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RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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Yes Go, please provide these stirring quotes. If you plan on voting for Kamala, by all means, let her sound like the autocrat her party wants her to be.

BTW the fundraising numbers are in and Kamala outraised Trump by more than 3 to 1 in August, and she's got half a billion banked. Man, I remember back when people complained that Republicans were the party of the rich.

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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The first challenge on every one of Trump's Celebrity Apprentice shows (all of which I watched) was easy enough for a child to understand; whoever made the most money was going to win. So in this White House Apprentice edition Trump would have fired himself for hauling in such a dismal amount compared to Team Harris. Clearly he was holding back.

The one good thing is that Trump finally admitted to podcaster Lex Fridman during a Tuesday appearance that he lost the 2020 election "by a whisker." Holy Dinah, what a big, fat liar he has been this whole time.

And this has got to be one of the most quotable quotes--EVER. Trump's response to Reshma Saujani, an Economic Club of New York trustee, who asked Thursday if the former president would commit himself to policy targeting the mounting cost of childcare, which she noted costs the US economy roughly $142 billion a year.

Trump's response was, "Well, I will do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, uh, somebody, we had Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka were so, uh, impactful on that issue, it's a very important issue, but I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because childcare is childcare is couldn't, you know, is something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it."

Hallelujah! Trump totally understands this stuff. Great answer, yes?

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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I'm still trying to make sense of your most interesting post, Gloria. The easiest way to respond seems to be with a series of observations.

1) Trump is in decline. He's no longer as savvy on financial matters as he was on that show. What will either candidate say about childcare once they've had a chance to think about it? Oh IDK. They'll probably both promise to throw tax credits at it, which will further raise the cost of it. What will drop the cost is to lower regulations and expectations imposed on childcare businesses, and for parents to commute shorter distances, and for them to resolve conflicts with their older relatives and get them involved. But a politician can't say these things.

2) Trump was outspent 2 to 1 by Clinton in 2016, an election which he won. Now my phone number and email is regularly bombarded by donation requests from both parties. For everything I dislike about Trump, he is far less demanding and insulting in his requests for donations than his Democratic counterparts.

Trump: Please don't do it if you don't have the money. If you do have the money, we could use your help.
Democrats: Donate $50 to Kamala to help stop Trump's national abortion ban now!

I am hardly even paraphrasing. Democrats remind me of megapastors at crusades with their donation buckets out, telling everyone to give more than they can, in faith that God will provide. Well, fear and lies do indeed work as a strategy to solicit donations. It may surprise you to hear that Trump has not stooped to the level of the leftists in this area. But the big money comes from big money, people who want something for their money after the election. Bigger donations means more corruption and compromise on policy.

Trump's brand has been based on the idea that he IS rich, but he actually isn't all that rich (compared to, let's say, Mike Bloomberg) so it gets in the way of his fundraising. His financial fates are largely tied at the point to the performance of Truth Social (ticker DJT on the index) which I have mocked multiple times. Trump would need a lot more disposable cash to finance his own election.

3) Can you provide the full context of what Trump said about losing in 2020 "by a whisker"? Trump's general argument, or the one that he SHOULD HAVE MADE, was that he lost because of fraud with absentee ballots and drop boxes -- an allegation that still needs to be disproved by fixing the US election system to make ballots unique, secure documents. I plan to write a white paper on this. Instead, his lawyers ran around poking at silly things after the fact, and they lost every case.

4) Childcare is very expensive. Whatever number is placed on it is likely insufficient by levels of magnitude, because a lot of parents are at home taking care of kids and their time is not credited towards this number. It might well be a trillion a year or more. Does homeschooling count? Now you'd think Trump might know a thing or two about it but it seems he wasn't very involved in bringing up his own children. So maybe he does not. And neither does Harris, who doesn't have kids.

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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Thanks H. Always good to hear from you. IMO Trump was never savvy on financial matters as evidenced by his many bankruptcies, chief among them his Atlantic City Casinos where the burden of his failure fell on investors and others who had bet on his non-existent business acumen. Moreover, I don't see him as diminished by age. Instead I see an old man consumed with an ice-cold rage toward the Republicans who voted down ballot for conservatives, but didn't vote for the top of the ticket in 2020.

