Author Topic: Current Events  (Read 320966 times)

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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73575 on: May 12, 2026, 01:30:33 pm »
Or more simply, the fire needed tending about that time and it got to be a habit.
That, or the prostate.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73576 on: May 12, 2026, 03:37:53 pm »
Or more simply, the fire needed tending about that time and it got to be a habit.
I have plenty to do at 3 AM. It's my favorite time of day. I  read, drink valerian tea and smoke pot,  go outside....The cats are up and active. There is a surprising amount of activity in my backyard in the middle of the night.  Waking up in the middle of the night is a blessing not a curse.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73577 on: May 12, 2026, 03:46:17 pm »
I really hope this weather changes soon. I have 400 plants in 4 and 6 inch pots and trays sitting in my driveway. I've been dragging them all in every night.  They need to be planted. They're all getting too big for their pots. The safe bet is waiting until Memorial Day but even then we get a freeze in June sometimes. There's a ton of geraniums various colors, marigolds, giant marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, reefer...  All grown in the temperate lowlands of my basement. It's getting weird.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73578 on: May 13, 2026, 12:19:56 am »
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73579 on: May 13, 2026, 12:22:40 am »
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73580 on: May 13, 2026, 01:11:48 am »
"...AI isn't paying off in the way companies think. Layoffs driven by automation are failing to generate returns, study finds..."
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73581 on: May 13, 2026, 10:06:51 am »
The actual numbers




Inflation Under Biden (2021–2025)

Peak: Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, the highest level in roughly 40 years.

Average: Biden's four-year term saw an average annual inflation rate near 5%.Total

Increase: Consumer prices rose by roughly 19%–20% over his term.




Inflation Under Trump (1st Term: 2017–2020)

Average: Inflation was relatively low and stable, averaging about 1.9% annually.

2020: The final year of his first term saw an average rate of 1.2%.


Second Term/Current Context (2025–2026)

2025–2026 Trend: Inflation did not disappear after the 2024 election.

Through early 2026, inflation remained, with annual rates around 2.7%–3%, similar to or slightly higher than the final months of the Biden administration.






Summary Table of Average Inflation Rates

2021-2024 (Biden): ~4.7% - 5.0%

2017-2020 (Trump): ~1.9%

2025-2026 (Trump): 2.6% - 2.7% (through March 2026)


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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73582 on: May 13, 2026, 10:11:24 am »
The inflation occured during Biden's watch. We were all there...it was only like 24 months ago. We just lived through it.  Prices never went back down. 
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73583 on: May 13, 2026, 10:13:56 am »
I remember when I was a kid my dad telling me that once  you  give a person a raise you can't take it back. I think that's the prevailing belief at the insurance and oil companies. No one's getting ahead anymore. Getting by is the new paradigm.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73584 on: May 13, 2026, 10:17:22 am »
During my lifetime things have got precipitously worse for working, middle class Americans.

I have an internal locus of control. I make my own fortune. But if you want to blame the government...here it is:

Republican presidents have held office for approximately 360 months (30 years), while Democratic presidents have held office for approximately 393 months (32.75 years).

Democrats held the presidency for more of this period, largely due to the terms of Clinton, Obama, and Biden



Six of one, half dozen the other. Thieving sociopaths - one and all. You have to be a sociopath to become a politician. It is far less honest than...say....organized crime. Gangsters do not pose themselves as anything but criminals and you trust them at your own peril. These scumbags are wolves in sheep's clot6hing - figuratively speaking of course. Actual wolves have far more integrity.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73585 on: May 13, 2026, 10:32:08 am »
I'm freezing my ass off. This is living under the yoke of oppression - like the Jews of old. The weather has been shitty since September 2025.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73586 on: May 13, 2026, 10:44:39 am »
The irrational component of the Democrats is that they have allowed the lunatic fringe to take over the party. They hate Trump so much they side with our enemies. That doesn't even make sense. They'd rather see the country destroyed than have Trump seem successful, even though he has done a tremendous amount of postive things along with his blustering and offensive delivery. The fact is, he has never been convicted of any sexual misconduct despite the vulgar rhetoric directed at him. People that  meet him are pleasantly surprised to find out he is a very intelligent, charming and generous guy - even Bill Maher.

One has only to examine the facts - the rioting, the looting, the targeted killings, the attacks on the police and public order.... None of that is productive and it is based on an under-pinning of blaming and hating America and white Americans as symbols of oppression by people that make their livings collecting public dole from that very system. This radical, racist, hateful environment may not have originated with Obama or even by Obama himself but his cronies certainly launched a herculean effort to normalize the hate - and they funded it with taxpayer money. They erected a statue of convict George Floyd - that's their ideal of the modern negro - not Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice - but a ten-time loser, a criminal sociopath that died as he lived. The illogic is almost surreal.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73587 on: May 13, 2026, 10:55:09 am »
The notion that ai will somehow make our lives better is rubbish. The most salient effects so far have been its use in warfare and by criminals that use it to write malicious code or to spoof real people for purposes of fraud or sexual exploitation.

Factory workers are already nothing more than drone machine tenders. Does anyone really think they are bound for a life of leisure as robots are trained to perform even the most menial tasks?  Does anyone think the shareholders will forgo increased profits so that the former shop hands can lounge on the beach?

Anyone my age has watched American society circling the drain for the past 40 years while the elites from both sides of the aisle and their patrons became obscenely rich and richer.

AI is going to end up like the rest of the internet. Like idealistic polictical paradigms, the wrench in the machinery is the utterly venal nature of a large enough portion of the human population as to ruin it for everyone.  For the same reason socialism and communism will never work in the real world, AI will not live up to its hype. It will be exploited by the greedy, corrupt and immoral to prey on the trust and generosity of society.
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73588 on: May 13, 2026, 10:57:12 am »
Obamacare has turned out to be a giant taxpayer-sponsored give-away to the most obscenely wealthy and amoral organizations in human history - insurance and pharma.

It is spectacular in its indecency !
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Re: Current Events
« Reply #73589 on: May 13, 2026, 10:58:15 am »
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