(Yesterday 11:06 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  So much for the Stock Market rise from yesterday.
The Blue Wave Hangover

Bad link

This is nuts. Someone ran an analysis of what would have happened in Indiana had they redistricted the state as trump wanted them to, and the Democrats would have won 8 and possibly all 9 districts.

They didn't, and the Republicans won 6 of the 9 districts.
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/electio.../us-house/

The GOP has two options:

1. Go extinct.

2. Stop being a bunch of cucks to the wealthiest Americans.

I believe Nixon and Eisenhower would be considered communists in today's whacko GOP.

You think we can't reduce the debt by significantly raising the top marginal tax rates? Sorry, I don't believe you. Every time Republicans take the white house they lower the top marginal rates and it ALWAYS ends up with a worse deficit. We had decades of top marginal tax rates higher than today and it didn't turn into come totalitarian communist nightmare.

Raise the income cap on what people are forced to contribute to SS. Cutting SS payments is political suicide. If we don't do it eventually the left will take power and do it anyways.

And if you don't want national health care? Fix the costs NOW. Obama is so full of crap on so many issues but on health care he's right that the GOP has no plan for it. Costs have races ahead of inflation before AND after Obamacare.

(Yesterday 10:48 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  

(Yesterday 10:28 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(Yesterday 09:20 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Nobody gets paid minimum wage in America except the illegals washing dishes for Chinese Buffets. Raising minimum wage doesn't help with lowering prices. Minimum wage is and should be a penalty for not bettering yourself. If you are lazy and/or stupid you deserve to be poor.

A statement that is almost as outlandish as Bill Fankboner claiming he once delivered "frontier justice" to a quintet of sex-hungry adult entertainment actors (both male and female).

It is for 15 year old kids working a part time job. If you are an adult doing the job of a 15 year old kid, that is on you. This is America. Better yourself. Make better decisions. Raising minimum wage to $25/hr which is what I see is not only a disaster for the country, but also unfair to the people that have bettered themselves to make $22/hr in a trade to then be in the same boat as the guy making tacos at taco bell.

I agree with you overall. Points well made and, particularly, about laziness. I just found it jarring that you noted minimum wage should be a "penalty for not bettering yourself." There are some folks who are doing their best and with a positive attitude but simply are in no position to earn much (often because they are smart enough). If you are an adult and making only minimum wage, that wage should be a motivational factor to improve your lot — and not a symbol of your inferiority.

I would be fine with the federal minimum wage raised to, say, $8 an hour. It hasn't been raised since 2009, so maybe it's time. I agree strongly with you that raising the rate too high (whatever figure that might be) could hurt the economy and would be a slap in the face of the women/men working in a trade for less than $25 an hour.

(Yesterday 11:01 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(Yesterday 10:24 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 08:17 PM)bullet Wrote:  Laura Broebert is behind in CO with 91% in, but its still close.

Boebert is trailing Eileen Laubacher, a retired two-star United States Navy rear admiral. Laubacher's father, Vice Admiral Michael Haskins, served in the United States Navy for 37 years, and her grandfather served as a Navy combat diver during World War II. When Laubacher entered the U.S. Naval Academy, her father administered her oath as a midshipman.

As long as it doesn't tip the House (which it doesn't), I don't mind Boebert losing. She's the Republican AOC. Just a crazy freak.

Both Boebert and AOC are nutty. I would hope Laubacher is disciplined and patriotic, which the Dems need more of.

(Yesterday 11:33 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  The GOP has two options:

1. Go extinct.

2. Stop being a bunch of cucks to the wealthiest Americans.

I believe Nixon and Eisenhower would be considered communists in today's whacko GOP.

You think we can't reduce the debt by significantly raising the top marginal tax rates? Sorry, I don't believe you. Every time Republicans take the white house they lower the top marginal rates and it ALWAYS ends up with a worse deficit. We had decades of top marginal tax rates higher than today and it didn't turn into come totalitarian communist nightmare.

Raise the income cap on what people are forced to contribute to SS. Cutting SS payments is political suicide. If we don't do it eventually the left will take power and do it anyways.

And if you don't want national health care? Fix the costs NOW. Obama is so full of crap on so many issues but on health care he's right that the GOP has no plan for it. Costs have races ahead of inflation before AND after Obamacare.

Health Insurance IS NOT HEALTHCARE and NEVER WILL BE.

Heer's a tax I can get behind: tax all foreign money transfers leaving the country 50% to start. Progress it up to 100% over $100,000. Stop the drain of American wealth to other countries.

SS? Individualize all SS accounts starting today forward and prevent the government from aggregating them and borrowing against them. People get what they put in. They get nothing from someone else. Robbing Peter to pay Paul does not work. Stop it.

