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conix, You should know better, see - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175224045
Shucks didn't know. Your sighting would have been fun
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-03/astrophotographers-capture-comet-australian-skies/104418652
Better your branch there than it down from a hurricane.
In Beirut, life goes on to the soundtrack of drones and air strikes
"The more the fighting spreads in the Middle East, the fewer the thoughts of peace
"Thousands join pro-Palestinian rallies around the globe as Oct. 7 anniversary nears""
Beirut today is a tale of two cities – the areas being bombed
by Israel and those where life carries on nearly like normal.
By John Lyons in Beirut for ABC’s Long Read
Sunday 13 October
It’s a Saturday night in Beirut in early October, and at the outdoor bar of the Movenpick Hotel, on the city’s waterfront, people gather for drinks and al-fresco dinner. The Mediterranean Sea glistens in the reflection of the moon, as cocktails, steaks and fresh seafood are served to the clientele, mainly foreigners or well-heeled Lebanese.
Across town, a 20-minute drive from this world of gins and tonic, a fierce war is raging. A few hours later, in the southern area of Dahiyeh, a night from hell begins.
Israeli jets and drones made about 30 strikes on Dahiyeh and surrounding areas, demolishing many buildings, creating fires that burned through the night and sending fear and chaos through the city.
Beirut today is a tale of two cities – the areas being bombed and those not being hit.
Rubble like Gaza
The areas being bombed are traumatised. Much of Dahiyeh has been reduced to rubble, beginning to look like Gaza.
After a year of Israeli attacks, Gaza is now effectively unliveable for the 2.3 million people trapped in the enclave. Many here in Lebanon fear that Beirut is about to begin the same process — a relentless bombing that will damage the city’s infrastructure to the point that it is no longer habitable.
A civil defence worker on the site of a strike in Ras al Naba'a. ABC News: Eric Tlozek
Medics who have been trying to rescue people since this war between Israel and Hezbollah escalated four weeks ago say that when they’re searching for survivors of an air strike, they’re coming across a large number of dead people.
“We look for people alive but mostly we find dead people,” one paramedic told me this week. “Dead, dead, dead,” he says, looking fatigued after a month of intensive bombing of Beirut.
The areas being targeted are usually Shia Muslim areas where many of the leaders of Hezbollah and its supporters live. Israeli air strikes have killed an estimated 25 of the militant group’s key leaders.
These include Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader who towered over Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine, long seen as a possible successor to Nasrallah, and Suhail Hussein Husseini, who had been in charge of weapons transfers from Hezbollah’s patron and weapons supplier, Iran, to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Drying laundry and sheltering families have taken over schools across Beirut.
Across town
The devastation of Dahiyeh is plain for all to see. Frequently in the evenings the sounds of explosions in the area – following by the flashes and fires caused by bombing – can be heard and seen from the heavily-populated mountains overlooking the city.
Schools have been closed so they can be used for some of the estimated 1.2 million people who have been displaced by the war, and universities will begin online teaching shortly so that they too can be used as shelter for people seeking safety or whose homes have been destroyed.
Yet across town, it’s a very different story. In a neighbourhood such as Achrafieh – a Christian area close to the city centre – life has been continuing as normally as possible. People walk their dogs in the evening, check out tomatoes in boxes outside corner stores and sit on footpaths having coffee.
One group of men sit together on park benches, fixated on a game of backgammon being played by two of them.
Backgammon games are still fought on the streets of Achrafieh, one of Beirut's Christian neighbourhoods. ABC News: John Lyons
But the dichotomy in this city was seriously blurred this week when Israel hit two residential buildings in the heart of Beirut .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-11/idf-tank-hits-observation-tower-unifil-naqoura-headquarters/104458590 – in the neighbourhoods of Nweiri and Basta. Israeli media claimed the target was Hezbollah commander Wafiq Safa, who appeared to have not been killed. Instead, Israel killed at least 22 civilians and injured 117 others, leaving much of the area in rubble.
Our ABC team was having dinner at a pizza restaurant about a kilometre from the strikes. We could immediately see the change in demeanour of people in the area, suddenly trying to source videos of the strike. One young man was clearly panicked, trying to call members of his family: “That’s just near my home,” he said.
These latest strikes brought the war to the heart of Beirut and to Christian and Sunni neighbourhoods, until now largely spared.
In Beirut and many villages around the country, religious identities and political leanings can vary – literally – from one street to another. Often the allegiance of a neighbourhood can be gauged from the posters in the streets.
One street, for example, may have several posters of Hassan Nasrallah – and it’s clearly a Shia street. And not all Shia Lebanese are Hezbollah supporters. A different street with Shia residents near a Hezbollah street may have posters of Musa Sadr – the legendary founder of Amal, which has had decades of rivalry with fellow-Shia group Hezbollah. (Sadr is known as “the vanished iman” – he has not been seen since he travelled to Libya in 1978.) And yet another street in the area may have posters of Sunni identity Saad Hariri – a one-time prime minister and the son of Rafic Hariri, also a former prime minister. Many Sunni Lebanese still admire Saad Hariri and fly posters of him in their streets.
In one of Beirut’s Christian suburbs, Achfrafieh, Marwan Omeirat works in the upmarket supermarket Spinneys, enthusiastically offering customers samples of his international cheese selection.
Marwan Omeirat at Spinneys supermarket. Business is up over the past four weeks as people come to shop in a safer part of the city. ABC News: John Lyons
No-one in this city is able to escape the war entirely, but Marwan says that he’s trying to focus on coming to work each day and just doing his job.
