bearrock

Well, under this scenario, the will of the people of that state is to award the state's electors to the winner of the national popular vote.

It's an interesting discussion, but I think the personal finance discussion is starting to veer from the thread topic at this point

I think we're mostly on the same page. I just think the average voter is an idiot, that many Americans lack basic understanding of economics, and that Biden campaign really has no solution for stupidity. All of that leaves me somewhat fatalistic about the election, but I have no particular solution for any of it (other than suggest people pick up a newspaper every once in a while)

Yeah, like the 24 billion Child Care Stabilization funding that got passed in ARP in 2021 but expired in 2023. That money went to subsidize child care providers. I'm gonna guess it wasn't Biden who pounded the table to let that program sunset. You only need to look at rest of the world to see how badly post pandemic inflation can be fubar'd. I'm not grading any president out of the context under which they served. No president was going to escape inflation after the massive QE and flooding of money supply that occurred during covid. Inflation was a given, the question is how did the administration respond (and I can't come up with a developed country that had a better post pandemic recovery). Does that mean things are great? No. But it's the same BS hand wringing that happened after the financial crisis. The country just went through a massive catastrophe. What did everyone think was going to happen? The question is not whether everything is going great (that was never in the cards), but whether he has done a better job than the alternatives and the global competition.

Well, I'm gonna step back say that I understand and you're right, when things are on a downturn personally, pointing out how that's just the way things are or how others have it worse don't help. I hope things are looking up and your family is all doing well.

Bruh, he signed an executive order last year on affordable child care for low income families (I think the rules got finalized recently) and talked about expanded child tax credit and the need for more affordable child care in the most recent state of the union. What more do you want him to do without the help of Congress? I know child care cost are insane and bites hard, especially in Nova. Believe me most of us who've raised kids in the area know first hand. But if you are somehow faulting Biden for not fixing the problem or not highlighting the problem enough, you're not gonna be happy with any US president for a very long time.

And the other end of the spectrum are the fans who keeps evaluating players on the feels and become hives because a team keeps winning with a certain player on the field. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Lot of people can end up personally being squeezed despite a broader economy that is growing. But some of those squeeze are caused by issues that have been around forever (i.e. - when was the last time daycare wasn't mind numbingly expensive?) Because the Dems pontificating about how well the economy is doing is probably not going to be terribly productive given many voters blame the administration based on the feels.

What on earth is that ship doing? I mean how do you just ram into a bridge?

One man was the vice president for and a dear friend of the first black President of the United States and the other peddled conspiracy theory about that same President not being a natural born US citizen. It's just so hard to tell who's the racist sometimes....

People really don't give Biden (and Obama too quite frankly) enough credit on the economy. Coming out of the financial crisis and covid, Obama and Biden administrations has done a stellar job in navigating the aftermath. Obama administration oversaw nearly a decade long positive market out of the crisis and Biden administration oversaw a post covid recovery that went from prognostications of somewhere between a crash and a hard landing to people optimistic about soft landing to even no landing (I still think a temporary correction is likely this year, but overall, we should be in good shape at the end of year). And this was in major part to letting competent experts do their job. If Yellen and Powell can pull off a soft landing or better, it would be a true rarity (I believe it's something like 1 in 10 major surge in inflation that doesn't result in a hard landing recession). And Trump is biting at the bits to replace the Feds because he wants those rates lowered way faster (I suspect for personal reasons). Sometimes (many times?), the best thing a president can do is put competent people in charge and get out of the way.

Yeah, it's hard to plan too far ahead in terms of retirement tax planning considering that laws may change. It's probably a good idea and enough for now to keep an eye on the common strategies and take a one time meeting with a financial or tax advisor in your 50's and another closer to the time if and when you decide to execute any strategy. As it stands now, RMD regulations on non-Roth accounts will typically make conversion in between retirement and social security a serious consideration for many people.

For the average retail investors, keep a few things in mind and you'll tend to do well over the long run - Time in market beats timing the market - It's not a real gain until it's been realized - Very few fund managers beat index funds on a consistent basis (top fund managers beat the market by about 3% in a given year, but there is constant churn among the top). So unless you are lucky enough to have Buffet, Lynch, or Druckenmiller managing your money, you're probably better off with boring index funds with age/risk tolerance appropriate ratio of equity and bond

A truly sham insurrection finding would be subject to multiple appeals to overturn, including SCOTUS. We have bad and incompetent judges make bad factual findings and misapplication of the law all the time. They get overturned on appeal all the time. Even a jury finding is subject to overturn on appeal if the situation warrants it. For a sham insurrection charge to stand, it would have to survive multiple appeals all the way to SCOTUS. If affirmed at every level, that's quite the sham.

