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Post by epaul on Aug 6, 2024 11:18:15 GMT -5
I think the pick was based on campaign energy. And energy doesn't come from the middle, energy comes from the edges. Walz will feed the energy of Kamala's "base" while Shapiro would have lessened it. Ride the Kamala wave and hope the energy and optimism of the ticket brings enough of the middle along with it to win.
Both Harris and Trump picked a VP to feed their base, not the middle. But of the two, Walz will prove have a much greater appeal to the middle than Vance, to whatever degree that matters.
Both JD and Walz will be tied to their respective edges. But, Walz is at heart a moderate fellow who likes beer, fishing, and football, and that will shine through. And Walz has a long congressional career marked by moderation and working both sides of aisle to help offset the progressive joyride the current MN legislature just took.
On the campaign trail, Walz will appear to be the good-hearted, wise uncle who is just trying to settle the family arguments down and get everyone back to the dinner table. Walz looks reassuringly moderate.
Unlike JD. No moderate reassurance to be found in that visage. Yond J.D. has a lean and hungry look coupled with a personal history marked by ambition, the only constant to be found.
Not my bias. Polls will reveal. Amongst moderates, Vance's negatives will be off the charts while Walz will do pretty well.
So, Walz is a good pick. Walz will keep the progressive base energized without making the middle retch. Which Vance is doing. Vance is a bad pick. Base is happy, but middle is retching.
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 23:16:09 GMT -5
But, the season is not over, and White Sox are only 41.5 games out of first.
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 23:02:37 GMT -5
White Sox lose to the A's, 5-1. Magic number is now 3!
Tension builds!
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 18:41:05 GMT -5
I hate it when that happens!
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 12:51:04 GMT -5
All percentages below are top of the head guesses, but the point holds:
Maybe 20% of the stock market is "in and outers", i.e. day traders/program traders. Their market trades are short term. Time a stock, the market, catch a wave, see the trend, money in/money out. These are the current sellers.
80% of the market is institutions and pension funds. This portion of the market is long term with investments made on a schedule regardless of short-term market performance. For these investors, a dump in the market is actually positive as they get more shares per dollar invested and are ahead of the game once the market resumes its climb... a climb their steady, rain or shine, investment insures will resume.
This 80% fixed and steady investment base of institution and pension places a solid bottom to the market, a solid bottom the short term day and program traders know exists. And each trader and each computer program has an idea of when this bottom will be hit... and is dead set of getting back in the market just before it does. And as the day follows the long night, the short term money, at some point, flows back into the market. And this insures that every market bottom is just a bounce.
No comfort if you have to sell. These are the times those dog boring bonds should finally prove their worth and carry the load for awhile. If rates are going to be cut, it should be a good time to sell them.
This market advice costs nothing and is nearly worth the worth the price.
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 9:50:45 GMT -5
When it hits $15, I'm sinking the farm in it.
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 9:47:42 GMT -5
Morning!
Today got off to a pretty rough start for me. The battery in my toothbrush went dead and I had to wiggle the thing back and forth by hand. I had forgotten how much work that was.
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Post by epaul on Aug 5, 2024 9:44:07 GMT -5
and because he is stuck out in Iceland which has horrible baseball coverage...
Marshall, your beloved White Sox have now lost 20 games in a row and are only 4 games away from setting the Major League Baseball Record for the longest losing streak (set by Philadelphia Phillies in 1963)!
Already, by losing 20 in a row, they are in rare company achieving a losing streak that has been matched by only three other major league teams in the modern era.
Tonight the White Sox open a three game series with the Oakland A's. If they are able to lose these three games, the White Sox will have the opportunity to SET THE MAJOR LEAGUE RECORD...WHEN THEY PLAY THE CUBS AUGUST 9th.
You will want to fly home should this monumental event present itself. I will keep you informed.
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Post by epaul on Aug 4, 2024 12:15:54 GMT -5
68 degrees at noon. The heat wave has broken. We will have a nice week coming up of highs not breaking out of the 70s. Ahhhh...
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Post by epaul on Aug 3, 2024 12:03:45 GMT -5
There are little things I do that connect me with my dad, bring him back, put him in the room with me. Well, now, peeling cantaloupe is one of them.
My dad loved fishing for walleyes. And he took great pride in his ability to produce perfect fillets. It was more than a necessary job, it became an art, a joy. He studied the masters of the fish house, absorbed their secrets, and became a master himself. He treated his fillet knife with the care and sacred regard of a samurai handling a blade that was once held by the great Kato himself.
But, on my end, the fish house was a club I wanted no part of. I couldn't stand those screened huts with their buckets of fish heads, scales, and guts. I was good with the catching and the eating parts, but the necessary middle never took. And when dad was gone, so was fishing for walleyes. I now much prefer trolling for pizzas and cheeseburgers.
But, one day, while hacking away at a cantaloupe, I remembered my dad. I recalled him filleting walleyes, the pride and skill he brought to the task, the enjoyment. And inspiration struck. I went to Cabela's and bought a good fillet knife. Not Kato quality, but pretty good. And then I studied cantaloupe prep at the feet of the Youtube Masters of Cantaloupe.