Rather than people keeping away from shops, one of Spinneys’ managers says that the number of customers has increased in recent weeks – he says people who have fled from areas being bombed want to come to a relatively safe area such as Achrafieh to do their shopping.
In another suburb, Clemenceau, parents and children sit in Lakkis Farm restaurant eating the produce grown by this up-market delicatessen. One large area is put aside for people who want to smoke shishas – and it was packed this week.
A constant hum on the streets
Beirut’s two worlds was obvious upon leaving the restaurant – while inside are the sounds of children and families eating and drinking, the moment you walk out you hear the sound of Israeli drones overhead, the constant companion in Beirut these days. The cameras in these drones are using facial recognition and AI to try to spot Hezbollah commanders or fighters who can then be “eliminated.”
All of this, of course, is not to say that these people appearing to be going about their lives as normal are not feeling the war. “The war is affecting everyone,” says one professional Beirut woman. “But we are also trying to get on with our daily lives.”
Almost as a point of determination, many restaurants and bars in normally thriving areas such as Gemayze are remaining open, but some nights there may be no-one or only one or two tables in them. Frequently, there are more staff than customers, but some Lebanese say they are determined that their country will not be shut down.
“People are going to work during the day but not going out much at night,” says the woman. “There’s a sense that you are safer not being out at night, so rather than go out to dinner people are going to the places of friends or relatives and being with them.
“Everyone – absolutely everyone – is watching the news on TV all the time, so people may go to someone else’s place, watch the news and then maybe even stay there. People don’t want to be out driving late at night.”
And while there are some areas such as Dahiyeh which are devastated, and some such as Gemayze that appear normal, there are other parts of the city which show both the traumatised and the relatively normal.
Home away from bombing
One such place is the city’s famous waterfront, the Corniche – one of Beirut’s most famous landmarks that most tourists try to visit at least once.
Today, there are families eating ice-creams, children playing soccer and vendors selling balloons.
But as we walk along the promenade we come across tents with mattresses and blankets – many have made this their new home away from the bombing.
Likewise, as you drive around the city you see hundreds of people making doorways and footpaths their new homes .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-09/lebanese-people-in-beirut-displaced-by-israeli-air-strikes/104442660 . Martyrs’ Square, next to the city’s landmark Sunni Mohammad al Amin Mosque – or Blue Mosque — has become a pop-up refugee camp.
Tents have popped up near Martyrs Square mosque. ABC News: Eric Tlozek
This week, parents were trying to set up sheets to provide some shade for their children from the punishing sun. These are clearly people in trouble – despite several visits to the square this week I never saw any of the children eating or drinking.
Even before this war started, Beirut was doing it tough. When I first came to Beirut some 15 years ago, it was a thriving, vibrant city – full of energy, cafes, restaurants, nightclubs and tourists. The fusion of Phoenician, French and Arab history, language and culture gives it a charm that makes it an enchanting Arab capital.
Today, it’s feeling the stress of several crises – the Syrian war and the huge number of refugees who arrived; COVID, which devastated the economy; the port explosion, which caused massive physical and psychological damage.
And now it’s being bombed by the most powerful military in the Middle East, Israel.
A family sits on Beirut's corniche after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes. AP: Bilal Hussein
Long shadow of war
These are early days in this war between Israel and Hezbollah. Many Lebanese I’ve spoken to say they expect it could be long – perhaps a year, perhaps longer.
And despite the many parts of the country trying to carry on with as much normalcy as possible, all Lebanese will feel consequences either now or in future.
For example, this week Israel bombed the main water distribution channel from the Litani River to the Qasmieh irrigation project in southern Lebanon. This will have serious consequences for Lebanese people for a considerable time – southern Lebanon, along with the Bekaa Valley, is one of the country’s food bowls, and this will damage a significant supply of food.
The channel that was bombed irrigates swathes of agricultural land in southern Lebanon, particularly tomatoes, cabbage, cucumber, lettuce, eggplant, bananas, citrus fruit and bananas. Israel and Lebanon have long fought over access to water.
The president of the Litani River Authority, Sami Alawiyeh, says this attack is a violation of international humanitarian law because water from the Litani River can no longer be drawn in southern Lebanon, which “reignites suspicions about the enemy’s intentions regarding Lebanon’s water resources.”
He says the authority has taken temporary measures to divert the water to prevent flooding of agricultural land and roads and will take the necessary steps to restart the irrigation project as soon as possible.
The damage to infrastructure will affect all Lebanese, even those who are not feeling the day to day trauma of bombing.
Smoke hangs over the Dahiyeh area in Beirut's south after Israeli air strikes. Reuters: Amr Abdallah Dalsh
‘We have two enemies’
At the heart of this conflict in Lebanon is Hezbollah – and just as this city is divided into areas being bombed and those not being bombed, so is it divided between people who support Hezbollah and those who do not.
This week, I went into a supermarket in a Christian part of Beirut. Behind the counter were two Lebanese university students in their early 20s, earning money to support their studies.
The woman was contemptuous of Hezbollah. “We don’t want them here,” she said.
Before this latest war broke out, Hezbollah supporters – or identifiably Shia people dressed in accordance with Sharia – may have entered an area or shop like this one with little acknowledgement.
Normal life goes on among signs of war. ABC News: John Lyons
But the ever-present Israeli drones are searching for Hezbollah leaders and fighters, so at the moment in Beirut, people in non-Hezbollah areas do not want someone from the group near them in case it makes them a target for a strike.
