President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

I've thought that for a few years.

Ragu has thought it since 1996.

 

BUY THE DIPS!!!!

 

Gold, canned goods and ammo.

 

Toilet paper?

 

The American economy is very very large and it takes time for it to turn around in any direction. The causes of most extreme crashes take time for their effects to go critical. The pandemic and its aftermath are an exception, but it took a decade for the bull market of the '20s to generate its crash and the Depression, and it took decades of financialization of the world economy to cause the global financial crisis and subsequent recession. Even an all out trade war due to Trump would take time to impact most Americans to the point where everything else would slide into recession. I guess we could have another pandemic of some kind, but in that vase Trump's policies will lead to a death rate that'll transcend worries about portfolios, grocery prices, or jobs.

 

WaPo didn’t make a victory party donation.

 

Hi, I'm William Devane. You know, our country used to produce genuinely great leaders. I should know. I played JFK and my dad was FDR's chauffeur. It's true. But now....we've got psychos running the country. They're only concerned with lining their pockets....not yours or mine. I use gold as a hedge against their dangerous policies. That's why I buy gold from Rosland Capital every chance I get.

 

You are completely right but also my tongue was completely in cheek

 

I miss Ragu and hope he's doing okay.

 

You can't openly encourage more violence in the streets, but you can damn sure head nod to it.

"Vice-president elect JD Vance will bring Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran recently acquitted on homicide charges related to an incident on a New York City subway, to the Army-Navy game on Saturday."

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/13/daniel-penny-jd-vance-army-navy-game-00194222

 

FDR screams in agony from the great beyond.

RFK's Jr.'s lawyer has asked the FDA to revoke polio vaccine approval: NYT

 

Lemme try to do an Imposter Ragu post.

I think their car sales were slightly down this year - around 7 percent, poking around various articles - but they're tried to mitigate it by allowing lease buybacks, which they had restricted for about two years because of another Musk idea that seemingly went nowhere (using formerly leased cars as a fleet of robotaxis). Other manufacturers have eaten into their U.S. EV market share, and its now under 50 percent, and Tesla has probably squandered its headstart it had over the traditional carmakers. It's still wild to me that they're seemingly only interested in making sedans and whatever the Cybertruck is - they don't have a minivan or a conventional pick-up, both of which are vehicle types that sell really well. The Model X (starts at a whopping $80k now) and Model Y have both slipped to middle of the pack in Car & Driver. It's not clear how much more growth they have in car sales.

Musk as a political figure has always clashed with his actual business interests. I suppose his thinking (if he is thinking about any of this) is that he'll be able to influence Trump, and his company will be the one solar and electric car company to benefit from the new administration. I think it's far more likely that they'll be on the outs at some point, because nobody seemingly stays in Trump's orbit for long.

The issue with shorting Tesla stock is that it's pretty expensive proposition, and who knows when the dip will happen? It's trading at almost double Apple right now, even though its revenue is 1/4 and its yearly profit is smaller too ($15b vs. $97b). But it's absolutely trading at a value that's not connected with the reality of the company at all. If this Tesla sales dip is the start of a trend, that's going to be bad times, since so much of the rest of Musk's empire is propped up by the stock price of it. (Twitter's revenue, for example, dropped from $660m in a 2022 quarter before Musk to $114m in a similar quarter now, per Benzinga via Yahoo.) Tesla does have some products besides cars that are still well-regarded - I think they're still the gold standard for solar batteries, and their panels are well-regarded too - but that industry is also in tumult thanks to the incoming Trump administration and legislative changes in California that heavily disincentivized home solar panels.