Hodad

Chilton guide! I made friends with a couple of those. Eh, information asymmetry is a real problem. It's easy to SAY that everybody is responsible for their own decisions, and at some level that's true, but there's a long, long history in western civilization of assigning proportional blame/responsibility based on knowledge and agency and regulating to level the playing field.

I can't speak for Zeitgeist, but I think if you strip all of that stuff away, he'd be waaaay less popular. If you just put together a blinded list (no name) of the things that Trump has done--the policy, the lies, the corruption--nobody would say "Yeah that's all fine." Nobody on either side of the aisle would choose that resume. He's beloved by the MAGA base specifically because he causes chaos and outrage. Because he provokes, through boorish behavior, both establishment conservatives and liberals. They love him like they love a professional wrestling heel (also on Trump's resume). They revel in spite and chaos. If they can't have it their way (and their way isn't very popular) they'd rather burn it all down.

Yep, that's the in-house financing business model, which is almost always predatory. Sell a fully-depreciated asset in whatever stage of near-failure they can achieve, collect as much down payment and as many high-interest payments as possible, and then either the loan is completed or they repo the junker, restore it to minimal running condition and sell it again for the same price. Not to say that they're sabotaging the car. Just that they are indifferent to how well or long it functions. And it's almost always the case that the buyer needs the car to keep the job to make the money to make the payments, but the house doesn't care because they'll win either way. And they very often don't report to the credit agencies anyway, so buyers who survive the experience financially often don't even get credit for repaying the loan. That whole seedy sub-industry is problematic.

I love everything about this. Trump is a bully, used to using the courts to pick on poor contractors and vendors. Now he's playing on a more even field against legal adversaries who have the means and knowledge to properly defend themselves--and he's getting burned over and over again. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. The GOP legislators have been thoroughly cowed, but the people in the justice system still take their work seriously.

You know, that's not such a far-fetched example. W's administration followed Clinton's direction and continued to aggressively scale back regulations on mortgage lending, leading to NINJA loans, lots of personal financial disaster for the unprepared and eventually an economic collapse. I really don't know if any of that trickled down to auto loans, but that's somewhat beside the point. The point being that predatory lending is real and absent regulatory guardrails even otherwise rational lenders end up chasing those marginal deals even unto their own downfall. There's such a vast information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers--particularly lower-income, lower-education borrowers that at some point the institutions--banks and a de-regulating government--are significantly responsible for poor borrowing decisions. If your clunker had been a money-pit house, you could reasonably assign some blame to Dubya.

Exactly. A truck driver from Manitoba (or whatever) feels perfectly qualified and comfortable holding forth on US political and social issues, but will turn around in the next breath and say that a star athlete should "shut up and dribble."

Change one's mind is hard. Admitting it is sometimes harder. Good for you on both counts. And you're right. He's definitely not a good person.

No one anywhere "gets a pass." But the silly--and common--refrains like "shut up and dribble" or "shut up and sing" that are often leveled at celebrities are just saturated with irony.

What is Trump if not a lightweight celebrity? He's not a thinker or a politician. Just a guy with an insatiable ego who was looking for the next fix after hosting a reality TV show. Maybe he should shut up and pretend to be a successful businessman on TV?

And the ROI of that 25 seconds is enormous.

The estimated value of Taylor Swift's involvement in the NFL is already over $300 million. The NFL would trade the knuckle draggers for a diversified audience any day. The long term value is off the charts.

For sure. Anyone who teaches girls strength, independence and freedom will be a MAGA target.

Nope. Again, I know you're allergic to facts, but check the tale of the tape and you'll see that Trump's outcomes are very, very rarely better. You need to have a VERY vivid imagination ( and a willing suspension of disbelief) to think that Trump policies made the country better off even before the pandemic, and after 4 years he left nearly everything far worse than when he started. The one thing he did give you is a conservative activist SCOTUS that veers into nutball territory. That's your win.

No, I rather think you're the feckless character in this story. Because if/when Biden escalates this conflict and soldiers inevitably die you'll blame him for those deaths as well. Don't deny it. If Biden had signed off on one of the counterstrike missions that are surely on his table and it went "Blackhawk Down" you'd be the first to blame Biden for that. Because blaming Biden is what you actually care about. You don't care a whit about dead American soldiers or their cynical use as political props. You have regularly parroted Trump's lie about no soldiers being killed during the last 18-ish months of his administration. You're totally cool with covering up those bodies with lies and using those soldiers as political props.

Let's get real, there's not really a "point" other than "anything Biden does (or doesn't do) is wrong). The MAGA contingent will, in one post flame blame Biden for starting "wars" that we're not even engaged in, in another post call him a "warmonger" and in yet another post complain that Biden isn't prosecuting a new, expanded war in the ME. There's not really any logic to it nor a desired policy outcome. And their best theory of geopolitics is that Trump is better because he's so erratic and unpredictable that no one knows what he will do.🙄

Oh, for sure. Whenever these stories come out I wonder if one of the ranting conspiracy kooks on this board will suddenly stop posting.

A limp noodle? Is that meant as a contrast to your Trump priapism? What are you even talking about?

Uses dead soldiers as a political talking point. Pretends to be super disgusted when a reply refers to dead soldiers in a way that debunks the talking point. Cynical and disgusting. Typical and expected.

The more I hear about this face-punching roadside shootout enthusiast, the more I'm convinced that he just shouldn't reproduce. You know, just in case...

Yes, clearly he was wrong. That much is obvious. Flirting and flattery and titillation are all wrapped up in encounters like that. It may very well be that Carroll could have been attracted to Trump or interested in seeing where that might lead. They were, after all, in their fifties at that point. Any attraction and curiosity probably evaporated pretty quickly when it turned out he was a farking rapist.

The people spreading this nonsense are, perhaps, cynical opportunists, but the people believing it are just abysmally, irredeemably stupid. Not much more to say

Actually, Biden was perfectly accurate in relating the factual economic data regarding inflation. Your inability to understand it is on you. The second point is a matter of opinion rather than fact, but I'm not aware of anyone saying that. You're not very good at arguing facts, so you tend to make up straw men.

Ignorance is bliss.

Promiscuous! High heels! She was practically begging to be raped! Are you playing misogyny bingo or something?

Wow, that is really an epic deflection. I always hold out hope that one of you guys will man up and admit what you did when you get caught in a blatant lie. But nope. It's duck, dodge, deflect agree deny forever. No character.