I ask the two university students what would happen if people from Hezbollah came into this area. “They would not come here,” the woman says. “They know we don’t want them, particularly at the moment. We would make them leave.”
The young man says he hopes the Israeli army will be able to destroy Hezbollah’s weapons. “They have too many guns,” he says. “If they have fewer guns they will have less power.”
So, is he supporting Israel’s military operation? “No, we don’t support Israel, we don’t trust Israel, and we don’t like to see the number of civilians that Israel is killing but those of us who do not support Hezbollah are pleased to see them losing some military power.”
Speaking to people around Beirut you quickly realise that given the complexities of Lebanese politics the views that people have of the current war are not straightforward.
At a small vegetable shop, the owner tells me that Hezbollah has “about 50 per cent” support among Lebanese.
Another man – a manager of a department store – tells me that he, too, believes Hezbollah is a malign element in Lebanese politics.
“We have two enemies,” he says. “One is Hezbollah and one is Israel. After the long history between Israel and Lebanon, we do not trust Israel.
But Hezbollah is also not good for this country.”
Posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the assassinated chief of Hezbollah, can still be seen in Beirut. Reuters: Amr Abdallah Dalsh[/img]
An Australian living in Beirut told me that among the security staff working at the front gate of his apartment complex, there are people from both the Shia and Sunni traditions of Islam.
The Shia staff, he said, were devastated at the recent killing by Israel of Hassan Nasrallah. One of the Sunni guards, in contrast, quietly told the Australian that he was pleased that Nasrallah had been killed — but that he needed to pretend in front of the Shia staff that he was upset.
The Sunni guard observed that Hezbollah was believed to be behind the 2005 killing of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, so on this occasion he had little mercy that a Hezbollah chief had been killed.
Smoke rises over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli air strikes on Saturday. Reuters: Louisa Gouliamaki
The harsh reality
It is these layers upon layers that make this place a matrix of political, religious and historical complications. Hatreds and feuds build up over decades, often repressed for the sake of daily functioning, but are never too far from the surface.
A time like now – when the country is under attack – can give expression to many of these animosities and divisions.
Lebanese politics are hugely complicated. Alliances can be made and abandoned quickly. On top of this, global conflicts have often been played out here through proxies. Hezbollah, for example, is funded and armed by Iran. Israel has also had its alliances inside Lebanon. In 1982, Israel’s proxy the Phalangists, a Lebanese Christian militia, entered two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut – Sabra and Shatila – and over a period of 43 hours massacred as many as 3,500 people.
When it comes to the reality today, the highly quality of the intelligence that Israel has had in recent weeks leading to the location and assassination of Hezbollah leaders suggests that Israel has some strategically-placed informants inside or close to Hezbollah.
While much of Israel’s assassination campaign has clearly relied on technology – location through phones, facial recognition by drones and so on – it’s difficult to believe that there is not a significant degree of human intelligence also involved.
Since the exploding walkie-talkies and pagers, senior Hezbollah figures are believed to have been reluctant to use phones. Yet, somehow, Israel has still been able to locate and kill them.
With all these complexities in mind, the harsh reality is this: there is a war going on inside Lebanon at the moment but Lebanon, as such, is not at war.
The Israeli army has invaded, and it is only Hezbollah putting up any military resistance. Hezbollah fighters have rushed to the south of the country to fight the Israeli army, while Lebanese soldiers stand watching the traffic in the main streets of Beirut. They are not firing any shots at Israeli soldiers.
For the moment, this new war in Lebanon is confined to certain parts of the country.
But all Lebanese – whether they are still able to walk their dogs and sit on the footpath and play backgammon or whether their areas are being bombed – are hoping that this war will be over quickly.
Among all the divisions, one sentiment flows through most parts of this society: after the brutal civil war from 1975 to 1990, most Lebanese do not want to go through that horror again.
Credits
Words: John Lyons in Beirut
Visuals: John Lyons, Eric Tlozek, AP, Reuters
Editor: Leigh Tonkin and Catherine Taylor
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-13/beirut-lebanon-israel-war-airstrikes-long-read/104464954
LOL
YAY. Though will add you've lagged us on that score by 14 years.
And LOL there are likely some here who haven't yet seen Julia Gillard's excellent speech
How rape allegations have rocked Australian politics
[...]
Australia’s PM Julia Gillard Rips Misogynist a New One in Epic Speech
OMOLIVES, No. There was very little equivalence on any delinquency level.There was little equivalence in attitudes
or actions of administrations or in attitudes and actions of supporters of the two parties. Neither before nor after:
The crash landing of ‘Operation Warp Speed’
"More on Kushner's bumbling - How Kushner’s Volunteer Force Led a Fumbling Hunt for Medical Supplies
"THE INCOMPETENT PRINCELING!" "
Born as a second Manhattan Project, the Trump administration vaccine program actually
achieved most of its goals – until distribution problems marred its success.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175155445
As for the Trump's approach to it (he had relatively little to do with Warp Speed except to give the go ahead on it) casual where casual proved deadly for many of his supporters, see the states where deaths/capita were greatest:
Political party affiliation linked to excess COVID deaths
Stephanie Soucheray, MA July 25, 2023
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/political-party-affiliation-linked-excess-covid-deaths .
And what was Trump's attitude to disease prevention before the pandemic appeared:
spartex, Your recall is extra-selective. How about Trump's playing the danger down, and his disinfectant solution. How about the fact the first vaccine out was not a result of Warp Speed. And the fact Trump had very little to do with Warp Speed except giving the go-ahead.
