1. #21401
    https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/...tial-contracts

    On the same day in May 2019, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded a pair of contracts worth $788 million to replace 83 miles of fence along the southwest border.

    The projects were slated to be completed in January 2020, the Corps said then. Four months into this year, however, the government increased the value of the contracts by more than $1 billion, without the benefit of competitive bidding designed to keep costs low to taxpayers.

    Within a year of the initial award, the value of the two contracts had more than tripled, to over $3 billion, even though the length of the fence the companies were building had only grown by 62%, to 135 miles. The money is coming from military counter-narcotics funding.

    Those contract spikes were dramatic, but not isolated. A ProPublica/Texas Tribune review of federal spending data shows more than 200 contract modifications, at times awarded within just weeks or months after the original contracts, have increased the cost of the border wall project by billions of dollars since late 2017. This is particularly true this year, in the run-up to next week’s election. The cost of supplemental agreements and change orders alone — at least $2.9 billion — represents about a quarter of all the money awarded and more than what Congress originally appropriated for wall construction in each of the last three years.

    President Donald Trump made construction of the border wall a signature issue during his 2016 campaign, claiming that his skills as a builder and businessman would allow his administration to build the wall in a more cost-efficient way than his predecessors. “You know the wall is almost finished,” he told a crowd of supporters in Arizona recently, and they weren’t paying a “damn cent” for the border wall. It was “compliments of the federal government.”

    Yet an accounting of border wall contracts awarded during his presidency shows that his administration has failed to protect taxpayer interests or contain costs and stifled competition among would-be builders, experts say. In all, Trump’s wall costs about five times more per mile than fencing built under the Bush and Obama administrations.

    Experts say the frequent use of so-called supplemental agreements to add work or increase the price has amounted to giving no-bid contracts to a small group of pre-selected construction firms, many with executives who have donated to Trump or other Republicans.
    Trump's "THE WALL", which remains behind schedule and having only put up a handful of miles of new wall, is MASSIVELY overbudget.

    And we're still paying for it.

    Mexico isn't paying.

    Wasn't this like, the core tentpole of his 2016 campaign and presidency? And he's failed to deliver in a huge, massive way? Or is kidnapping brown kids enough of a consolation that overpaying for his "THE WALL" rather than Mexico paying for it is now acceptable?

  2. #21402
    The Unstoppable Force PC2's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zEmini View Post
    Trump down too a 11% chance to win. That is still too close for comfort. I have had the RNG gods in my mount farming routine bless me with chances lower than that.
    I assume that Trump will lose but elections are not probabilistic so there's no way to say that the odds are 11%. Those numbers are derived from subjective weightings in a formula as opposed to an objective source.

  3. #21403
    Void Lord Felya's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    I assume that Trump will lose but elections are not probabilistic so there's no way to say that the odds are 11%. Those numbers are derived from subjective weightings in a formula as opposed to an objective source.
    It’s based on 40000 simulations:
    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...tion-forecast/
    Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
    Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
    The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
    No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi

  4. #21404
    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    I assume that Trump will lose but elections are not probabilistic so there's no way to say that the odds are 11%. Those numbers are derived from subjective weightings in a formula as opposed to an objective source.
    Please stop speaking about subjects you are profoundly ignorant on.

  5. #21405
    Void Lord Felya's Avatar
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    Oh and you can probably guess why it’s been months since a Trump supporter linked betting odds. It’s Pretty much 65/35 in favor of Biden now... although, a lot of people are betting Trump. Good luck... it’s going to be the only way you see a stimulus.
    Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
    Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
    The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
    No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi

  6. #21406
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/28/polit...ors/index.html

    In a taped interview on April 18, Kushner told legendary journalist Bob Woodward that Trump was "getting the country back from the doctors" in what he called a "negotiated settlement." Kushner also proclaimed that the US was moving swiftly through the "panic phase" and "pain phase" of the pandemic and that the country was at the "beginning of the comeback phase."

    "That doesn't mean there's not still a lot of pain and there won't be pain for a while, but that basically was, we've now put out rules to get back to work," Kushner said. "Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors."
    These comments were from APRIL.

    These people are so wholly unqualified for this job it hurts. Their incompetence and callous lack of empathy and care for Americans has lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, many of which could have been prevented were they not so arrogant.

  7. #21407
    Trump is losing in MI, WI, and PA.

    Biden could very well win all 3 states.

