Politics And Current Events

[AuthorTony]

Yeah, early in the pandemic I did engage because I thought it might help some people see the light, but I realized I was just talking to a wall. The wife of the guy I mentioned had to be taken to the ER via ambulance with covid, was given all of the real meds to beat it, and on oxygen for about a week after. But he still insists that covid is a sham and everyone who took the vaccine is a ticking time bomb. Sigh.

[NAN]

I think I posted in the COVID thread last year, but a friend of mine, her dad was 100% convinced COVID was a hoax. He got it, got worse, still wouldn't go to the hospital, up until the point he was on his death bed, finally went, but it was too late and he passed away. And this all the while at the urging of his family to go, etc. (They are all vaxxed and completely "normal").

So because he was stubborn, and refused to believe what was real in front of him, he left behind a wife, two daughters, and 3 grandkids. Way to put up a fight! (sarcasm)

[count2infinity]

I had a guy I knew from back home want to meet up to fight because I was correcting Ivermectin nonsense and Vax misinformation. At that point, I decided to just let them be dumb.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

wait, I can make my heart grow with ivermectin?

[Beveridge]

You think the Christmas spirit did it for the Grinch?

[NTP66]

[Kane]

How tf do you not realize it's a different car the moment you sit down in it.

[NTP66]

Tesla owners are incompetent?

[DigitalGypsy66]

I read that this morning and laughed.

@Kane that's a big question mark. It sounds like the guy was late to pick up his kids from school, but still...The other guy noticed it right away, without getting into the car.

[tifosi77]

He's also a huge advocate for Ivermectin. I really want to post that Vice article on his page, but I know it wouldn't do any good.

I have a feeling it will do a lot of good for you, at least. I say go for it, let the chips fall where they may.

[shoeshine boy]

when I heard on the news this morning that President Biden will deliver Jimmy Carter's eulogy because Biden was one of the first senators to endorse Carter for president it really hit home how old he is. JFC, can we get some new blood up in here???

[tifosi77]

I'll never understand Americans supporting Russia. It just doesn't make sense, but then again, these people are the dumbest of the dumb.

This is utterly vexing to me. There's no sound ideological reason for it, Putin has stated time and again that he feels the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the greatest thing since Betty White, and his goal is reestablishment of that Russian hegemony. It seems purely profit-driven, which is puerile and silly.

[Trip McNeely]

I'll never understand Americans supporting Russia. It just doesn't make sense, but then again, these people are the dumbest of the dumb.

This is utterly vexing to me. There's no sound ideological reason for it, Putin has stated time and again that he feels the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the greatest thing since Betty White, and his goal is reestablishment of that Russian hegemony. It seems purely profit-driven, which is puerile and silly.

It shouldnt be vexing. It’s simple. They like that Putin is “tough”, that they have a country that punishes homosexuals, but most importantly is Putin and Russians aren’t “woke”.

The people that like Putin are too dumb to understand anything beyond that.

[NTP66]

Man, I would love it if the people who use the word 'woke' in that kind of context immediately got kicked in the throat by a donkey. Every single time.

[mikey]

Is there an element of being genuinely* interested in being contrarians PLUS the thought that these people are generally anti-socialist/communist and they're generally old enough to have been upset by the USSR to this...?

[tifosi77]

Exactly. "Socialist" was literally in the name of the country, assclowns.

I wonder how many of them use "CCP" instead of 'China' in their discourse, what the level of crossover is.

[Troy Loney]

Lots of people supported the nazis in the US

People like that chauvinist/fascist stuff

[Morkle]

Lots of people STILL support the Nazis in the US, I'd wager.

[mac5155]

This just in...weird, terrible, sick people exist!

[MR25]

Also can't fully rule out certain supporters being propped up by Russian money.

[faftorial]

Here are the American Nazi's at Madison Square Garden:

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Wasn't a main issue that they bought treasuries with a huge long term too? Foolish to have everything tied up for that long.

Short terms government bonds yielded 0.25 percent in 2022. What's not foolish about investing money in something with a yield that pathetic

You're right, but that would be true if SVB was buying the 10 yr notes in 2015. The $130 billion was after the pandemic hit and the world started to "heal." I think everybody knew some level of inflation was coming, and there wasn't much of a reason to continue handing out free money with low interest rates anymore. So why wouldn't you offset some of that risk by supplementing with short term bonds at a low rate so that there's some positive value available?
And as you just described the start-up business mode of spending with little deposits, you'd think they'd have planned for short term withdrawals.

I mean, the Fed didn't start raising rates until March 2022 and didnt get serious about persistently raising rates until May. We can also speculate that inflation wouldn't have been quite so bad if not for the war in Ukraine, and that was not something that most people would habe comprehended in 2021. It's safe to say that Treasury bonds wouldn't have had historically awful returns in 2022 if not for ukraine.

I'd also say that a 10 year treasury is by no means a long dated maturity. Are there shorter dated ones? Sure. But 10 years isn't reckless.

But overall, my goal here isn't to apologize for their failure or act like someone didn't f up royally. They messed up big time, but I don't think any sort of additional regulation would have prevented it. It would have taken some more proactive risk management and a few hedges against higher rates.

[crusherstasiak]

did teenage charles lindbergh do a fly over for that event?

[Ad@m]

Rite Aid

[crusherstasiak]

mrs crusher volunteers at the town library and man, the **** she hears
apparently the latest thing is trump and putin should 'co-general' america and russia
the reason(s) being: together they'll eliminate wokeness and defeat the chinese