[...]
Start drift --------------------
[Insert: Remember Trump cuts to major agencies caring for the health of American citizens. One unarguable
point arising from the information around that is that Trump has never cared for the care or welfare
of one American more than he has cared for his own political interests. See again:
Trump's cult is a death cult. At least, on the best evidence available, it is accurate, fair and just to say Trump's
cult, energized by Fox News, was a death cult. And it has cost both American families and the GOP big time.
Excerpt: The states with the highest COVID death rates in 2021:
1. Oklahoma 2. Alabama 3. W. Virginia 4. Arizona 5. Kentucky
6. Mississippi 7. Wyoming 8. Florida 9. Georgia 10. S. Carolina
Source: Johns Hopkins; U.S. Census; CDC
Trump carried 8 out of 10 of these states. None of them are blue states.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174375219
.. and ..
Inside the Fall of the CDC
Much more - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722438
And you have no valid basis for accusing zab of not caring, on any level, either.
No comparison still the hanging brought Babylon to mind .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon .. lol
LOLOL Trump virtually eliminated "unreported crime." Sounds like a claim Trump would make.
conix - Same page would be only good for America. See
B402, Bidenomics Is Still Working Very Well .. Trickle down as you know is the Republican thing, and that since Reagan's time has not served many in American nearly as well as it has served the more wealthy. Trickle down has not served much of the people world well, perhaps would be better said. Still poverty worldwide has declined. And, still, speaking of economies, as i was, as economies go it is accepted worldwide that Bidenomics has served the world well. Also, see the red below it has served American workers relatively well.
"Trickle Down economics?..... Middle and working class waiting for dem economics."
Related: Based on Incomes, Americans Are a Lot Better Off Under Biden Than Under Trump
Despite a spurt of high inflation that has dramatically receded, Joltin’ Joe’s economy
is far more robust than that of his oft-indicted predecessor.
by Robert J. Shapiro February 12, 2024
[...]
That brings us to 2023, when the official data showed that Americans’ per capita incomes, after inflation, jumped 4.2 percent. The special transfer payments continued to fall substantially below those before the pandemic, and federal unemployment payments edged to $22 billion, the lowest level since 1969, adjusted for inflation. With transfer payments and jobless benefits no longer distorting incomes, the official report accurately reflects what happened to Americans’ real disposable incomes based on the economy.
P - It’s hard to overstate the extraordinary growth of incomes during the Biden Boom of 2023. No president since Richard Nixon has presided over average annual income gains as significant as the 4.2-percent increase in 2023 under Biden.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/02/12/based-on-incomes-americans-are-a-lot-better-off-under-biden-than-they-were-with-trump/
[...]
Saying this leads, of course, to pushback from Republicans who’ve claimed ad nauseam that Biden’s “socialist” policies would be a disaster — and as I recently wrote .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/opinion/economy-putin-tucker-carlson.html , for such people believing is seeing, so they continue to insist that the economy is terrible even when by all objective measures, it’s doing pretty well. You also get some pushback from people on the left, who apparently believe that a progressive president shouldn’t be allowed to tout policy successes until he has completely eliminated poverty and insecurity — that is, never.
The fact, however, is that Biden has put in place a very ambitious agenda —
major enhancements of Obamacare ..
https://www.healthinsurance.org/obamacare/beware-obamacares-subsidy-cliff/ ,
student debt relief ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/us/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-debt.html ,
big infrastructure spending ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/business/economy/infrastructure-jobs.html ,
large-scale promotion of semiconductors ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/us/politics/chips-act-biden-commerce-department.html ..
and green energy ..
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/16/1194115237/biden-to-commemorate-1-year-since-he-signed-the-inflation-reduction-act ..
that have led to a surge in manufacturing investment ..
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLMFGCONS .
Many voices warned that he was overreaching, that the economy would pay a big price.
But it hasn’t. It turns out that we can, in fact, afford to do a lot to improve Americans’ lives and invest in the future.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175221066
conix, You are not behaving anything like a friend of America would behave.
LOL - J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist and best-selling author who last week entered the Republican primary for Ohio’s open Senate seat in 2022, apologized for criticizing former President Donald Trump in now-deleted tweets.
In deleted tweets first discovered by CNN’s KFile, Vance wrote in 2016 that he would not vote for Trump in the presidential election and instead] support Evan McMullin, a former CIA operations officer who ran as an independent. Vance also called Trump “reprehensible.”
“Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us,” he wrote in October 2016.
In another deleted tweet – this one sent following the fallout of the infamous Access Hollywood tape – Vance wrote, “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/06/politics/jd-vance-tweets-trump-apology/index.html
That 2nd at 4:36 of yours into the present would be, “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for me. Lord help us.”
Att: dbergh. Zorax, You are right in that deliberate disinformation over
time does inevitably become an intolerable nuisance to the board.
dbergh, Am sick of your "Harris The Border Zar" lie even though it has repeatedly been debunked for you ..
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=175219152 .
The deliberate disinformation agenda of yours is dishonest. Problem is you as a Trump supporter don't care.
Seems B402 has been on his both sides are terrible for at least 12 years ..
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76512356 , 2012.
An Obama search of his posts from 2008-2011 came up empty.
Guessing he didn't want to expose himself as pro-conservative.
Ah, ok, we picked him correctly as leaning conservative, again 2012 ..