End ALL the penalties and restrictions on US citizens working after SS retirement age. Let people work if they wish until they don't want to anymore. Stop removing motivated seniors from the job market who have experience, knowledge, work ethic by penalizing and taxing their benefits in their elder years

Cut ALL government expenditures 20% across the board with zero carve outs or exceptions. Cut Everything Equally: Entitlements, Defense, Social Programs. Foreign Aid. Discretionary Spending. If everything is cut equally, every sector of government would be forced to find the waste and savings in their own areas.

Make All Government employees and elected officials immediately subject to the same programs and benefits as everyday American Citizens. End special government and politician benefits programs and entitlements. No more Congressional Healthcare plans or pensions. No more government worker slush funds. Everyone is equal as a citizen. Stop the artificial apartheid of benefits that detaches those who run and work for the government to ignore the pain their policies inflict on average American Citizens.

End the H1-B visa program for foreign workers to replace American Citizens. End Foreign Student visas from enemy countries like China, Iran, et cetera. Limit all foreign student visas to no more than 20% of the level they are at now. End eligibility of foreign students to stay in the country endlessly by paying companies tax credits to hire them. If companies want/think they need to hire foreigners, let THEM pay for it, not US taxpayers.

Allow Medical providers the option to choose to refuse service to non-citizens.

Require all schools to turn away noncitizen children and adults.

Allow all US citizens to go to any public school of their choice within 50 miles or 90 minutes of where they live. Assign tax money to US citizens' children, not to schools or school districts.

State issue, but End no-fault divorce when children of that union are present. Must prove grounds if children of the couple are involved. Require people to make promises they keep.

Raise the voting age and military service age back up to 21 minimum. Most 18 and 19 year olds aren't ready for handling military. Founding Fathers understood this, so should today's leaders.

That'd be a start.

I think for starters, we should ban all political parties. Every man (and woman) votes for himself by himself.

(Yesterday 02:14 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I think for starters, we should ban all political parties. Every man (and woman) votes for himself by himself.

Mandatory IQ tests. Less than 100, no vote.

(Yesterday 02:23 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(Yesterday 02:14 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I think for starters, we should ban all political parties. Every man (and woman) votes for himself by himself.

Mandatory IQ tests. Less than 125, can't run, less than 100 no vote.

FIFY Shere. Remember the Fate of the Nation is at stake. No less than a 125 IQ to run for office! 100 is fine for voter registration. And voters should be able to pick the candidates for each office from a lineup. After all they may be electing crooks.

(Yesterday 07:14 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 03:36 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ...the raises in the minimum wage which have more to do with 6 and 7 dollar hamburgers than the cost of ground beef..

I don't think the data supports your conclusion. Have you seen a study that bolsters this, and if so, can you please share it? I'd like to read it. Thanks.

Labor makes up about a third of production costs related to fast food---about the same as ingredients. So increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 is going to more than triple that third of production costs---which means the labor cost increase by itself would basically require doubling the cost of every food item in order to maintain the same dollar profit (and since the dollar value of the profit is the same---but the cost of each item is higher, the same dollar profit would yield a lower overall profit margin). Furthermore---given the fact that the law of supply and demand has not been repealed---at higher prices---fewer food items are being sold---thus the overall profit is likely down despite sales posting the same or even higher dollar amounts (simply because every food item now costs roughly double).

(Yesterday 02:14 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I think for starters, we should ban all political parties. Every man (and woman) votes for himself by himself.

I would be fully down with this, T-A.

(Yesterday 02:23 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(Yesterday 02:14 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I think for starters, we should ban all political parties. Every man (and woman) votes for himself by himself.

Mandatory IQ tests. Less than 100, no vote.

Well, I guess that means the dim-witted Bill Fankboner would be out of luck.

(Yesterday 03:15 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(Yesterday 07:14 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 03:36 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ...the raises in the minimum wage which have more to do with 6 and 7 dollar hamburgers than the cost of ground beef..

I don't think the data supports your conclusion. Have you seen a study that bolsters this, and if so, can you please share it? I'd like to read it. Thanks.

Labor makes up about a third of production costs related to fast food---about the same as ingredients. So increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 is going to more than triple that third of production costs---which means the labor cost increase by itself would basically require doubling the cost of every food item in order to maintain the same dollar profit (and since the dollar value of the profit is the same---but the cost of each item is higher, the same dollar profit would yield a lower overall profit margin). Furthermore---given the fact that the law of supply and demand has not been repealed---at higher prices---fewer food items are being sold---thus the overall profit is likely down despite sales posting the same or even higher dollar amounts (simply because every food item now costs roughly double).