As Trump said in an interview with Dr. Phil, "Revenge does take time, I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can." I should add that I've never been a fan of Dr. Phil who I see as a bloviating wind bag, but Trump is much, much worse. He is a feckless betrayer.

In The New York Times in 1980, Cohn called himself "not only Donald's lawyer, but also one of his close friends." They talked, according to Vanity Fair, "15 to 20 times a day." Trump even stuck with Cohn through his disbarment proceedings, when Cohn was hit with charges of fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation. And while Cohn was indeed disbarred in the end, it wasn't until Trump learned that Cohn had been diagnosed with AIDS that he decided to sever his ties with his mentor.

"Donald found out about it and just dropped him like a hot potato," Cohn's long time secretary Susan Bell said. "It was like night and day."

Is this truly the kind of man God would use? Trump hasn't changed. As Maya Angelou wrote, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

Looking forward to reading your white paper. I know it will be good.

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris
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RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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Gloria, I know you don't like Trump or what he said to Dr. Phil but, two things:

1) How many politicians would have been that transparent and open?

2) Was Trump, actually wrong? Many of us, if we're being honest, agree and feel the same way. If we're being honest. We've all heard: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

3) The two men were friends, and Trump dropped him after learning about the AIDS. Given who Trump is, what he done (porn stars), we don't what or "Whom" the two friends did together. Imagine, You found out the other bread in your people sandwich secretly had AIDS and didn't tell you. What would you do?

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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You have it wrong Lance. It is Biden I can't stand which is a moot point right about now.

I doubt most politicians would reveal that ugly side of their heart. Moreover, some, but not all, also might have that drive for revenge as the competitive nature of the business is likely to evoke rage with regularity. Was Trump correct? Yes. Was it a cowardly thing for the Republicans to do? You betcha which is exactly why the Republicans should go down in flames of defeat.

Regarding HIV, given that the virus is transmitted through blood exchanged from sexual activity, sharing needles and sometimes transfusions, one has to wonder what you thought Trump and Cohn might have been up to. HIV is not transmitted by sharing a conversation, hot tub, or lunch and frankly Trump strikes me as a germaphobe which makes it all the more curious why he didn't use a condom when having sex with an adult film star he'd just met.

I wouldn't terminate a long-term friendship over that but I can understand how a ruthless opportunist like Donald J Trump would shrewdly calculate his situation because of the social condemnation of gay men at the time. Given Trump's lifelong ambition for public office perhaps he should've been more careful about the company he kept. That also includes his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Clearly Trump was at least peripherally aware of what Epstein was doing, though I am more inclined to believe he knew exactly what was going on. It's the character of a leader that counts, yes? That holds true unless you have a sect of Evangelicals who claim you are God's man because they desperately want political power.

H, yes something like that. There are a lot of people (most in fact) who agree to give part of their income through taxation toward public services that don't benefit them personally. For example a childless person pays taxes toward public schools; a healthy person helps subsidize medical care for those who have pre-existing conditions, a person who never drives pays taxes to keep highways accessible, or they help pay for public transportation even though they never use it. These are some of the programs people support for the common good.

Now that we are talking about tariffs, can you explain to me what Trump means when he says, "I am going to put tariffs on other countries coming into our country, and that has nothing to do with taxes to us. That is a tax on another country."
Does Trump not know how tariffs work, is he deliberately misleading his followers, or is there something I am missing?

My understanding is that a tariff is not a tax on another country, it is a duty charged by the US government on imported goods, paid for by American businesses that purchase the imports and the tariff money goes into the US Treasury to be redistributed as the government sees fit.

I realize this is a simplistic explanation and there are variables but for the main it appears that Trump is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of his own supporters. Is that true?

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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=> Does Trump not know how tariffs work, is he deliberately misleading his followers, or is there something I am missing? <= either or. Maybe he is confusing tariffs with duties.

It is effectively just a difference of semantics though. Follow along with me. Tariffs are paid by the importer, so they're still not going to buy it unless the price is still competitive. The money still goes into the same pocket (Uncle Sam's).

Let's say China sells Walmart a TV for $80. It cost China $50 to make it.

