Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Trunksee]

Clarification required. Did you mean:

A) The coronavirus itself, which just made it to South America by the way, has killed thousands and weakened the GDP of multiple countries, including ours, due to demonstrably lower ability to buy and sell items, was a ploy, and that the rich stock market guys (hey, isn't Trump a stock market guy?) engineered the deaths of thousands to (checks news) cost the stock market trillions of dollars? Actual plural trillions? In two days?

or

B) The hysteria about the coronavirus was a ploy, which would therefore include the statements by Trump's own administration (the CDC was quoted multiple times yesterday), and therefore, would require you to say "I denounce Trump's administration for helping spread the hysteria" or else by failing to do so demonstrate you don't actually believe what you said is true?

If there's a third option, I'm interested in hearing that, too, but good luck.

None of the above. Is the virus going to sprrad and make people sick yes. Should it have caused the markets to tank? Absolutely not. Its market manipulation. People sell off so that it causes panic in the market. This is a speed bump and should not have had the market react the way it did over 2 days. We are not losing 25% of the worlds population. This is not the black plague or spanish influenza. Its the way the market is racting that i am criticizing.

[Breccia]

Its the way the market is racting that i am criticizing.

Well that sounds like option B. I'm waiting for you to denounce Trump's CDC for their role in the hysteria. Otherwise, you have to come up with some convoluted way the hysteria is somehow unrelated to what they said, but related to what everyone else worldwide has said. Or, you could claim it was a shadowy back-alley deal behind the scenes, but um, you miiiiiiiiiight want to re-read the forum rules before doing that.

[Trunksee]

Well that sounds like option B. I'm waiting for you to denounce Trump's CDC for their role in the hysteria. Otherwise, you have to come up with some convoluted way the hysteria is somehow unrelated to what they said, but related to what everyone else worldwide has said. Or, you could claim it was a shadowy back-alley deal behind the scenes, but um, you miiiiiiiiiight want to re-read the forum rules before doing that.

Why? Should people be worried if appropriate steps are taken? Like i dont know travel bans to restricted areas or is it unconstitutional in some way to protect the general public. The market is playing off the fear of people. The stock market had no reason to crash is what i was saying. Companies are not losing half their employees permanently. This is people with power selling high to buy back in when they think they can make the most cash.

[akris15]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-hir...115036910.html

A 23 year old kid who is still a university student will apparently be hired to become the director of operations for the White House's Presidential Personnel Office.

I have nothing more to say. This is absurd enough on its own.

Tends to happen when your entire administration is built on absolute loyalty that only goes one way, toxicity and directionless.

Honestly these past 2 years have working in the government has been awful. On top of not getting any hiring, extreme brain drain as people rush to the public sector and me personally basically working in a job 3 grades above my pay because we can't fill it all because of the complete disaster of leadership from the top down in the current administration. The other day someone asked me if I am doing ok as they haven't seen me for 2 year and apparently I aged about 5-6 years since then because of all the stress.

[draynay]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-hir...115036910.html

A 23 year old kid who is still a university student will apparently be hired to become the director of operations for the White House's Presidential Personnel Office.

I have nothing more to say. This is absurd enough on its own.

Next up Barron will be getting an administration job.

[Edge-]

Next up Barron will be getting an administration job.

He already has one, no? I thought he was the head of cyber, because he's so good with the cyber.

[Belize]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-hir...115036910.html

A 23 year old kid who is still a university student will apparently be hired to become the director of operations for the White House's Presidential Personnel Office.

I have nothing more to say. This is absurd enough on its own.

Who is he related to that's already close to Trump?

[Flarelaine]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-hir...115036910.html

A 23 year old kid who is still a university student will apparently be hired to become the director of operations for the White House's Presidential Personnel Office.

I have nothing more to say. This is absurd enough on its own.

Our government has just appointed a 22-year old as underscretary of something. She has not finished her degree, either, but that's not a problem, they amended the law that said she needs one.

[Breccia]

Why? Should people be worried if appropriate steps are taken?

That's what I thought.

The stock market is taking steps to protect itself, by selling off stocks of businesses likely to be negatively affected. Like they've done for decades. That's how it works. That's how it's always worked. If people should protect themselves such as, for example, not going to China, then businesses should protect themselves by, for example, not doing as much business with China. Dropping their value. Your attempt to create some fictional ethical line between when Team Trump does it, and Wall Street (also Team Trump, just so we're clear) does it, is over. So is this conversation.

On topic: Trump's Wall faces yet another hurdle. Trump is stealing money from Pentagon weapon funding, and the top Senate Armed Services Committee members don't care for it.

Both of them.

In separate opening statements and questions at a hearing with the Pentagon’s top officials, committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), its ranking member, ripped the funding transfer as an “enormous problem” and a break in “literally decades” of precedent.

“This is an enormous problem,” Smith said at the hearing with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. “It undercuts any argument about the need for resources within the Department of Defense. And it also undercuts the congressional process.”

“There have been decades, literally decades of practice where if there are changing needs money can be moved within the department budget with the approval of Congress,” said Thornberry, who is retiring from Congress at the end of this term. “I’m afraid that the result of this will be greater restrictions on the department’s ability to move money around to meet changing needs, and the country will suffer as a result.”

As a reminder, Trump already declared the coronavirus a national emergency -- funny, I don't seem to remember any protest against the hysteria then -- and is asking for yet more emergency funds, while using the same ability to re-route Pentagon development funds to the Wall. Considering the House and Senate hold the pursestrings, at some point, they're going to get tired of Trump trying to shove his tiny fingers between them. I think we're seeing more of that now.

Auto sales are expected to decline again, having fallen 4.6% last year and now projected to fall 2.5% more this year. Because coronavirus. Construction vehicle sales are also down but that's an ongoing trend.