Quickly
I wanted Obama to be Bolder
But...I do understand the State of affairs he was handed
If Romney gets in
He will finsh the destruction Bush accomplished...
I lean conservative
But
Greed...............
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76555843
And we have picked him for believing some of what we believe, such as the problems created by the gross division of wealth, just one basic difference seems to be he just complains, and doesn't post much if any opinions suggesting remedies.
And because he leans conservative and doesn't believe in socialism it appears he must be in a real psychological pickle in that he would feel naturally opposed to a more progressive income tax system, and more help for the needy, yet is somewhat disturbed by the lack of justness which exists.
Looks like his mind could be a real jumble of cognitive dissonance.
I wonder if any Trump supporters would be wacky enough to think along the lines of: if i am picked up near a Trump rally with a gun that could start chat and headlines suggesting another assassination attempt, and that would probably gain more sympathy for my man Trump.
That's the thought i first had on hearing another guy has been picked up with illegal guns, by a Trump rally.
Now on tv i'm hearing the guy had multiple passports and an unregistered car with false license plates, suggesting he might be a sovereign citizen. And now a police officer on tv has used the phrase "assassination attempt." Sovereign citizens we know are far-right and would be more likely Trump supporters than not.
Just saying it could be a false flag designed to help Trump. Could be.
It certainly would not be beyond Trump and his closest advisers to contemplate such schemes.
Black is warm, white promotes cold. In this presidential race particularly the physics fits.
Kids generally enjoy scrambles, all kinds of kids.
As they grow i tie them to a webbing on the fence, and lol because, as you say, they grew such long stems there is now stringing over the garden from the fence to the inside edge of a tool shed which sits at one end of the garden. It becomes a hodgepodge of long stemmed tomato plants tied up to those top horizontal strings.
B402, Don't recall your comments on the favorable media treatment Trump has long gained from CBS.
I don't understand why the media is giving Trump such a free ride. I understand Moonves's ..
[...]“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. The money’s rolling in and this is fun … this [is] going
to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174356054 ..
back then but don't see how that could apply to the favoring of Trump today.
Guess it could only be for the same reason.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722476
As for your bitch-face today my reaction was as others, what's the big deal they always edit:
For CBS News, it was considered part of the typical editing and cross-promotion process that takes place for
a big interview. Yet to those unfamiliar with journalism and television production, the effect can be jarring.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trumps-complaints-60-minutes-put-spotlight-editing-nations-114702252
Trump didn't complain to Moonves over his favorable treatment as you didn't. Hypocrisy? You swim in it.
conix, You remain more involved with conservative talking points than substantive objective material. As
for Harris policy there is obviously a place for those interested to go .. https://kamalaharris.com/issues/ .
Looks like the tomatoes put into the soil or naturally dropped, from the
last crop, are progressing well. Have about eight which will do this time.
It is impressive, give you that. Is a good thought.
B402 falls silent as his baseless projection is exposed again, and his party equivalence is soundly debunked yet again.
LOL Image fits.
Had a solid 1.5h out back today, it's weird the other day 15mins was a problem. Can only figure it must be flare ups ..
Prevent and Recover from a COPD Exacerbation or Flare Up
People living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have compromised lungs. That
is why it is important to reduce your exposure to anything that can make your COPD worsen.
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/copd/living-with-copd/prevent-flare-ups
One of the pub employees is leaving for different pastures today, sooooo .. enjoy the rest of your Saturday.
I was thinking B402, has to be into short sleeves.
LOL Note how Trump is struggling to keep his head up, 'wtf, have i done to deserve this.'
B402, Ho hum, I wonder if Jesus Christ felt as special as you appear to do.
"Reduced to fallacies ;) , ho hum.......Its a real problem with social media, left or right......"
"Left or right." These days certain drug abuse tends to unhealthy superiority complexes in many, i wonder if that's your problem.
That has always been an excellent meme, and the" more to come" says someone is nursing it to continually inform.
B402, Salivating over the thought of another civil war in which your side would be clobbered. You are one sickly deluded dude.
hap0206, No maybe. Trump economics would hurt America - How much would Trump's plans for deportations, tariffs, and the Fed damage the US economy?
[...]
Policies Analyzed
We chose to analyze three sets of possible future Trump policies because of their potentially significant US and international economic implications:
* Deporting 1.3 million or 8.3 million unauthorized immigrant workers.
* Increasing tariffs on all US imports by 10 percentage points and boosting tariffs on US imports from China by 60 percentage points, with or without other countries retaliating by imposing higher tariffs on their imports from the United States.
* Increasing the president’s influence over the Fed.
We examine each policy’s effects separately using an economic model, detailed in our paper, to generate a baseline forecast for different variables in 24 countries and regions if these Trump policies are not adopted. Then, we use the model to project the effects of the policies, measured as deviations from each baseline.
The US baseline shows that on average from 2025 to 2040 the country will see annual real GDP growth of 1.9 percent; annual employment growth (measured as hours worked) of 1.5 percent; and an annual inflation rate of 1.9 percent. The US baseline assumes that the 2017 tax cuts enacted in Trump’s first term are extended or that some equivalent Democratic tax package is enacted:...
[...]
Combined Policy Effects
We also examined two combination scenarios to show what would happen if Trump implemented some of these policies together. In the “low” combination scenario, both the 10 and 60 percentage point increases in tariffs are imposed, foreign countries do not retaliate, 1.3 million workers are deported, and the Fed’s independence is eroded. In the “high” combination scenario, the same tariff increases are enacted, other countries retaliate, 8.3 million workers are deported, and the Fed’s independence is eroded.
