SectionC3

All of those fat slobs who complain about immigrants can get off of welfare and government assistance and get to work in the factories making $12 an hour. Initially I was upset about Trump winning because he's a fool and bad for the country. But I'm getting more and more excited by the day to see MAGA get a taste of what it wanted. It's going go be great. I know so many MAGA who take and take and take from the taxpayers and I'm very eager to see what happens when we cut taxes, trickle down doesn't actually trickle down, and we have to cut the services they need and rely upon to pay for all of this. I'm going to do great. They're not. I actually hope that Republicans win the house so they can do or not do all of this economic nonsense. Let's take fluoride out of the water! I can pay for dental treatment. They largely can't. Not my problem, so long as they don't try to run it through Medicaid or Medicare (both of which should be cut, anyway, if we're playing the Republican/Conservative game). I'll make money, MAGA will have to actually get to work and earn their keep, and away we go. If we're going to go the selfish route (picking on brown people, trans, demonizing people who feel differently), let's go whole hog and do all of the truly conservative stuff Republicans have wanted to do for decades. OMG. This is why educated people get so frustrated with each other and MAGA feels like it's being talked down to. I'll try to be nice. If there's progression in the proposal, then it isn't a flat tax. Flat tax proposals by definition cannot address the concern that I have raised.

What's the cure? Tariffs? Command economy? Drilling more lawnmower oil? I'm surprised he didn't tell us during the two years in which he ran for this presidency. Kind of like Nixon's secret plan to end the war, perhaps. How does one stop Iran's nuclear program short of bombing it? And how do we end all wars globally without, like, intervening (which is something MAGA doesn't want to do)? Negotiating - with what leverage? I don't disagree with the first two. They just don't seem like they work together. But MAGA can figure that out.

All of the economic proposals sound great to me. Let's do them all and see what happens. They'll be great for me (investor class) but bad for the vast, vast majority of MAGA. You won't get any meaningful responses here because the economic approach on the whole is senseless. It's all a gamble on massive economic growth predicated upon massive tax cuts without concomitant spending cuts. We saw how it worked out the first time (big, big debt increase, for which there is a bill to be paid). It will be the same story this time. Equities will increase in price (good for me). Sugar high spike will be there (good for me). Domestic manufacturing might increase a bit, but we just don't have the labor force to support what Trump wants to do. And consumers will pay more for stuff, inflation will increase (because of tariffs, at first, and because of minimum wage differentials for domestically-manufactured disposable junk like razors, toothbrushes, etc.), national debt will explode, and right around year three someone is going to wake up and realize that there is a bill to be paid. In short, this is what happens when people who have done a lousy job managing their money (Trump included) start managing national finances. Then by definition it's not a flat tax. That's a progressive income tax, which we have now. But you voted for it, so flat tax away. Again, nothing of substance. Which is to be expected of you. Just anger and rage about your situation. Just pick something of substance instead of memes about people you don't like.

Both of the first two ideas (tariffs and flat tax) are terrible for the middle and lower classes. Absolutely awful. Why should Terry Pegula (for example) have the same tax rate on his top earnings as you? Apparently you're a trickle down guy. If you trust the establishment--rich folks--to give you their money, then go for it. I don't see it happening. As an aside, these tax cuts that MAGA is throwing around (tips, car loan deduction, undoing of their repeal of the SALT deduction, apparently now flat tax) sound great in principle. But they are in large part leading toward old school Republican ideas that are rotten for the middle class. Essentially MAGA is moving toward a consumption-tax society, that is, limited taxes on income and much larger taxes on things people consume. If you're on the same economic footing as Steve Forbes, who thought of the flat tax idea years go, then go for it. We'll see how it works out. Such a response is to be expected from you. What's your Day 1 MAGA priority? It's a fair question.

Zelenskyy certainly does now because his supply of aid is getting cut off. (Before anyone talks about free stuff, the weapons typically are older and in significant part are purchased.) Unfortunately the off ramp entails a good chunk of Ukraine becoming part of Russia. Even if the Russians don't do a bait and switch and go back in after regrouping and stockpiling, the message it sends to NATO allies (and democracies) in the Baltics and Poland is terrible. MAGA doesn't care about stuff like that because it doesn't directly affect them. For what it's worth, I agree that Europe should pay more toward the Ukraine issue, and that the US can't continue to be the world's piggybank and policeman. BUT there's a logic in the foreign involvement that includes others shooting at each other, rather than Americans, and influence over navigation and trade. Trump is probably going to cede the South China Sea to China. He's probably going to lose influence over Egypt and the Suez. Influence over Panama has been waning as it is. All of this stuff WILL affect the American consumer--that is, unless this tariff nonsense (e.g., higher prices for the American consumer to push manufacturing of disposable consumer items back to domestic territory to employ people who aren't actually here to make it) works. So we shall see. I personally believe his economic and strategic plans are foolish and bad for America. MAGA has the floor, however, and time will tell.

I can see we’re already back to the MAGA nonsense and Trump hasn’t even been inaugurated. I highly doubt that the grain farmers in Ukraine who seek self-determination and the freedom not to be overrun by another country are actually complicit in a national money laundering scheme. And, in any event, assuming Trump shares your view, that is precisely why Putin his happy with Trump’s win. Now he’s likely to have latitude to take care of that “money laundering” problem once and for all. Vance did say, on Trump’s behalf, that Trump plans to stay in NATO. But Trump says a lot of stuff that’s BS. (e.g., repeal and replace, Mexico will pay for the wall, father of IVF, etc.). Do you believe somebody with that distant of a relationship with the truth gets the benefit of the doubt? I don’t, especially given his attitude toward NATO during his first term.