This is a bad argument for two reasons. First, what should save Democratic candidates from sham insurrection disqualification is by not committing insurrection. The line only works if Trump is being disqualified under a sham insurrection charge. No. Joe Biden doesn't have to worry about whacko red state disqualification because he has done nothing to be disqualified. Second, if a red state was going to cook up a sham insurrection charge, that state is too far gone to be in play anyway. Is Biden winning any state that he has a potential of being disqualified in? People who raise this line ranges from insinuate to outright claim that Trump did not engage in insurrection. Bull****. The very fact that not one court at any level of this litigation seriously questioned the lower court finding of insurrection (after a 5 day trial) should disqualify him in the mind of any voter who gives any value and credence to the principles of democracy. You can think Joe Biden is the devil incarnate. Then find someone else to head the party ticket. Trump is a charlatan, a huckster, and a traitor to this country. But we always knew that. Any voter sailing him in as the GOP nominee or voting for him in the general is complicit in Trump's insurrection. And spare me the feigned shock in the future when election denial and challenging election results by any means necessary becomes the norm.

I think the good professor is giving the average voter way too much credit.

And nasdaq gained 41% in the last year. Tech stocks outperform sp500 in the last year (has been true going on near 3 decades now), shocker.

Definitely don't want to lump all car dealers into the same group, but in my car buying experience when I was younger, many dealers just waste so much time trying to squeeze every last dime from me as the buyer with some tactics bordering on insulting to my intelligence, that I would've preferred if the person just said hey can you do me a favor and help me pad my margin on this sale and save my time in the process. Things may have changed now, but as I got older and my time is more valuable, I have very little interest in sitting in a dealership going through one shenanigan after another. Like come on, I understand basic math, stop thinking I can't put 2 and 2 together and figure out what this change means to the overall cost.

She's married. That's not enough to stop the conversation? You asked her out and she said no. Seems pretty case closed to me.

Damn, that's pretty brilliant. Definitely gonna try that next time.

Agree. I think hardcore gamers would likely buy regardless of supply shortage. Older, casual gamers like me probably would buy at launch if not too much of a hassle to get one. Regardless of scarcity, I think casual gamers would probably buy at reasonable price, but not bother with auctions and scalpers all that much. Anecdotally, I would've been fine paying whatever MSRP was for PS5 at launch or higher, but I never wanted to bother with the hassle of getting it legitimately nor go the private sale route. By the time it became readily available, I was meh on it and moved on to gaming on PC.

On the Biden policy angle, I think student loan issue is another place where Biden and his administration shows their chops as competent people who just knows how to get things done in Washington. Early on, the narrative swirled around how is he going get massive student loan forgiveness past Congress. When the new law approach failed, they looked for other avenues to get a lot of forgiveness across the finish line. That's just good, competent governing as the Chief Executive.

I just think the vast majority of the votes, if not almost all of them, are baked in. These two are as known as known gets in terms of their candidacy. Is there really anything left to unearth that will change people's opinion of either of them? Trump's new legal outcomes may make those who despise Trump hate him even more or reaffirm their indifference or their view that Trump is the victim of a witch hunt. Or some may plan to vote for Biden as anyone but Trump vote and some may vote for Trump for their own reasons. But I don't think there's anything between now and November that will swing who they would choose as the President. It's almost entirely going to come down to turnout. I think the malleable turnout portion of Biden's supporters are more likely to go cast a vote against Trump more so than go cast a vote for Biden. Many have made credible and persuasive arguments for why Biden has done a good job as POTUS. But if those haven't convinced a voter by now, I'm not sure what will in the future. If a voter, as it stands, feels like Biden's age and Harris as VP makes that ticket a bad choice to the extent that they will vote for Trump, my guess is that they will find a reason to vote for Trump anyway. And to that extent, if Biden campaign wants to reassure voters that Biden can still do the job (not to turn back people who left for Trump, but to assuage voters who may stay home), that's probably better done closer to November. Or it may be that the campaign doesn't feel those doubts can be assuaged or anyone feeling those doubts have not been affected to the point of risk staying home. Either way, they probably plan to run a campaign against Trump moreso than a campaign for the incumbent.

Tbf, his actual quote is not that bad. I would even say it's fine and probably the norm (or should be anyway). https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39558347/anthony-rendon-baseball-never-top-priority-me I mean how many people place job above family and ,if applicable, faith? If they do, I would say that's screwed up priorities. If it is a priority like he said, just not a top one, it's fine. If his numbers haven't been so disappointing since he signed with LA, this probably doesn't make as much noise.

It's a terrible decision. Should have taken out an insurance policy. If the policy was cost prohibitive, it should've been a huge red flag and a sign that the contract may be bad idea. Having signed the contract without an insurance policy in place, you live up to the contract. Dragging a can barely lift my arm Strasburg to training camp for some kind of meaningless leverage in buyout negotiations is how you torpedo the team's reputation with the rest of the players in the league.

Is there any positive press for Bobby Johnson at all? I seriously can't seem to find anyone who seems positive on this hire.