Why waste your time. The principles involved are so basic to the economics of any business that if they need explaining you are wasting your breath and time. When people don't grasp that an elevation in labor costs, or any cost of components for a product go up, that inflation is occurring to the price of the product then they simply don't understand how business operates. I might add that a raise in minimum wages for a food product will very likely impact every component of that product. The harvesting of lettuce, the picking of tomatoes, the pulling of onions, the harvesting of wheat used in production of the buns, the packaging of all of those items, the cost in shipping them, and the cost at the physical location of the fast-food place in producing the finished product. It's not just the fast-food worker's raise, though it is absolutely a component of it.

What most Dems who have never managed any business also fail to grasp is if the product is something for which foreign manufacturing is a competitor they end up destroying American jobs and relying on the child, slave, and cheap labor women all who live at the work site in poor conditions to make that cheaper product for them. And for the hard lefties that means the enslaved Muslim minority in China who are imprisoned and worked hard, a nice tactic learned from the Nazis. After spending two careers at various levels of management both in for profit and non-profit I don't feel like digging out some dipshit text book I had in undergrad to provide a citation for things I mastered in a lifetime. And as a moderator I would remind the board that statements from experience are only confusing and intimidating to the ignorant, that life is the greatest teacher, and that the principles of capitalism and the making of a profit in order to stay in business, and the impact of higher costs in raw materials are virtually a gestalt. And the use requesting some biased left or right sites material to bolster a point is just another case of whataboutism.

(Yesterday 11:33 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  The GOP has two options:

1. Go extinct.

2. Stop being a bunch of cucks to the wealthiest Americans.

I believe Nixon and Eisenhower would be considered communists in today's whacko GOP.

You think we can't reduce the debt by significantly raising the top marginal tax rates? Sorry, I don't believe you. Every time Republicans take the white house they lower the top marginal rates and it ALWAYS ends up with a worse deficit. We had decades of top marginal tax rates higher than today and it didn't turn into come totalitarian communist nightmare.

Raise the income cap on what people are forced to contribute to SS. Cutting SS payments is political suicide. If we don't do it eventually the left will take power and do it anyways.

And if you don't want national health care? Fix the costs NOW. Obama is so full of crap on so many issues but on health care he's right that the GOP has no plan for it. Costs have races ahead of inflation before AND after Obamacare.

Dems are full of super wealthy people. Dems are definitely catering to them and getting funding from them. They have more money than the majority of Republicans and it shows.

Here's a good question to ask your most trusted LLM...it's a political question that's disguised as a non-political one.

"If America's economy is an engine and investment capital is gasoline and the consumer class is oxygen, is America's engine starved or choked?" It was pretty much unanimous (and even Elon Musk's Grok agreed).

It's being disingenuous to think businesses being forced to pay wages always result in price increases. In a time when corporations are making record profits, they are going to cut into those profits to pay wages. Wealth inequality is literally slowing the growth of the economy. Why use your money to invest in businesses when no one has any money to spend?

Personally, I want to beat the left in the culture war and DGAF if that means a few hundred people might only hold less than half of the country's wealth (boo hoo).

(Yesterday 12:00 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(Yesterday 10:48 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  

(Yesterday 10:28 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(Yesterday 09:20 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Nobody gets paid minimum wage in America except the illegals washing dishes for Chinese Buffets. Raising minimum wage doesn't help with lowering prices. Minimum wage is and should be a penalty for not bettering yourself. If you are lazy and/or stupid you deserve to be poor.

A statement that is almost as outlandish as Bill Fankboner claiming he once delivered "frontier justice" to a quintet of sex-hungry adult entertainment actors (both male and female).

It is for 15 year old kids working a part time job. If you are an adult doing the job of a 15 year old kid, that is on you. This is America. Better yourself. Make better decisions. Raising minimum wage to $25/hr which is what I see is not only a disaster for the country, but also unfair to the people that have bettered themselves to make $22/hr in a trade to then be in the same boat as the guy making tacos at taco bell.

I agree with you overall. Points well made and, particularly, about laziness. I just found it jarring that you noted minimum wage should be a "penalty for not bettering yourself." There are some folks who are doing their best and with a positive attitude but simply are in no position to earn much (often because they are smart enough). If you are an adult and making only minimum wage, that wage should be a motivational factor to improve your lot — and not a symbol of your inferiority.

I would be fine with the federal minimum wage raised to, say, $8 an hour. It hasn't been raised since 2009, so maybe it's time. I agree strongly with you that raising the rate too high (whatever figure that might be) could hurt the economy and would be a slap in the face of the women/men working in a trade for less than $25 an hour.