  8. #21408
    Quote Originally Posted by Felya View Post
    Do these simulations account for the completely guaranteed "VOTER FRAUD!!! OUTRAGEOUS...I WON IN <Insert_State> BY A LANDSLIDE!!" , the state courts /governors buying that shit and declaring victory for the Hydrodonald?

    Is it even posible, without a 2 million Qbits quantum computer , to simulate the absolute and apparently infinite lack of shame of the Trumpsphere? Do we have such technology?

  9. #21409
    Something to keep in mind in PA. In 2016, there were 4 million registered Democrats compared to 3.2 million Republicans. In 2020 there are 4.2 million Democrats and about 3.5 million Republicans, and 1.3 million NPAs. If the trend continues, PA may turn red for good. However, for now, there are still 700,000 more Democratic voters than GOP voters. That 700,000 voters will be a big factor during a high turnout election.

    The early voting numbers reflect that. With almost one-third of 2016 total vote count in (or 22% of eligible voters), Dem is leading by 928k votes right now. The lead may go down to around 500k by the end of the election, but I doubt that there is enough GOP voters left in PA to reverse it completely.

  10. #21410
    Quote Originally Posted by CastletonSnob View Post
    Trump is losing in MI, WI, and PA.

    Biden could very well win all 3 states.
    And in GA. By 5%
    Forgive my english, as i'm not a native speaker



  11. #21411


    Man, can we have foreign journalists interview our politicians more? Like, interview Democrats too, I don't care. But these are the kinds of things that media should be aggressive on holding politicians feet to the fire with.

    Unsurprising to see Ted Cruz be a lying, hypocritical piece of shit, but glad to see a journalist calling him out on it rather than just letting him bullshit and moving on.

  12. #21412
    Old God AntiFascistVoter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rasulis View Post
    Something to keep in mind in PA. In 2016, there were 4 million registered Democrats compared to 3.2 million Republicans. In 2020 there are 4.2 million Democrats and about 3.5 million Republicans, and 1.3 million NPAs. If the trend continues, PA may turn red for good. However, for now, there are still 700,000 more Democratic voters than GOP voters. That 700,000 voters will be a big factor during a high turnout election.

    The early voting numbers reflect that. With almost one-third of 2016 total vote count in (or 22% of eligible voters), Dem is leading by 928k votes right now. The lead may go down to around 500k by the end of the election, but I doubt that there is enough GOP voters left in PA to reverse it completely.
    It's like PA had to undo years of damage from a Republican Governor or legislature. Guys that plotted against voters by using voter purges and voter ID laws to suppress voting.

    ... stop me if you have heard this one before....
    Government Affiliated Snark

  13. #21413
    Quote Originally Posted by Edge- View Post


    Man, can we have foreign journalists interview our politicians more? Like, interview Democrats too, I don't care. But these are the kinds of things that media should be aggressive on holding politicians feet to the fire with.

    Unsurprising to see Ted Cruz be a lying, hypocritical piece of shit, but glad to see a journalist calling him out on it rather than just letting him bullshit and moving on.
    That's because he's a lying piece of shit who likes to smell other people's farts.

  14. #21414
    Merely a Setback Adam Jensen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Endus View Post
    Joe Rogan is basically just the pothead older brother of a friend of yours from Junior High who you thought was super cool because he was older and smoked pot and talked about how ancient aliens like, totally built the Washington Monument, man. It's all a conspiracy to hide the truth, man.

    Give that guy a podcast today and an audience of people who literally never grew up past junior high, and there you go; Joe Rogan. Nobody should take him seriously, because he's a gullible buffoonish idiot.
    Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, they're all masters of being able to sound smart, while being stupid and/or grifters. Can't really blame them, it works.

    I mean, if you have no ethics and only care about money that is.
    Putin khuliyo

  15. #21415
    Quote Originally Posted by Adam Jensen View Post
    Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, they're all masters of being able to sound smart, while being stupid and/or grifters. Can't really blame them, it works.

    I mean, if you have no ethics and only care about money that is.
    They all share one thing in common, being con men who don't have any actual principles. Charlie Kirk is a white supremacist fucktard, and Ben Shapiro called for fucking ethnic cleansing and genocide. Joe Rogan's main "quality" is that he is a pretend fence-sitter who really just wants to pander to alt-right dipshits.