US home sales are down, mostly existing home sales, as the supply of such basically dries up. New home sales did increase, but not enough to tip the scales.

And just for funsies at this point, yet another coal mine in Kentucky goes bankrupt, immediately firing half their staff.

[D Luniz]

*snip*

Can't help but think Thornberry is only willing to say anything cause he's not running again.

[Rasulis]

US home sales are down, mostly existing home sales, as the supply of such basically dries up. New home sales did increase, but not enough to tip the scales.

Supply down, interest rate down, price is way up.

Median home price in Austin is now over 400k and still climbing. My daughter is a developer in TX, and she can't build fast enough to meet demand. Not enough construction workers. There is a waiting list of prospective buyers on her projects. All her residences are equipped with solar and geothermal heating/cooling.

There are no 3 bdr under 600k in our area now. The supply side is so bad, we had an agent came knocking at our door over the weekend to ask if we want to put our 1.5M house on the market. We had a good laugh when she found out that my wife is a RE broker.

- - - Updated - - -

On topic: Trump's Wall faces yet another hurdle. Trump is stealing money from Pentagon weapon funding, and the top Senate Armed Services Committee members don't care for it.

Both of them.

Not a single DoD projects which were cancelled in 2019 due to their funding being transferred to the wall have been reauthorized in Trump's new budget. Quite a few of them, such as the C-130 simulator for the National Guard, are critical to the direct safety and training of the members of the armed forces.

[Breccia]

Supply down, interest rate down, price is way up.

The housing bubble was caused by rising prices due to low interest rates. This won't be as bad, but it's still not great for people who are moving.

Now to take a sip of this hot bla--

Median home price in Austin is now over 400k and still climbing.

PFFFFFFFFFFFT

The hell? Really?

Not a single DoD projects which were cancelled in 2019 due to their funding being transferred to the wall have been reauthorized in Trump's new budget.

There were some issues discussed before about Trump stealing money from projects, then asking Congress to re-authorize and re-fund those projects, thereby getting Congressional approval on stealing Wall funds. I guess that didn't happen. I guess the military gets to just lose money and accept it.

[Thepersona]

Dow jones is in the red again. With 2 hours to go

[Zan15]

And the dow is begining to recover as expected as this was just a ploy by smart people in wall street to get the average person to panic to buy back in at lower prices.... This virus does not have an extremely high mortality rate. It could just be described as any name with the word flu after it. The H1N1 virus did not cause this much panic and it was just as deadly and just as contagious. This is all just a way to make the public panic.

LOL, maybe wait till the market closes before saying it...…


So this "ploy" involved a coordinated effort by "smart people" to drive 2 trillion dollars in losses so they can buy the dip??


damn son, conspiracies are not your friend.

[kaid]

None of the above. Is the virus going to sprrad and make people sick yes. Should it have caused the markets to tank? Absolutely not. Its market manipulation. People sell off so that it causes panic in the market. This is a speed bump and should not have had the market react the way it did over 2 days. We are not losing 25% of the worlds population. This is not the black plague or spanish influenza. Its the way the market is racting that i am criticizing.

So factories that are closed due to the quarantine and are not making any of the myriad products the US consumes should have no impact on the US economy? At one time this may have been true but the world is a lot more intertwined and a major factory shut down like we are seeing in china has far stronger ripple effects then it would have had in the 50s-60s. This may not be spanish flu levels of bad but this is 20x worse than normal flu levels of fatalities if it continues as it has been and that is not a trivial amount of impact.

[Belize]

Dow jones is in the red again. With 2 hours to go

@Trunksee Woops, someone spoke too soon.

It's almost as if massive supply chain disruptions were causing the market panic, and not wild conspiracy theories about brokers trying to trick people into selling.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/26/trum...n-article.html

After years of threatening to sue the NYT for almost every article they've written about him, his campaign is finally pulling the trigger on a libel suit.

What was the offending article?

And op-ed. This one in particular - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/o...d-pro-quo.html

[Breccia]

Woops, someone spoke too soon.

Look, the stock market will correct itself eventually. It always does. But the stock market is a predictive force based on perceived upcoming issues. Our boy COVID2019 (or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days) is spreading. The perceived problems are becoming bigger perceived problems. Right now, those problems are increasing faster than saving graces (there are companies having good days, retail actually is expected to grow 3.7% this year for example).

But...not yet, it seems. Maybe tomorrow. Remember, 26,616 is the next target number.

[Thepersona]

Look, the stock market will correct itself eventually. It always does. But the stock market is a predictive force based on perceived upcoming issues. Our boy COVID2019 (or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days) is spreading. The perceived problems are becoming bigger perceived problems. Right now, those problems are increasing faster than saving graces (there are companies having good days, retail actually is expected to grow 3.7% this year for example).

But...not yet, it seems. Maybe tomorrow. Remember, 26,616 is the next target number.

This day the Dow has stayed mostly flat (apart from being in the red since last hour).

[Rasulis]

The housing bubble was caused by rising prices due to low interest rates. This won't be as bad, but it's still not great for people who are moving.

Now to take a sip of this hot bla--



PFFFFFFFFFFFT

The hell? Really?



There were some issues discussed before about Trump stealing money from projects, then asking Congress to re-authorize and re-fund those projects, thereby getting Congressional approval on stealing Wall funds. I guess that didn't happen. I guess the military gets to just lose money and accept it.

405k in January 2020. Probably up to 425k by the end of the year. It also has the second highest rent increase in the nation. Second to Phoenix. Although Austin's rent is 50% higher than Phoenix.

The big buzzword in residential construction in TX now is zero-energy home. The Californiafication of Texas is well underway.