If you are an adult and making minimum wage there is only one problem and it is in the mirror. I have aunts that didn't make it to high school that are making 6 figures. There isn't a person under the age of 35 in this country that grew up poorer than my mom. She was the oldest of 7 girls and her dad, who was a WW2 vet died when she was 21 from alcoholism and I was 2 years old. Her mom never went to high school and worked as a cleaning lady at motels. My mom basically raised her 4 youngest sisters as they lived with us off and on when her mom would get evicted. She was in and out of the projects. Then her mom died when her youngest sister was 15. Two of those younger sisters have been dead from cancer for years. They all thrive today. So, I really don't want to hear about a living wage. Do better for yourself. If you are dumb work harder and don't have kids. Both of my kids worked minimum wage jobs and they hated it. So, I told them to do something about it so you can make more later. Both were off my payroll and put themselves through college by 22 years old. This is America. You can do whatever you put your mind to.

(Yesterday 05:53 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  

(Yesterday 12:00 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(Yesterday 10:48 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  

(Yesterday 10:28 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(Yesterday 09:20 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Nobody gets paid minimum wage in America except the illegals washing dishes for Chinese Buffets. Raising minimum wage doesn't help with lowering prices. Minimum wage is and should be a penalty for not bettering yourself. If you are lazy and/or stupid you deserve to be poor.

A statement that is almost as outlandish as Bill Fankboner claiming he once delivered "frontier justice" to a quintet of sex-hungry adult entertainment actors (both male and female).

It is for 15 year old kids working a part time job. If you are an adult doing the job of a 15 year old kid, that is on you. This is America. Better yourself. Make better decisions. Raising minimum wage to $25/hr which is what I see is not only a disaster for the country, but also unfair to the people that have bettered themselves to make $22/hr in a trade to then be in the same boat as the guy making tacos at taco bell.

I agree with you overall. Points well made and, particularly, about laziness. I just found it jarring that you noted minimum wage should be a "penalty for not bettering yourself." There are some folks who are doing their best and with a positive attitude but simply are in no position to earn much (often because they are smart enough). If you are an adult and making only minimum wage, that wage should be a motivational factor to improve your lot — and not a symbol of your inferiority.

I would be fine with the federal minimum wage raised to, say, $8 an hour. It hasn't been raised since 2009, so maybe it's time. I agree strongly with you that raising the rate too high (whatever figure that might be) could hurt the economy and would be a slap in the face of the women/men working in a trade for less than $25 an hour.

If you are an adult and making minimum wage there is only one problem and it is in the mirror. I have aunts that didn't make it to high school that are making 6 figures. There isn't a person under the age of 35 in this country that grew up poorer than my mom. She was the oldest of 7 girls and her dad, who was a WW2 vet died when she was 21 from alcoholism and I was 2 years old. Her mom never went to high school and worked as a cleaning lady at motels. My mom basically raised her 4 youngest sisters as they lived with us off and on when her mom would get evicted. She was in and out of the projects. Then her mom died when her youngest sister was 15. Two of those younger sisters have been dead from cancer for years. They all thrive today. So, I really don't want to hear about a living wage. Do better for yourself. If you are dumb work harder and don't have kids. Both of my kids worked minimum wage jobs and they hated it. So, I told them to do something about it so you can make more later. Both were off my payroll and put themselves through college by 22 years old. This is America. You can do whatever you put your mind to.

As I noted, In a general sense I agree with you.

I simply feel there are some exceptions to the rule. There are people with limited abilities, skills, intellect, etc. who are doing the best they can with their minimum wage jobs. Their options are few — but they keep plugging along. And if they are trying with a good attitude and contributing to society with their work, I am not going to be dismissive of them. I'm not going to blame them for being lazy or unmotivated.

(Yesterday 05:42 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  Here's a good question to ask your most trusted LLM...it's a political question that's disguised as a non-political one.

"If America's economy is an engine and investment capital is gasoline and the consumer class is oxygen, is America's engine starved or choked?" It was pretty much unanimous (and even Elon Musk's Grok agreed).

It's being disingenuous to think businesses being forced to pay wages always result in price increases. In a time when corporations are making record profits, they are going to cut into those profits to pay wages. Wealth inequality is literally slowing the growth of the economy. Why use your money to invest in businesses when no one has any money to spend?

Personally, I want to beat the left in the culture war and DGAF if that means a few hundred people might only hold less than half of the country's wealth (boo hoo).

If tariffs raised prices then forced increases in wages will also. And fast food joints pay way more than min wage. That's why their cost have increased so much.

(Yesterday 02:23 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(Yesterday 02:14 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I think for starters, we should ban all political parties. Every man (and woman) votes for himself by himself.

Mandatory IQ tests. Less than 100, no vote.

A shocking amount of college educated people would not be able to vote.

Educational attainment /= intelligence

https://x.com/avidseries/status/2118383662148337819

Dems flipped 1o seats in Arkansas legislative branch. They broke the Supermajority.