DUTY
Uncle Sam charges China a $20 import fee (25%). Walmart turns around and sells you the TV for $125.
China made $30.
Walmart made $25.

TARIFF
Uncle Sam charges Walmart a $20 import fee (25%). Walmart turns around and sells you the TV for $125.
China made $30.
Walmart made $25.

It comes out the same in the wash. The extra $20 came out of the consumer's pocket in the end.

Manufacturing cost: $50
China's cut: $30
Tariff or duty: $20
Walmart's cut: $25

Now the consumer find a Malaysian TV for $110. Hey, it used to be more expensive than the Chinese one, but now it is cheaper.

What does China do now? "Hey Malaysia, let's make a deal. We won't ram your naval vessels if you sell our TVs for us". So China sends its TVs to Malaysia and have the screws added to it there. Then they ship them to the US from there.

And that's how the game is played.

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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Just to follow up, Democrats are doing exactly the same thing on tariffs. They just didn't want to take the PR liability of being the ones to call a spade a spade.

Last night's debate was pretty dumb all around with economics, and played out predictably on financial areas, without any discussion of serious monetary policy.

Harris: I'm going to throw candy at everyone

Trump: Harris' dad is a Marxist economist and he taught her well. (Yes he is, and I have written more than one piece on this. What Trump did not mention is that her daddy's name is also Donald J).

Harris: haha lol. Trump is going to raise taxes 20% on the middle class (she's referring to the tariffs, with the unspoken premise that everything the underclasses buy is from China).

Trump: lies! (He's assuming people will start buying from places other than China, and they have been starting to).

I used to work at an Amazon fulfillment center. Here's a rough breakdown of what stuff was coming from where:

US: sports drinks/water, supplements, pet food, and cat litter. Lots of cat litter. I got fit throwing that stuff around while fat Americans get fatter by swiping right to order it.

Canada/US: paper products

Mexico: car parts (I actually can't remember very well on these cause those boxes always got smashed up and had to be repacked)

Textiles: India, Malaysia etc but we didn't see a lot of those

China: everything else, until recently. About half of electronics and all lights are still made in China.

Thing is, a lot of the shit we buy from China is stuff we don't need. Entertainment systems, shitty furniture, Christmas lights, fireworks. We get our food from here mostly. We still buy cars from here and Europe but China is trying to get into that game and we might want to stop them. Household appliances and electronics are hard to get away from China.

Hmm, let me take a personal inventory. My computer, phone, watch and batteries: all made in China. All my music equipment here is too. Shit.

All my speakers, and turntable: NOT made in China, because I was religiously boycotting China at the time and willing to pay more to not buy from there. These are made in Indonesia and the US.

Headphones: Germany

Cooking pan: Italy

photo paper and precision scissors: Japan. Hooray for high-precision manufacturing by the former Axis powers, with a little help from the Marshall Plan

Furniture: IKEA, made in Poland and elsewhere, mostly not China

cheap monitor: Malaysia

expensive monitor: China, but I keep it in storage where I don't have to look at it

new printer: I'm afraid to look

RE: "Foghorn Leghorn" - Starring Kammie Girl Harris

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Of course Harris didn't want to take the PR liability, because the Biden administration has kept almost all of the same tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. And it is not China paying the "taxes", as Trump claims, it is Americans. Strangely enough, the man truly doesn't seem to understand how tariffs work. As charming a con man as he is, Donald still doesn't know the difference between a policy and a memo.

I have been boycotting China for most of my life; a practice begun during Mao Zedong's cultural revolution that was drawn to my attention in the late 70s.

So here is my current list of purchases:

automobiles: USA
furniture: Canada
appliances: China
electronics: Mexico, Vietnam
clothing: India, Egypt
dinnerware: China
cat litter: the great outdoors
ukulele: USA
food: Canada, USA, Mexico, India, Vietnam, France, Germany
wine: Canada, USA
printer: USA 1991 HP laser Jet. Can you believe I have a printer this old and that I can still buy ink for it? It is however starting to show signs of age, but so far it manages to talk to all the latest technology. I can see that coming to an end soon.
Utilities: Canada
FanStory: USA
Netflix: USA

Some of these are of course facetious small amount purchases, but they all add up.

So buckle up H, and find out where your printer was manufactured.