And I practiced.
Not days upon days, but darn near for an hour.
And now, as I slide my fillet knife smoothly between the cantaloupe's meet of skin and flesh, I think of my dad proudly producing one perfect fillet after another. And I can feel him looking on at me with pride as I do the same with my cantaloupe.
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Post by epaul on Aug 3, 2024 11:12:49 GMT -5
Morning!
Listening to thunder as I coffee. Cool front is approaching. A little rain would be fine. The coming break in the heat will be wonderful. Man, I can't believe how fast I'm typing. Nowhere near the speed of Gus, Anna, or Charlene... they fly with fingers a blur. But, for me, I just amazed myself.
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Post by epaul on Aug 3, 2024 10:19:16 GMT -5
Head over to a Buffalo Wild Wings. Free TV. Wings extra.
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Post by epaul on Aug 3, 2024 10:16:33 GMT -5
Ok. Does Wednesday, 9:30 AM work for you? There is also a Thursday slot open at 2:00 PM. Pants required.
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Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 21:32:26 GMT -5
Well, I had a perfectly good password that I used for everything, but someone had to go and ruin it.
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Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 21:14:32 GMT -5
Well, it has everything to do with Trump. Trump made his political mark by invoking race and stirring racism. The entire "Birther" business. Race and Racism. That was Trump's start, the Birther business. Playing on white fears and prejudices by cooking up a pile of absurd lies. And it worked for much of his base. Half of his base still believes Obama is a foreign born Muslim.
If something works once, Trump figures it will work again. Play the race card for his audience. Harris is black, no, she's pretending to be black; she's Indian, no she's hiding it; what is she, what is she pretending to be? Whatever the phony is pretending to be, she is not qualified. She was picked because she pretended to be black.
A DIVERSITY HIRE! NOT QUALIFIED!
Diversity pick?
Hell, every Vice President selected for the last 150 years was a diversity pick. Presidential candidate from the East or North, pick a VP from the West or South. If old, grab young. Balance the ticket. Diversity.
And not qualified?
What the hell are the qualifications to be VP? You need to be either a state governor or a U.S. Senator. That's it. No IQ test, no sack race, no nothing. Just be a governor or Senator.
Someone about to drafted to play football is given a battery of tests: football reaction tests, physical measurements of every single body part, interviews with shrinks, football IQ tests, races and jumps. But, to be a United States VP? All you need is to be a governor or a senator and somehow convince the brain trust of presidential campaign that you balance the ticket, bring diversity, somehow add to the ticket's appeal.
So, Biden, an old white guy from the northeast picked a young black woman Senator from California. Diversity hire? Yep. They all are. Every darn one. Qualified? Damn right! She was a Senator. That is all the qualification needed.
But, Trump is up to his old tricks. Working the race card by making up complete bullshit.
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Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 19:26:21 GMT -5
And we will be able find out what she thinks from her mouth instead of "Someone's".
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Economy
Aug 2, 2024 19:22:34 GMT -5
Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 19:22:34 GMT -5
First, I see a lot Bernie Sander's economic thoughts on this thread (from an unxpected quarter). Then I just heard Bernie himself on MPR. Synchronicity!
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Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 16:26:50 GMT -5
So must I.
Who is this someone? Really who?
I heard so much of that particular event, actual unedited segments, from reporters and from Trump, complete, on NPR and PBS that I have a good chunk of it memorized.
Really, who is this someone? The event got extensive coverage. (even here)
It must be the same person that thinks Harris is campaigning from her basement. That is either amazingly ignorant or flat out stupid. She has been has out somewhere every single day...Wisconsin currently.
And she is begging Trump for a debate.
And further, she lives in a split level and doesn't even have a basement.
SHEESH!
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Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 12:05:43 GMT -5
Let's recap...
Trump had spent the week claiming Harris was originally ashamed to be black and bragged up her Indian half. Then she realized it was more advantageous to be black as blacks get all kinds of free stuff, including jobs they aren't qualified for, like her VP gig; Kamala Harris didn't deserve the job, wasn't qualified, she was a diversity hire, not legit.
Then Trump shows up in front of the black journalists' convention, a group that has fought to get their jobs and supports their fellow members that have these few jobs and probably has become a little irritated with a presidential candidate who has been using his megaphone to tell his audience that blacks aren't qualified to hold the jobs they have because they got them only because they were black and were diversity hires (a hugely popular message with his white base).
So, Trump shows up in front of this organization whose purpose is to support and advocate for their members, and the very first question he gets is, "Why are you saying Kamala Harris was ashamed to be black until she realized being black could get her jobs she wasn't qualified for and didn't deserve?"
If it was a little testy, it still was an understandable question and a fair one, and it deserved an answer:
["because I am an opportunistic lying sack of shit and I think it will get me votes because I am prone to extreme and harmful misrepresentations when I think I they will benefit me."]
Anyway, that's the event that got you off on this well-worn and grooved track of yours triggered this longstanding and understandable concern of yours?
[my near death experience while oiling my trombone slide has prompted a new, kinder, political Paul. It will be a long 100 days.]
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Post by epaul on Aug 2, 2024 9:06:12 GMT -5
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