Uhhh … unless I missed something MAGA doesn’t want to supply Ukraine with military aid that Ukraine uses to fight a war of survival against the invading Russians. So, yeah, Putin is happy with you. Oh, and don’t forget NATO. Putin doesn’t like NATO because it’s a check on his expansion into Eastern Europe. Trump doesn’t like NATO. So, again, Putin is happy.

From Russia? Really? Putin is thrilled with this.

Yeah he knocked it out of the park with health care reform the border wall and the handling of the pandemic. My beefs with him aren’t necessarily policy related. I don’t share his policies, but that’s not a problem. My issues are grounded in morals and integrity (he has none). And the dirty little secret is that he’s frankly not effective at governing. He just doesn’t get stuff done. Time will tell if that changes. He’s got his shot, and it’s MAGA’s turn to try it again.

Austerity is the perfect word. People can’t say no to themselves. They blame others but don’t want to do the work to fix it. Let’s see what MAGA does about that. The floor belongs to MAGA.

Hoax. You guys try to pee on our legs and tell us it's raining. We'll see what happens with the morons in charge. The floor is yours, MAGA. Hopefully you do better this time than you did with the border wall and health care reform.

I have the same curiosity. I'm not going to argue with someone about how they feel. We have different views as to what may have caused the economic frustrations of middle America. But I'm genuinely curious how the side for which it voted intends address those issues. We were making progress in that respect, so maybe it's a matter of continuing existing policy. We shall see.

Can't make rent, can't buy food (they say), but money for booze and the latest iPhone. Credit card debt is enormous in this country. People overspent. They showed no fiscal discipline. Now it's catching up with them, and they can't handle something like a flat tire, or some similar unexpected expense. How that is the fault of the government is beyond me. But they're mad, and they expressed it last night. So now we see what Trump does for them. The airing of grievances, the talk (but no action) on health care reform and immigration, and the amorphous discussion of drilling lawnmower oil isn't going to cut it anymore. It's MAGA's move and time to produce. Let's see what happens. Trump spoke to Latinos and black men, too. That's not playing the identity card. To have done so would have been to have campaigned on "I'm with her," for example. (A horrible slogan if ever there was one.)

I agree with this. Harris didn't play the identity card, but she also failed at making kitchen table connections.

I'm a capitalist. The economy is good right now. Things are, despite what the election results showed, on the right track in that respect. America voted social grievance and frustration last night. Is the frustration self-inflicted or produced by the government? America seems to think the latter, as do many here. I think it's more the former, but time will tell and we shall see. There's truth to this. She lost to a doddering carnival barker. Maybe it's her, maybe it's the electorate, or (more likely) it's a combination thereof. It is what it is.

What's he going to drill, though? Another fair question. Oil that can be used in a lawnmower, but not in a vehicle? The United States is the largest oil producer in the world, but the oil it produces isn't the most economical product to convert to fuel. So how is that drilling more of that oil is going to bring down fuel prices, and then reduce costs that I agree do contribute to price increases?

So limited government is the answer. That's fair. And you seem to believe that government regulation is what has suppressed those who have come upon hard times in suburbia and rural America. Time will tell.

My question first. What’s he going to do for them? The election’s over. He won. I’m well off, and frankly there’s a part of me that doesn’t really care. I’m concerned about this degradation of decency in our society that he reflects. I’m concerned about the chilling effect on truth and democracy. But from a personal perspective, you wanted this guy, and you got him. So the question is what specifically do you expect him to do for you?

Hoax. For the paycheck to paycheck crowd, it’s a serious question. What specifically will Trump do for you? It’s a fair question. It seems they expect someone else to solve their problems, which perhaps could be avoided through a bit of discipline.

So what specifically is trump going to do for these people? It’s a serious question. His campaign was about personal grievance, ragging on trannies, and insults. So, seriously, what’s going to change for all of the aggrieved who voted for him? It’s a fair question.

That's my attitude, too. I'll be fine because I'm disciplined. Let's see if this gets furniture in the house for the stretched out suburbanites who are angry at others for their own lack of fiscal discipline. And if the hill folk get out of the double wides. And if the young men who (perhaps rightfully) are tired of hearing about the "patriarchy" of which they are not a part see an uptick in their earnings and careers. My guess is that nothing for any of those groups changes unless they change it for themselves, which they likely won't do because the lack of discipline and work ethic is what put them where they are in the first place.

All of these things can be true. Taking the 30,000 foot view here, I tend to agree with the idea that anyone who loses to this clown is not a good candidate. But there's also the point to be made that the electorate is angry, frustrated, and a maybe a little dumb. They took that out on Democrats. Right or wrong, it's what happened. So now it's time for Republicans to put up or shut up. There's an irony in the first sentence of that post. One could apply that to immigration and health care reform. Yet here we are.

Agreed. He won. Congratulations to him. In the meantime, I'd like to know how, short of instituting communist-like price controls or maintaining the relevant policies of the current administration, he plans to reduce inflation. This is probably going to benefit my stock portfolio. But I have to say I find it amusing that a large swath of his voters focused on the perceived inflation/wage dichotomy (something not borne out by data over the past 12 months), and this morning guys like Mark Mobius are thrilled with the setup for securities. The only way everyone gets their "cake" here is through trickle down. Good luck with that.

How many of them were roster players?

Aside from the fact that he was there at 1a the night before the division championship game.