Quote from: Cnut237 on Today at 07:17:13 PM

Quote from: OgNasty on Today at 04:17:55 PM

Indeed. Biden took America from being energy independent to begging oil producers to increase production as we drain our reserves. He took a flourishing economy and ran it into the ground with high inflation while Fed Governors resign their positions as a result of him not adhering to their warnings. He overreacted to the flu, shutting down the economy and decimating small businesses. There's no doubt he's the worst president of my lifetime, and he's got to already be top 5 worst presidents ever, maybe top 2.

I don't really understand this argument. Trump ordered Covid lockdowns, and this is no problem? But Biden over-reacted to Covid and shut down the economy, which is terrible?

Yes, Trump was quite the moron for putting Dr. Fauci center stage and having him appear on every TV network for his 10 minutes of fame. In retrospect, Trump's biggest weakness is surrounding himself with incompetence and then getting upset when these people do irrevocable damage.

The 2 weeks to stop the spread turned into 30 days which morphed into over a year of restrictions. The difference being, Trump actively attempting to undo the damage that he had mostly caused while the pro-lockdown groups in liberal states did everything they could to continue lockdowns. Also, it goes without saying that the landscape of COVID was difference in March of 2020 during lockdowns when nothing was known about the virus. If it any prudent person were to view the totality of the circumstances, you have an unknown virus from an unverified origin, no known treatments, high transmissibility, and an under prepared healthcare system. Was Trump (or any other country for that matter) incorrect in their pro-lockdown presumption? Maybe not. But after a year, that presumption no longer exists. We knew a lot more.

Quote from: Cnut237 on Today at 07:17:13 PM

The other point about Biden taking a flourishing economy and then destroying it with high inflation doesn't seem logical, either. Moments in time don't exist in isolation, they're dependent on what happened before. Inflation (which is happening all around the world, not just the US) isn't a consequence of sudden simultaneous terrible leaders everywhere, rather it's a consequence of global issues such as the Ukraine war and, yes, economic issues due to Covid. It would seem implausible to think that were Trump still leader, the US would not have high inflation.

Here is the CPI for the United States, last 5 years: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi

Here is the PPI for the United States over the last year: https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_producer_price_index

CPI can be explained only by supply and demand. Increase the money supply, demand increases which will cause the consumer prices across all sectors to increase if the supply isn't able to be maintained. The COVID lockdowns/supply chain issues would cause price increases undoubtedly, but it would happen contemporaneous or at least proximate to the lockdowns, not magically increase when a new President was elected. The CPI began increasing sharply after Biden got elected, and then sharply increased when he got into office.

What policies would explain such inflation? Examine whatever policies would increase the money supply -- the so called "American Rescue Package," or about a trillion dollars in unnecessary spending. Extension of unemployment benefits to September, meaning workers could be paid more to work zero hours/week. This decreases the labor participating rate and raises the operating cost of small businesses that need to compete with the federal government's social welfare state. On top of this, there becomes the issue of democrats/liberals prolonging COVID restrictions and lockdowns in their own jurisdictions which caused many businesses to fail. Some red states opened up, to the scorn of the media, while blue states placed restrictions for much longer. And of course, you can't forget the stimulus checks issued out to something like 90 percent of the American population.

The inflation was on it's way up after Biden's election and before the so called "Putin Price Hike." USD was outpacing the inflation rate of most other developed countries before the Ukrainian war broke out, and USD is still outpacing most other countries with its inflation rate. It is no coincidence that Biden gets in office, starts spending more money that has ever existed, and inflation goes up.

By the way, Biden has desperately attempted to blame corporate greed and price gouging on the increased consumer prices. Completely debunked by the PPI charts over the last two years. The cost of producing goods for manufactures and wholesalers has increased because of the raw materials to produce goods went up. If this was price gouging on the consumer side of the transaction, you wouldn't see the PPI reaching 10 percent. Corporate greed does not explain inflation.

Quote from: Majestic-milf on June 22, 2022, 07:04:43 PM

It's no news that ex president Donald Trump has his sights set on the presidential election. Although, with him still having legal troubles and whatnot, some where skeptic if he would still pay interest.
Spending his time since his one year and half time out of office busy hosting rallies, endorsing members of his party, trying to shape it the way he wants, it looks like he's tired and getting bored and would look keen to play in the political field as he believes Biden is struggling under a load of disapprovals and inflation. Many believe that electing him will reunite and reignite the fire that seems to have quenched in the hearts of despondent Democratic voters. What is your take on this?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-teases-2024-presidential-run-at-conservative-conference

Trump will run again and he will win because he is a narcissistic man child. Republicans need to find a way to manage the neocons and the MAGA crowd because the MAGA crowd isn't sustainable.

Betting markets have Trump and DeSantis as the top two picks: https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/7053/Who-will-win-the-2024-Republican-presidential-nomination

Ron DeSantis would demolish any candidate that democrat want to put up. And Trump is going to derail the Republicans' path to the Presidency because he can't control his ego. If he had remained even slightly restrained from Twitter in 2020, he would have beaten Joe Biden. He carries too much baggage. And unfortunately, he is going into 2024 and will ensure that the most qualified Republican candidate since Ronald Regan will not be President. Trump would be a better President than Biden, but he won't survive the media backlash after J6 if he were to win the primaries.

Imaging Trump vs. Biden would be quite entertaining though. Two geriatrics going for round 2, incredible!