jerryskids

Well... IMO they weren't in power, so I'm not sure what people would have missed "seeing".

Thiel talks about Vance, meeting him and being impressed. He also makes a general comment about liking people that can get through Leftist echo chambers like Yale and still maintain conservative values. As for the mentoring, I think that was more leading up to Vance's Senate race in 2022. He specifically said he wasn't directly involved in the Trump campaign this year.

I often pimp The Free Press here, and I will again: Bari Weiss has a fascinating interview with Peter Thiel (conservative gay silicon valley bazillionaire, pushed Trump through in 2016, largely stayed out of it this year). https://www.thefp.com/p/peter-thiel-honestly-trump-jd-vance It's almost 2 hours long and worth the time, but I want to highlight the discussion of tariffs for @The Real timschochet and others, which starts around the 55 minute mark. He makes a few interesting points: - The theory of free trade popularized centuries ago presumed that the big-picture cost of manufacturing (including say, labor) was equal between the parties, and that the parties would reach a trade equilibrium. The fact that we have such a trade deficit with China shows that this theory is not working in this relationship. - There is a mistaken belief that trade between us and China is a two-way, net zero sum game. That is, if we raise the price of an iPhone made in China, that price gets passed directly to American consumers. But that's not how a global economy works in the long term. Instead, Apple moves its manufacturing to, say, Vietnam (his example). Yes, Vietnam is a POS country, but they pose no thread to us, whereas China has plans of global dominance and provides something of an existential threat. So, in this model, if the tariffs are imposed, China suffers greatly, Vietnam (and others) benefit greatly, and the US maybe sees a marginal negative, certainly in the short term. - Although Thiel didn't use this word, he talked about how it might be brinkmanship. Given the above, there is incentive for China to come to the table and meet somewhere in the middle.

Reading that thread, I'm getting an uneasy feeling that there are folks on the far right who are beginning to behave like the wokies on the far left, trying to strongarm minority opinions through. I would hope that the (secret) voting to elect Thune to Senate Majority Leader would send a message to these folks that the majority of people don't want to go scorched earth here. I guess we'll see.

That would be awesome!

Will she revert to being ultra progressive, or stick with her latest incarnation of faux moderation?

I didn't see 20M mentioned in that article. 2M (well, 1.9M)

So... you think it's OK to profile all Trump voters as dangerous? Wut? MDC, despite our political differences, I generally like you. I hope you know this and feel the same. Regardless, this is an immensely... unsmart post. I'm confident that you know why.

"non binary identified being"?

Who did you give Ken8080 to?! I've always wondered who that was, dang he was annoying! Death is Rusty, TrailGuy is/was Boyo. Last I knew, Gutterboy was posting as The Psychic Observer. I may have missed an incarnation tho. No he isn't.

I just sat through a webinar from the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) on the state of the art development in this area. They still have a long way to go, but some breakthroughs in magnetic technologies in the past few years have led to enough potential viability to create 40 startups and $8B in private investment. That said, I believe that this technology warrants government investment. It is very difficult to do pure research in the commercial sector, since investors want returns next quarter. I hope we do it. Perhaps we could get Elon interested in it? It could be Trump's equivalent of JFK's space race. They mentioned a quote from the poet Edward Young in the webinar, which is inscribed in the Jefferson building of the Library of Congress: "Too low they build, who build beneath the stars."

Why would Trump object to Ukraine joining NATO? I actually think that would be a great concession from Russia.

I like Shapiro, and would look at him in 2028. Newsome strikes me as the monorail salesguy from the Simpsons.

To me, the obvious end to the Ukraine situation is basically as you state: Russia keeps some/most amount of the territory they've taken, most of which is largely ethnic Russian folks. Add onto that commitments from Russia that they are done invading, Ukraine and elsewhere, and if they don't, they won't like the results. Include funding from Russia for Ukrainians to relocate into Ukraine, and to help rebuild the infrastructure they've destroyed in Kiev and elsewhere. I mean, Russia has nukes and haven't used them, so they've shown some restraint. It's not realistic to expect Putin to just leave with nothing.

I'm not a Gaetz fan. I disagree with your concerns with Gabbard, however.

No Emma Stone? You are dead to me.

Is "MAGAloid" part of you having serious discussions, Rustor? My daughter has Type 1 diabetes; she can't join the military because she needs daily medication (insulin) to survive. I've often used her as an example, when people argue that men should compete in women's sports, that "the pursuit of happiness" does not mean you get to pursue every possible avenue of happiness.

Both, but I'm just going by those total vote counts. Those 4 states seem to have a very consistent increase in votes (Georgia seems a little high in 2024 compared to the others, but it's probably the only one of those states which has a net gain of people). And there seems like a consistent shift towards Trump. That being said, if you are trying to get me to say "yay verily there were no shenanigans in 2020 at all," I'm not there yet.

Thanks. No obvious shenanigans in those totals.

No seafoam, you are trolling. Please stop.

Dood, my wife went there. Don't contribute to its woke decline. MSU yip yip dog nipping at the awesome pant legs of U of M says wut?

Guys, let's keep this thread to serious discussions of a Trump presidency. Also hot Milfy/Gilfy Jewish actresses. Mkay thanks!

I looked her up based on your recommendation and, wow, she's 53? Absolutely wood! https://pagesix.com/2024/08/29/celebrity-news/heather-graham-hasnt-spoken-to-estranged-parents-after-they-warned-hollywood-is-evil-im-proud-of-myself/

Wow, bummer man. Sounds like they finally got everything, which is good to hear. Mine was a squamous cell carcinoma (non-small cell) and got into my lymph. They basically told me I was a dead man walking. But... some combination of chemo and immunotherapy (keytruda) seems to have done the trick, knock on wood.

Also, I wouldn't have guessed that @Engorgeous George would be the one to derail this thread, but since it was for hot Jewish actresses, and there are so many more than I had known about, I don't really mind.