Both of these scenarios cause a large inflationary impulse and significant declines in US employment, particularly in durable manufacturing and agriculture. They differ mainly by the magnitude of damage inflicted on households, firms, and the overall economy. Using them to create a range of outcomes if Trump’s policies are enacted, we find:
* US real GDP will be between 2.8 and 9.7 percent lower than baseline by the end of Trump’s four-year term in 2028. GDP recovers a bit thereafter but remains lower through 2040 (figure 1).
* Employment, measured as hours worked, increases at first but then falls and remains lower through 2040 than otherwise (figure 2). Employment rises between 1.5 and 1.8 percent above baseline in 2025, but it is between 2.7 and 9 percent below baseline by 2028. It stays between 0.4 and 3.4 percent lower by 2040.
* The US inflation rate climbs to between 4.1 and 7.4 percentage points higher than otherwise by 2026. That means, on top of baseline inflation of 1.9 percent, inflation peaks then at between 6 and 9.3 percent. By 2028, US consumer prices generally are between 20 and 28 percent higher. The inflation rate settles at 2 percentage points above baseline, or almost 4 percent, from 2034 through 2040 (figure 3).
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Hey, there are some things the most wealthy could make more out of, and
for those who do little but complain ad nauseam a veritable feast. Well said.
B402, Bidenomics Is Still Working Very Well .. Trickle down as you know is the Republican thing, and that since Reagan's time has not served many in American nearly as well as it has served the more wealthy. Trickle down has not served much of the people world well, perhaps would be better said. Still poverty worldwide has declined. And, still, speaking of economies, as i was, as economies go it is accepted worldwide that Bidenomics has served the world well. Also, see the red below it has served American workers relatively well.
"Trickle Down economics?..... Middle and working class waiting for dem economics."
Related: Based on Incomes, Americans Are a Lot Better Off Under Biden Than Under Trump
Despite a spurt of high inflation that has dramatically receded, Joltin’ Joe’s economy
is far more robust than that of his oft-indicted predecessor.
by Robert J. Shapiro February 12, 2024
[...]
That brings us to 2023, when the official data showed that Americans’ per capita incomes, after inflation, jumped 4.2 percent. The special transfer payments continued to fall substantially below those before the pandemic, and federal unemployment payments edged to $22 billion, the lowest level since 1969, adjusted for inflation. With transfer payments and jobless benefits no longer distorting incomes, the official report accurately reflects what happened to Americans’ real disposable incomes based on the economy.
P - It’s hard to overstate the extraordinary growth of incomes during the Biden Boom of 2023. No president since Richard Nixon has presided over average annual income gains as significant as the 4.2-percent increase in 2023 under Biden.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/02/12/based-on-incomes-americans-are-a-lot-better-off-under-biden-than-they-were-with-trump/
Bidenomics Is Still Working Very Well
Feb. 22, 2024
Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
By Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist
The economic news in 2023 was almost miraculously good. Not only did America’s economy defy widespread predictions of recession, it also defied claims that only a significant rise in unemployment could bring inflation under control. Instead, we got a combination of strong growth .. https://www.bea.gov/news/2024/gross-domestic-product-fourth-quarter-and-year-2023-advance-estimate , unemployment near a 50-year low .. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1hdQA .. and plunging inflation .. https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/policy/mct#--:mct-inflation:trend-inflation .
But last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported .. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1hgOz .. that both the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in January, more than most analysts expected. And the usual suspects — inflation perma-bears, political enemies of the Biden administration and economists who wrongly predicted that disinflation would require mass unemployment — jumped on the data as if it were a fumbled football.
So, are the good times over?
No. Everything we know suggests that those disappointing numbers were mostly a statistical blip rather than marking a significant worsening in inflation trends.
Before I explain how such blips can happen, let me tell you what indicators I was looking at after the inflation reports.
First, I was looking at financial markets, where instruments like inflation swaps and index bonds tell you what inflation rates investors putting real money on the line expect. The pricing on these instruments is still pointing .. https://www.ice.com/iba/usd-inflation-indexes .. to low inflation, around 2 percent or a bit more.
Second, I was waiting to see what happened in the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s survey of business inflation expectations .. https://www.atlantafed.org/research/inflationproject/bie#Tab1 , which asks businesses how much they expect costs to rise over the next year. If inflation were suddenly surging, you’d expect businesses to notice. But their inflation expectations rose to 2.3 percent in February from … 2.2 percent in January.
But if nothing much has changed, where did those slightly scary B.L.S. numbers come from?
In principle, the government estimates overall consumer prices the same way the American Farm Bureau Federation .. https://www.fb.org/news-release/cost-of-thanksgiving-dinner-down-slightly-from-record-high-in-2022 .. estimates the price of a classic Thanksgiving dinner (which was, by the way, down 4.5 percent in 2023): it calculates the cost of buying a fixed basket of goods and services.
In practice, our economy is a lot more complicated than a standardized holiday dinner menu, and estimating inflation involves a lot of fancy statistical footwork. The B.L.S. is extremely competent and professional — in fact, one rarely heralded policy advantage the United States has over other countries is that we generally have better data .. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-regulator-raises-concerns-about-labour-data-quality-2023-11-14/ . But while I have nothing but praise for the bureau, its reports can still sometimes be misleading, for several reasons.
