them involved in the debate planning process would have easily slipped a note to the Harris team. Come on man, they have so brazenly lied about everything... so clearly been in the tank for the Democrats... why would we consider this a conspiracy stretch. Her performance was almost like it was a scripted act she memorized.

But it remains to be seen if this is going to bump Harris. The two big voter issues are the economy and immigration. What did Harris do last night to convince anyone that she is better than Trump on these issues? I think Trump did a solid job of pinning her with the mess, and reminding people that he is the much better candidate to deal with those issues.

The infuriating thing with Trump is that he missed the wide open field to destroy her because he spent so much time in defense of his ego over fake news BS. Jan-6, Charlottesville, felonies, money from his daddy, etc. He is so damn undisciplined with his ego. However, that is Trump. We know him. We know that he is that way. Nothing changed last night except we have yet another Harris personality delivered. But this Harris was very unlikeable. She has gone from a babbling and cackling school girl with fake accents to a nasty and cold witch like we saw at the Kavanaugh hearings.

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What did Harris do last night to convince anyone that she is better than Trump on the issues? Standing next to a man who is convinced that Fido is at risk of being eaten, she came off as sane.

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Harris clearly has never had interest in issues or governing. Trump doesn't either. Evidently even the morons moderating didn't bring up the most urgent problem: out of control debt and spending. I say, let's start a bet pool on the exact date of dollar devaluation. Ima put $10 on 3-6-2033

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