Among other reasons you’ve been given:

• The figured MN folks would be peaceable and lay down.
• No open carry of weapons.
• Didn’t think they’d show out in deep winter. (HAH!)

I bought one! Not that brand, forget what I have, but I can’t afford to replace the carpet so I need it.

Exactly one.

Same play, everytime isn’t it?

• Ridiculous threat.

• A “deal” is made.

• Capitulation.

• “Look at what a great dealmaker I am!”

If this is apparent to a dumbass like me, I cannot see why the media cannot simply say it out loud.

In his first admin, watching his tweets was as good as watching Fox News.

Vance will immediately catch all the blame for Trump’s actions. I do not envy his upcoming role.

The cultists are aware on some level that this is all madness, but they’ve committed, can’t change their support.

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

None of them rallied for Vance, and they’ll eat him alive the second he’s sworn in. With Trump dead, “These OTHER people fooled me!”

It ALL changes when Trump dies, overnight. No cult survives the death of the leader. Vance steps in, he’s immediately to blame for everything Trump did. Many of these fanatics are looking for an offramp from the madness, but they can’t turn on Trump. (They don’t know this, but they need a way to say they weren’t wrong.)

Or, look at it from another angle, you think MAGA gives two shits about Hegseth, Miller, Bondi, Vought, Kennedy, Noem, et. al.? LOL, man-on-the-street doesn’t have a clue who those people are, but they’ll turn into targets without Trump’s cover.

OR, think on this. Would Germany have continued down the Nazi path if Hitler had died early in the game? Hell, even if he died late in the game, think the people would have rallied behind Goebbels or Dönitz?

Anyone who’s been around someone with a serious case of NPD, or a toddler, knows exactly how to play Trump. EU leaders tried some of those games, but now that his dementia is off the cliff, he’s no longer predictable, time to cut the cord and get it over with.

Easy to say, I know. I’m not responsible for my country’s economy and citizen welfare.

I have no investments. Cashed out what little I had over the past two years of unemployment.

But you have a point in looking to opportunities. Always ways to profit from change and crisis. I’m more worried about the overall health of our individual investments. People usually aren’t hustling their money around. Most simply contribute to their Roth or IRA or whatever and let the market play out over decades, just as we were taught.

What do you get when your search “terminal”? My home rig defaults to PowerShell, but I likely changed something years ago.

I’m a Windows sysadmin, this is the exact explanation. The only other thing, and this is going way out on a limb, is that terminal was installed through the Windows Store and something related is busted. I’ve never even heard of a company utilizing the Store for installations.

Read all your comments, would like your take on the Buffett Index topping 200% for the first time (total stock market value vs. GDP). It was around 130% in 1929 and 2008.

Considering the disproportionate amount of stocks in AI, and, so far, no clear path to investors seeing a return, I’m scared shitless.

What’s your take on that bit?

Not OP, but first and foremost, on this bond thing, countries are going to have to be willing to take a beating in their own economies.

Selling off bonds is like Elon selling off Tesla. The worth/wealth disappears if the market is flooded with paper.

Another condition is in our face: The Buffett Index, which is total stock market value vs. GDP. We topped 200% for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was around 130% in 1929 and 2008. Most of that bullshit money is in AI. We got real problems.

Could not have written my exact take as closely as yours.

Only thing I’d add is using it to screw around with personal photos. ChatGPT is cleaning up some 80s pics of my wife that were atrocious. I have rudimentary PhotoShop skills, but we’d never have these clean pics without AI. OTOH, I’d gladly drop that ability to reclaim all the negatives.

Very few laymen have noticed or give a shit about RAM prices. My young friend across the street and I are likely the only people on the block who know what RAM does, let alone are able to build a PC.

Business purchasing is where we might see some backlash soon. I’ve bought all the IT goods, hardware and software, for my last two companies, and I’d be screaming.

Boss: What the hell? Weren’t we getting these laptops for $1,200 last year?!

Skill in Excel is wholly different than skills in other Office products. But if Excel is on your resume, your better expand and show what real use you’ve made of it. Otherwise it comes off just as you said.

I do. Got a free license from my last job and Excel blows the doors off Calc, or anything else. For business, Excel is moat of the reason they’re so tied into Office.

Hitler did much on the same, though there’s no 1-to-1 comparison. At least Hitler’s regime brought the population up from staggering poverty to plenty. American fascist policies are failing to show such an upturn. ATM, they’re bringing slightly cheaper gasoline at the pump.

Kind of a big deal! People notice those prices and petro-economies (basically all of them) run on gasoline. American voters are simple, cheap gas good. Sounds OK so far.

That’s it. And most other economic factors are worse. (Don’t look up the “Buffett Index”, for your own sanity.) The GOP has pulled all the supports that were to keep us from Great Depression 2.0.

See how the Trump regime loses support? In any case, he’s clearly suffering dementia, which only gets worse, and god knows what other health ailments. Once the cult leader is dead, anyone taking his place catches ALL the blame for ALL the things. But by then, too late.

Interesting times indeed.

I am both disgusted and wanting to try one again. Even though I know damned well I’m getting corn syrup, Jägermeister, eye shadow and Cure songs in my mouth.

Why would you do this to me?!

The US Supreme Court often goes against Trump. Not putting any hope in them stopping him, but at least they apply some breaks. Also consider, they owe Trump nothing. He put three of them in there, 1/3rd of the seats, but they defy Trump with impunity, holding their seats for life.

If we could eliminate Alito and Thomas, even replacing them with un-bribed conservatives, it would be a whole new ballgame. Rulings would still suck, but not like this.

tl:dr; SCOTUS is conservative, not partisan.