One reason is that to make sense of monthly data, you need to adjust for seasonal factors. Some of these factors are obvious: fresh vegetables .. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1he7r .. get more expensive in the winter, cheaper in the summer. Others are less obvious. Goldman Sachs, which correctly predicted a bump in official inflation, points out that there is a “January effect” .. https://www.gspublishing.com/content/research/en/reports/2024/02/19/686c5969-9c1c-47e9-86f4-9cb08a7416ce.html .. on prices, because many companies raise their prices at the beginning of the year. And Goldman argued, in advance, that the official numbers wouldn’t be sufficiently adjusted to reflect this effect, leading to a spurious bump in measured inflation — a bump that will vanish in the months ahead.
Goldman also pointed out that the single largest component in the Consumer Price Index — 27 percent .. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf#page=9 .. of the basket! — is a price nobody actually pays: owners’ equivalent rent, an estimate of what homeowners would be paying if they rented their houses. There are reasons the bureau measures housing costs this way, but there are also reasons to believe that in recent years that number has become misleading, distorting and exaggerating estimates of overall inflation. As it happens, the B.L.S. also produces an estimate .. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1hgPI .. of prices excluding owners’ equivalent rent, roughly matching the way European countries measure inflation. This “harmonized” index is up only 2.3 percent over the past year.
If you find all of this a bit mind-numbing, let me tell you a secret — so do I, even though this is supposed to be my field. But the bottom line is important: Despite some disappointing numbers last week, the basic narrative hasn’t changed. The U.S. economy continues to look like an amazing success story.
Saying this leads, of course, to pushback from Republicans who’ve claimed ad nauseam that Biden’s “socialist” policies would be a disaster — and as I recently wrote .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/opinion/economy-putin-tucker-carlson.html , for such people believing is seeing, so they continue to insist that the economy is terrible even when by all objective measures, it’s doing pretty well. You also get some pushback from people on the left, who apparently believe that a progressive president shouldn’t be allowed to tout policy successes until he has completely eliminated poverty and insecurity — that is, never.
The fact, however, is that Biden has put in place a very ambitious agenda —
major enhancements of Obamacare ..
https://www.healthinsurance.org/obamacare/beware-obamacares-subsidy-cliff/ ,
student debt relief ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/us/politics/biden-student-loan-forgiveness-debt.html ,
big infrastructure spending ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/business/economy/infrastructure-jobs.html ,
large-scale promotion of semiconductors ..
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/us/politics/chips-act-biden-commerce-department.html ..
and green energy ..
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/16/1194115237/biden-to-commemorate-1-year-since-he-signed-the-inflation-reduction-act ..
that have led to a surge in manufacturing investment ..
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLMFGCONS .
Many voices warned that he was overreaching, that the economy would pay a big price.
But it hasn’t. It turns out that we can, in fact, afford to do a lot to improve Americans’ lives and invest in the future.
More from Paul Krugman
Opinion | Paul Krugman
Bidencare Is a Really Big Deal
Jan. 25, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/opinion/trump-biden-obamacare.html
Opinion | Paul Krugman
Beware Economists Who Won’t Admit They Were Wrong
Dec. 18, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/opinion/inflation-economists.html
Paul Krugman has been an Opinion columnist since 2000 and is also a distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on international trade and economic geography. @PaulKrugman
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/opinion/biden-economy.html
dbergh, The presidential reference has changed so you get it wrong, would have been clearer.
B402, No, you parrot well, but the president is changed so you get it wrong.
if reason and justice prevail a 2nd Harris term. It's time for women to take back their bodies.
"Elections happen every four years, what's next for the Republicans."
The polls in the US presidential race are neck and neck but election
whisperer Dr Allan Lichtman says America has already decided
"It is a close election, if trump wins America will once again lose. It's
what trump wants, he destroyed America once, now he can do it again."
Related:
Allan Lichtman’s latest podcast included a significant factoid
53% of registered voters are women
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B402, Why US economy is powering ahead of Europe's
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174333343
In Trump's America a man who habitually cheats and lies is a hero. Worthy trials are kangaroo courts. Gag orders by judges attempting to uphold American law are scams. A lawbreaker, rightly charged for breaking laws, is a scapegoat. Those who believe a man who abuses women and who spits on America's rule of law is suited to the presidency feel persecuted when justice is served on the man. They believe a racist who when president was talked out of attacking Iran, and who encourages racism in American voters is fit to be president. That self-claimed persecuted ex-president promises his self-claimed persecuted supporters he will ban immigration from all Muslim countries. That racist encourages and panders to Islamophobic fears in millions of Americans by promising the ban. If you believe what Trump promises consider what that means:
[...]"Att: sideeki wink ‘A lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose’: can Allan Lichtman predict the 2024 election?'
[...] And as he has often done, Trump misrepresented economic data to compare his record to Biden’s.
He baselessly asserted that “almost all” job growth was for undocumented immigrants. (It is true that job growth is higher among foreign-born workers since the pandemic because more of the native-born population is retiring.) He said a record 73 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, and the campaign provided a survey as support. But Federal Reserve data shows more than half of Americans have at least three months of savings available, the third-highest level on record, according to Matt Darling, an economic policy expert at the Niskanen Center, a Washington think tank.
P - He falsely suggested new manufacturing jobs hit zero under Biden for the first time ever. Trump bragged that the stock market hit record levels during his presidency, though the indexes rose higher since. Without evidence, he accused employment and economic figures of being “fake,” which Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, called “a reckless and irresponsible thing to say.”