  16. #21416
    Quote Originally Posted by Edge- View Post
    Wasn't this like, the core tentpole of his 2016 campaign and presidency? And he's failed to deliver in a huge, massive way? Or is kidnapping brown kids enough of a consolation that overpaying for his "THE WALL" rather than Mexico paying for it is now acceptable?
    "Promises made, promises kept."

    Or at least that's the line his cultists keep repeating to each other.

  17. #21417
    The Unstoppable Force PC2's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Felya View Post
    My point is those programs include subjective choices and weightings and they are a simplification of a real process which means you could run 10^30 simulations and it still couldn't give you objectively correct numbers.

    Also putting aside elections, simulations in general can't tell us the future state of society. If they could then we'd already be living in a utopia because then we could simulate many different futures under different policies to see which one is optimal. Society isn't governed based on simulation results simply because the idea doesn't make any sense in principle.
    Last edited by PC2; 2020-10-28 at 06:27 PM.

  18. #21418
    Quote Originally Posted by Adam Jensen View Post
    Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, they're all masters of being able to sound smart, while being stupid and/or grifters. Can't really blame them, it works.

    I mean, if you have no ethics and only care about money that is.
    They’re all just con men. Like Prager U, Candace Owens + Blexiteers, Tim Poop, Andy Ngo, Joy Villa, Meghan McCain, Miles Cheong and many more.
    Last edited by DingDongKing; 2020-10-28 at 06:21 PM.

  19. #21419
    Quote Originally Posted by Rasulis View Post
    Something to keep in mind in PA. In 2016, there were 4 million registered Democrats compared to 3.2 million Republicans. In 2020 there are 4.2 million Democrats and about 3.5 million Republicans, and 1.3 million NPAs. If the trend continues, PA may turn red for good. However, for now, there are still 700,000 more Democratic voters than GOP voters. That 700,000 voters will be a big factor during a high turnout election.

    The early voting numbers reflect that. With almost one-third of 2016 total vote count in (or 22% of eligible voters), Dem is leading by 928k votes right now. The lead may go down to around 500k by the end of the election, but I doubt that there is enough GOP voters left in PA to reverse it completely.
    If republicans continue to gain 100k voters per every 4 years like they did the last 4 years apparently, they will catch up with democrats in 28 more years. The republicans catching up is a problem, and I would say a BIG problem. But Pennsylvania turning red is still a ways off, if ever.

    If I understand PA politics correctly, fracking is what is keeping rural Pennsylvania employed and red. The decline of fracking will continue to be very bad for rural Pennsylvania. During Obama's presidency, fracking flourished in Pennsylvania. During Trump's presidency fracking has crashed. Regardless of how this election turns out, fracking will continue to decline over the next election cycle or two.

    Two news items of note.

    Now is the time to start talking about how much of a problem democratic, I mean government, spending is.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/m/4b180b4f...%C3%A9-of.html

    Title: This billionaire protégé of George Soros has returned 30% a year for decades — here’s his gloomy take on what’s next in the stock market

    Excepts:

    ‘We have borrowed so much that I’m skeptical that three to five years out that equities will give us any kind of return.’
    The above is in large blue text to be quite prominent.

    That’s billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller talking about how a Democratic sweep of the White House and Congress in the upcoming elections could prove to be a headwind for the stock market for years to come. His comments, cited by Bloomberg News, were made on Tuesday at the virtual Robin Hood Investors Conference.

    One way Druckenmiller, with a net worth of $5.8 billion, is reportedly playing the prospect of higher taxes and inflation is that he’s short the U.S. dollar DXY, 0.53%, sources at the conference told Bloomberg. He predicted that, in four years, inflation will top 4%, gold prices GOLD, -4.32% and bond yields will be higher, and the unemployment rate will be about 7%.
    He is predicting that democratic power in 2020-2024 will be bad for the economy, especially with the deficit being so high. A subtext of his argument is that since Trump has put us so far in debt that it would be really bad for democrats to initiate any new spending projects. And he is careful to blame it all on the democrats.

    And the October Surprise: <hopefully we will soon stop caring about Trump>

    Yahoo headline:

    Trump taxes reveal new details about Chicago tower

    When his skyscraper proved a disappointment, Donald Trump defaulted on his loans, sued his bank, got much of the debt forgiven — and largely avoided paying taxes on it.
    SURPRISE!!!

  20. #21420
    Quote Originally Posted by shimerra View Post
    Please stop speaking about subjects you are profoundly ignorant on.
    that is every single subject.

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