Comments by RandomMember (page 43)

"As much as I don't like Trump this strike needed to happen." _____ Well, two other presidents considered taking Soleimani out and decided it was too risky. I don't know how this will play ou and either do you.

He can be revered and also be a terrorist, DrE. There's nothing to disagree about. Everyone -- right, left, and center -- agrees he was responsible for killing hundreds of Americans.

"I'm taking our president on his word that this guy needed killing..." This is not meant as a a troll: why would you have any trust in someone who lies and bullshits constantly. Maybe 15,000 times according to Wash Post. And DrEvil made key argument that Soleimani was widely revered all over the gulf. Killing him does not make us safer.

"Social media gives anyone the power of the pen/keyboard and regrettably many people have a shaky baseline understanding of reality.." ______________ Yep, and it's a big problem that extends well beyond the stripper universe.

Ime beat me to it https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/476766-world-war-iii-memes-take-off-on-social-media-after-us-strike-killing

Since @aleccorbett brought up Fama's older work, note that Shiller's work directly challenges Fama's efficient market orthodoxy. Here's a summary: https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/inefficient-markets-a-nobel-for-shiller-and-fama It took a lot of courage for Shiller to challenge the idea that stocks always reflect their underlying value. Anyone who's lived through the dot-com era and the housing crash knows that asset values can get wildly out of whack and that group psychology and irrational human decisions drive markets.

He's *

Defense stocks were about the only thing that spiked today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/03/defense-stocks-spike-following-airstrike-against-iranian-commander/ However you're giving Trump too much credit if you thing he has any master plan; he just incompetent and impetuous.

"Does anyone think killing this guy is going to solve anything?" Probably not and I have no confidence in Trump's ability to think about long-term strategy. It's anyone's guess whether the assassination will cause more or less American blood will be shed in the future. Everything else Trump does is reckless and impetuous -- and it's more likely that his motives were based on looking tough for his reelection. Trump was tweeting back in 2012, 2013, that Obama would start a war with Iran to gain reelection. How ironic (or should I say how Iranic). Assassinating foreign leaders should require congressional approval.

^^ Thanks, dear. I'm looking for a filipina mail-order bride. Know anyone who might be interested?

There were a couple of popular books by Nobel Prize winner Robert Shiller that forever changed my perception of the stock market. He's a hard-core economist from MIT but his wife is a psychologist and he writes about the psychology of bubble formation. Shiller called correctly the dot-com bubble in stocks (with simple arguments about the inflated value of P/E ratios) and the fall in housing (with a similar argument about price-to-rent ratios). I got slaughtered in the dot-com bubble but (following Shiller) I timed the housing market and bought a pretty custom home at half-price in late 2009. Right now the stock market is *very* overvalued if look at P/E ratios overall: https://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe Depending on your age I can see setting aside some money each month to put in the stock market -- but it's otherwise a very bad time to dump lump-sums into the market. It's driven by investor psychology and low interest rates. Current Fed chair doesn't have any balls and he's been bullied effectively by Trump into keeping interest rates low. Overall P/E ratios are about double historical norms. You're buying overpriced stocks right now and the correction will eventually come.

Lol! +1 for Jack's self-deprecating humor.

AFAIK, every single club in metro Denver is scanning IDs and I've never had a single problem. I have a feeling the clubs are safer for everyone involved. I tell you what *does* bother me: I've had SBs tell me that fake IDs are readily available and they scan just fine in bars and restaurants. So the threat of an underage SB is always there and checking their ID or having a restaurant card them isn't foolproof. One of my 21-yr-old SBs told me that she started sugaring at age 17.

@Mark93: "Nancy Pelosi’s son has been getting $200,000 a year from a Ukraine oil company..." _________________ That's a conspiracy theory for nutcases like yourself.

That's what my wife wants, @Dougster. Something practical. Nobody else takes climate change seriously, so why should I?

Not in dream-car category, but I've seen a few of the new 2020 Supras on the road. Smallish coupe, collaboration with BMW, about 335HP, and competitive with Corvette (from what I've read) for about $55K. Nice car but our next purchase will be SUV, maybe X3.

I have a strong opinion: I would text twice (total), at the very most, and then move on. She's a sex worker, not your GF. These girls can't stand clingy and dependent guys.

^^ naw, the non-latex condoms break more easily

@Meathead: "Because of my intelligence I was really good since baseball..." ___________ Lol, @Meathead. Do a Google search under Dunning-Kruger Effect. One of my new-years resolutions is to be less snarky -- but it's still 2019 and usually break my resolutions, anyway. I used to surf as a kid in S. California. I've been swimming laps and into road cycling all my life. Road cycling is still my most important athletic activity. Was on the tennis team in high school but probably the worst guy on the team.

Yeah I saw that story. Amazing since recent poll showed 99% of white evangelicals were *not* in favor of impeachment.

My $0.02: Having all the groups appear under one "discussions" listing is the single biggest improvement. It's no longer necessary to navigate through several groups to find new content. I thought giving OPs the ability to mute posts might be abused, but it seems fine so far. Since anyone can un-mute a muted comment the rules here are actually less drastic than the "mute" and "block" features on Twitter. ...unless you happen to be the President, since the courts ruled that Trump cannot block dissenting users from posting to his Twitter feed.

Yeah, "blind with patriotism" misses the mark. Trump represents a cult of personality like Berlusconi or Putin or Kim Jong-un -- or even Hitler. His followers relate to him on an emotional (not intellectual) level and the facts don't matter. The facts of the impeachment don't matter to Trump's followers. You need two ingredients for a cult of personality: (1) leader who has some type of charisma and can relate to the ordinary citizen and (2) a way to manipulate the media. Trump doesn't own the media, but social media has created another way to spread disinformation and propaganda.

"...the democrats already ended their chances." _______________ Trump's approval rating is 43% right now -- which is relatively good for Trump and very bad for presidents in general. Anything can happen until November, but you'd probably rate Trump's election chances right now as a mild underdog in 2020. His 6-page letter to Pelosi the other day was a rambling, incoherent, diatribe full of lies and gibberish. He's unstable, mentally ill, and an embarrassment -- the last person you would want to have their finger on nuclear weapons. In a nutshell, there's overwhelming evidence that he bribed Ukraine -- with taxpayer dollars -- to dig up dirt on Biden and to spread a conspiracy theory about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 elections. I could have some respect for the GOP if they admitted his actions were wrong but not impeachable; instead it's a laughable and cartoonish circus of denial. Everyone lives in their own bubble and we can't agree on basic facts. I don't have a Facebook account, but I get the feeling that social media is the root cause of these alternate realities.

"I have a feeling 20 years from now they will regret pissing away half a Mil at a strip club." __________ My math shows $500K is worth $1.3M in 20 years at 5%