P - Trump said he would refuse to spend money under Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, deliberately defying a 1974 law that requires the executive branch to follow congressional funding decisions.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174348825
This article looks more designed for Australian audiences than for audiences more familiar with the American
scene as we have here, still some of our trolls could benefit from it and we are into helping them grow too.
By Norman Hermant
Norman Hermant is the ABC’s Moscow correspondent.
VIDEO 6m Experts predict that seven swing states will decide the US election. (Norman Hermant) 730
Thursday 10 October
Most political analysts in the US are reluctant to project a winner in this year's race for the White House. Not Professor Allan Lichtman.
Since 1984, Lichtman has been predicting presidential elections. In 10 races over four decades, he has a near-perfect record.
Nicknamed "Nostradamus", he's credited with being one of the few experts to project a Donald Trump victory in 2016, although critics say he predicted Trump would win the popular vote, which he lost.
US President-elect Donald Trump speaks at his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, US, November 9, 2016.
Professor Allan Lichtman correctly predicted a Donald Trump victory in the 2016 election. (Reuters: Carlo Allegri)
He uses a method developed with Russian scientist Vladimir Keilis-Borok, renowned for making earthquake predictions.
"We looked at every American presidential election from 1860 to 1980 using the methods of pattern recognition," Dr Lichtman told 7.30.
Based on those patterns, Dr Lichtman developed a method that uses 13 keys to project the winner. His indicators include incumbency, short and long-term economy, social unrest, and White House scandals.
Professor Allan Lichtman has been predicting US presidential elections since 1984. (AFP: Pedro Ugarte)
"They reflected the basic proposition that American presidential elections are primarily votes up or down on the strength and performance of the White House Party," he said.
"The big message is that it's governing, not campaigning, that counts."
As poll after poll finds the margins between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are razor thin, Dr Lichtman believes what happens on the campaign trail doesn't make any difference to the outcome.
This year, he says, the keys point to Ms Harris being able to unlock the White House.
"It's real simple. If five or fewer keys go against the White House Party, they're predicted winners. If six or more go against the White House Party, they're predicted losers. So, six strikes and you're out," he said.
"I deliberately made my prediction before the Harris-Trump debate … because I wanted to make my big point that the keys are pretty much set because they're based primarily on governing."
This time around, Professor Lichtman is projecting a Harris-Walz victory. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
"The keys point to America getting a path-breaking president, the first female
president, at least cracking, if not shattering the glass ceiling,
and the first president of mixed African and Asian descent."
The Electoral College system
Dr Lichtman is an outlier. Most political analysts watching the Harris and Trump campaigns battle it out believe the election is simply too close to call.
For weeks, the average of national polls in the US has shown Ms Harris with a slight edge over Trump.
But in America, national support doesn't determine who wins the White House. The Electoral College does.
Each state's Electoral College votes are determined by its population. For nearly all states, no matter the margin, if you win the state, you get all its votes.
And it takes 270 Electoral College votes to win.
Most analysts believe this year's election will come down to seven battleground states. (Reuters: Bryan Woolston)
Most experts believe this year's election will come down to seven swing states: Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.
These are the so-called battlegrounds that could vote either way. Most other states are considered to be safely in the Democrat or Republican column.
That means when it comes to the race for the White House, 43 states are essentially bystanders.
"This time you have a close national election, but so few of the states are actually competitive, so you really do see a laser focus on the handful of states that are really up for grabs," said Kyle Kondik of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Kyle Kondik says very few states are actually competitive in the national election. ( ABC News: Cameron Schwarz )
Kondik believes the "shrinking" of the presidential campaign map is a direct result of the Electoral College, which goes back to the founding of the United States.
"This is not a system that you would necessarily design from scratch
if you were starting it today. But that's the system that we have."
Australian political researcher and historian Emma Shortis lived in the US and completed her PhD there. She believes the shift away from presidential elections fought nationally in many states across America is a new phenomenon.
'Recent and real change'
Political researcher Emma Shortis has lived and studied in the US. (ABC News: Michael Nudl)
"It is a real change, and a relatively recent one where so few states are up for grabs," Dr Shortis told 7.30.
"It's worth remembering that a lot of it is also down to a concerted and long-time effort to gerrymander states,
so to manipulate electoral systems at the state level so that they become safe.
"They become really locked up by one party or the other."
And no matter who wins the election, Dr Shortis believes America's great political divide isn't going away.
No matter who wins, the political divide in the US is likely to continue after the November election.
"We won't have the answer to the question of American politics kind of wrapped up in a nice little present for us," she said.
"The divisions and the volatility, the dangerous state that American politics finds itself in is likely to continue long after the fifth of November."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-10/allan-lichtman-us-election-prediction-keys-kamala-harris/104455998
dbergh, Only a moron would want Trump in again to abuse presidential power.
We are all lucky there are more sensible people in America than morons like...
conix, If there ever were vessels devoid of appreciated American values in American politics your GOP is overburdened with them now, yet you repeat their talking points as though you weren't a relatively empty vessel yourself. Your pretense in playing at political expertise is impressive though you get one thing only right. Kamala will most likely win.
LOL I suspect it's the seeds themselves. Moistened cotton balls or toilet paper in the bottom of a takeaway plastic food carton has proved successful for germination before. For many different sorts of seeds. I'm not into gardening much more than cooking. Basic boy. That does look like a super, ritzy seed growth hotel though.
Agree, why not. The important thing being the hallucinations, if you have them, would come from your own brain.
LOL one last flash, so to speak. Maybe even the brain itself thinks, "ok i'm gone so let's get on with my last show.
Here you go! One last dying display."