Wages have outpaced inflation recently. Things have generally been heading in the right direction since the pandemic but it came too late and the masses are mostly ignorant or misinformed so the data is irrelevant to them. Its about how people feel as you point out, there’s not a rational argument against feelings, people feel how they feel. One side has become very good at taping into those feelings, the other side is talking about data and no one gives a shit unless the data validates what they feel.

Air America? It was a lefty talk radio network about 20 years ago that was an attempt to build a parallel media infrastructure that could compete with the monsters on AM radio. Obviously the money ran out so it didn’t last.

Empty places where you can see the horizon but there is no evidence of humanity. It makes me feel the vastness of time, or like I’m outside of time in a way. Its hard to describe but I find it peaceful and it makes me appreciate being alive.

I think it will take longer than that, there’s still a lot of rich people who don’t think Trump will really do the tariffs or the mass deportation. Once it becomes clear that is really happening the economy will likely start getting all kinds of messed up fast.

Also, as others have told you, inflation is actually low again currently and that is why rates are coming down now. This is the “soft landing” that everyone was talking about, just in time for Trump to take the helm.

“When you’re a star, they let you do it”

You dont think Obama in 2008 was a real primary? His campaign fought hard for that nomination, it definitely wasn’t handed to them.

There is a part of the bible about lusting after donkey dicks and horse jizz.

I’m sorry you feel patronized, that wasn’t my intent. It seemed like you were just really ignorant, I didn’t realize you were pretending not to understand. Now I don’t understand how you pretending to be ignorant brings a semblance of reality to anything, that seems very counterintuitive to me.

It looks like he has both shrunk and expanded his voters. From what I’m seeing he did significantly better than he has in the past with various groups and in various places, but you are right it looks like overall his numbers declined by several million. Both sides underperformed compared to 2020 and Trump won because he underperformed less.

In a democracy it is possible to democratically elect an anti-democratic leader. It’s one of the ironies and paradoxes of democratic political systems. I think if you study history some more the world should start making more sense for you.

Trump is so far outperforming compared to 2020, its looking like he did increase his support. Definitely among younger people his numbers are significantly better than 2020.

That has not been my experience of France. Maybe its just me but almost everyone I met in Paris was friendly and many spoke English at least a little. I had some wild nights getting trashed and riding the Metro all over, no one gave me any shit for speaking English anywhere I went. I wouldn’t try to live there without at least a basic understanding of the language but as an English speaking visitor it was perfectly fine and I found the random Parisians I met to generally be cool people and not at all like their reputation.

I still can’t believe Trump cultists wore diapers to his rallies and carried “Real men wear diapers!” signs after it came out that Trump is incontinent. Trump 2024 is truly the weirdest and most unhinged political campaign in US history. You can buy the fucking merch because these people are deranged and this is how they spend their money: https://www.ebay.com/itm/305576950729

From what I’ve read he was trying to convince the journalist Michael Wolff to write his biography so they spent time together doing these interviews.

200k per year, maybe. I have a heavy wool sweater like something a North Sea sailor in the 1800s would wear, I can’t handle it without a thick long sleeved shirt underneath because of how rough and itchy it is. It’s also incredibly warm. Sleeping in that thing would be like having a full time job every night.

Intel could have conceivably competed with them there too. If they were still a competent business and not in a crisis of mismanagement. Its amazing how much better AMD is managed compared to Intel.

That is the downside, FZROX is only available to Fidelity customers. There’s also a potential risk it won’t track total market performance as well as predicted because one of the ways they keep the expense ratio at zero is by only purchasing what is supposed to be an equivalent subset of the total market to keep their transaction costs down. I don’t remember the specifics but I think they leave out lots of tiny companies and its not a significant risk because they couldn’t actually move the needle one way or the other.

If you have an account with Fidelity, FZROX should be a better choice than VTI. Unless you enjoy investing or want to really get into it, either do a target date fund for the easiest and lowest risk, or a total market fund like VTI, or an S&P500 fund like VOO. You really don’t need to overcomplicate beyond that, except to potentially start buying bonds when you are nearing retirement if you didn’t choose a target date fund.

What specifically are you invested in? That chart doesn’t look right if you are investing as you describe.

When restaurants have booth seating where you can feel the person in the booth behind you moving around in their seat.