Random Politics & Religion #00

Cruz was laughing as he just handed Trump a huge moral victory that made him look like an idiot and made Trump look like a winner, that sums up his night.

Frankly I think it just goes to show how *** up our political system is that people will take someone (who appears to be) genuine like Trump over classic politicians, even if his policies are insane and the ***he says is awful.

We've gotten so sick of lying politicians talking out of both sides of their mouths that for many people it's preferential to have someone terrible, as long as they're honest about it.

I feel like that's pretty significant, even if I can't stomach the guy, because I can understand the support he gets from many supporters.

Sadly, he also has the supporters who readily lap up his vile hate speech, too...but we've always known those troglodytes exist in our country. Maybe he's doing us a favor drawing them out of the woodwork.

Trump is a sincere guy?

Odd, replace the name Trump with Obama go back in time 7yrs and that post would be called all kinds of racist.. The parallels are very disturbing.

What?

People sure are having a hard time hearing lately.

Maybe like in a Bizarro versus Superman kind of way.

What parallels I wonder.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-15/retail-sales-in-u-s-decrease-to-end-weakest-year-since-2009

Retail Sales in U.S. Decrease to End Weakest Year Since 2009.
Dow Sinks 450 Points in Global Equity Rout as Crude Falls to $30

Guess the President should fire his speech writers.

Yeah, well, when you've spent the last seventy years letting OPEC build such a controlling stake in oil, you suffer the wrath of letting them manipulate the oil market. (Don't ask me who particular I'm blaming this on, or how we'd have prevented it. I'm just saying, it is what it is. Not much we can do unless we want to get aggressive with them.)


I'll be spending again soon enough myself to do my part!

I wonder if they count online sales? I'm sure they count places like Target.com, but what about Amazon, ebay, craigslist? I do almost all of my shopping online now.

Glad you asked!

You didn't build that.
Anything he said about the ACA

Everyone who voted for Obama thought he was the most honest candidate they had ever seen.

Exact parallel.

Exact parallel.

They must. If online sales aren't counting toward retail sales then that would make every report out there entire, utter garbage as the majority of online spending is done domestically and is money going into American pockets...at least as much as any spending is going into American pockets.

Are we still taking this out of context as a nonsense talking point?

I also fail to see Obama's hate speech anywhere, or inciting mobs to commit aggressive acts against certain people.

I see where you're coming from though, even if I don't agree.

wishing death upon you was pretty childish, and I apologize. I'll try to ignore you more adeptly in the future.

You'd know this if you payed attention. Hint:


I'm all for cheap oil. The only problem I see coming is when it does actually hit bottom the only place for it to go is up. It goes up a hell of a lot faster than it goes down. Enjoy while it while it lasts, gonna be seeing 10 dollar gas in the near future.

That is all I ask.

You didn't name any parallels between the two campaigns...

A title like that makes it seem worse than it really is. The article describes that growth/momentum is slowing down, and overall things are not even close to comparable to 2009.

It's called supply and demand. OPEC doesn't have the power it had 10 years ago, thanks to other countries producing and selling oil to other countries at a much higher rate due to changes in acquisition of said oil (aka fracking).

You can thank basic economics for that.

Yes, online sales are counted too.

You can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but while it may not have the extent of power it had 10 years ago, it's still managed to squeeze many fracking operations' balls pretty handily. That's why they're dropping the price of oil; because they can weather the lower prices better than NA fracking can; and once they've driven them under they can let the prices soar again as they did a few years ago, if not higher, to "recoup" their own losses.

My own hope is simply that we, in turn, weather oil prices well as we can as we continue to inevitable march toward loosening oil's grip on our nation's pulse.

The Chevy Bolt debuted recently, providing a very solid alternative to Tesla's vehicles that's at a more-palpable price point, with Tesla's own 30-something-k vehicle right around the corner too. Competition breeds innovation, etc.

It's not going to happen overnight and we're far from out of the woods, but we're going the right direction.

Edit: I know that, for my own part, when my own vehicle(s) need replaced in a few more years I feel that I'm on track to replace one, if not both, of them with quality electrics or hybrids at a reasonable price.

I think it is OPEC driving the fall though? Sure OPEC isn't the only oil producer anymore but that isn't stopping them from putting the new oil producers out of business by flooding the market with cheap oil.

Oil should have never gotten so high to begin with but that is another topic.

edit:/shakes fist at ramy.. Beat me by 2 min!

Yeah. OPEC is basically hedging on the fact that they've got more oil and years of money saved up to weather the low prices long enough to squeeze out domestic sources before they themselves feel the pinch.

Even someone as fervently anti-franking as me can see the clear benefits domestically; I simply question the opportunity cost, as it were. But I'm also speaking from the position of someone who commutes minimally, flies maybe once every other year, and generally doesn't feel the pinch of high oil prices nearly as acutely as others. I'm not blind to the biases of my own situation.

Take away the auto market (that got a massive bailout) and it is very comparable. Keep walking with your head down though.

http://www.krgv.com/story/30977081/walmart-closing-more-than-200-stores-worldwide

Can pretty much guarantee that US oil production is going to fall dramatically this year and next, but that's going to be offset by Iran's oil industry coming back into form after the sanctions are lifted. In the end tho, the Saudi's are going to need to take action if they want to see the prices go back up to $70+/barrel. Till then, can just continue to watch Russia and Venezuela's economies die.

Better Source.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WAL_MART_STORE_CLOSURES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-15-09-18-12

Even CNBC is saying crap like this.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/15/a-recession-worse-than-2008-is-coming-commentary.html

For what it's worth on Walmart's end, how much bigger can they really get? They're out of room to keep growing unless they start building stores across the street from their own stores. They're already almost literally doing that around here where you've got a Walmart every seven miles (or less).

I mean, the house I'm looking at right now has two Walmarts equidistant from it.

The stores they're closing and mostly their smallest "market" stores which weren't their best idea in the first place for their particular brand of service. They thrive on being a mostly one-stop shopping experience.

Also, there's probably a handful they're closing due to unionization issues, whether they state so publically or not.

Can you really do that though and try to view it in a bubble? (Pun not intended).

Bailout happened. And the auto companies are running a, by all appearances, much tighter, responsible ship at this point and putting out better vehicles worth buying, and people are buying.

I never said people are smart..

Just remember with all this bad economic news that Obama sez the economy is still robust.