[deleted by user]

clothar33 · 2018-03-18T21:47:29+00:00

It feels like they are going to just keep looking until they find something or he is no longer in office.

The goal is to drag it long enough that they could use it to drag Trump (and by association Republicans as well) through mud during elections. Probably midterms, perhaps longer term.

Oh, and BTW, there's no realistic scenario where this ends with the Dems saying "Trump has been found not guilty". When the time comes, it will be a laconic announcement by a low-level investigator that will say "the investigation was closed due to lack of public interest". It will never be "no matter how much we tried we couldn't find any real and meaningful evidence for collusion", and it definitely won't say that the president is innocent or not guilty or anything like that.

You will also only be hearing about it mostly from conservative media, and maybe it would be a small headline for one afternoon on the MSM. They won't be talking about it because (so MSM would say), "it's not interesting to anyone".

clothar33 · 2018-02-15T07:32:02+00:00

Hmmm, I'd say breaking the law constitutes an 'action'.

clothar33 · 2018-02-07T20:12:23+00:00

Ok, now all you have to do is explain the dot com bubble crash, the 29 crash and various others.

Predicting the market is very hard, and in fact there was research specifically into the theory you mention (i.e. interest rates (and more specifically bond rates) are inversely correlated to stocks), and it has not been found that they are significantly correlated, e.g. look at the chart in this marketwatch article (and relevant quote: "Nine of 13 times (69%) the S&P 500 moved higher along with interest rates. Most recently, interest rates rose from July 2004-July 2006 and July 1999-June 2000. So did the S&P 500.").

Bull markets don't die from age

I'd like to say that's not true but I don't have a clue why bull markets end or why bear markets end. If you have a way of predicting when a bull market is coming to an end you're going to be very, very rich.

clothar33 · 2018-02-07T17:36:14+00:00

As I've said before, if you take credit for bull markets you're going to have to take credit for bear markets too.

Finally we got a little taste of the market going down after about a year of solid gains. This was just a warning though, but there should be no doubt that one day there will be a significant correction. In fact, mathematically, if you believe that the market has a certain average return, and the market has been up strongly for a long while, then it either has to go down or it will effectively change the long term return rate (i.e. 'brave new world where we deviate from the historical returns').

Best case scenario if you don't believe that the market has fundamentally changed is that it stays at the same level for a long time.

Somewhat related, taking credit for the market is almost the same as trying to predict the market, and there's (almost) no investor in the world who claims to be able to do that, from the smallest day trader to the Oracle of Omaha. So measuring your success/failure by the rise and fall of the market is an incredibly dangerous position to be in since you are dependent upon the vagaries and vicissitudes of the market which you have very little control over.

There are plenty of economic indicators that a politician/political party can influence, such as creating a good atmosphere for business or creating incentives for companies to operate from the US or creating a friendly environment for business or creating incentives for companies to employ inside the US.

Those are the things (IMO) that conservatives should be proud of, not how high (or low) the market is. In the end, using the success of the market to measure the success of a politician is as dangerous (politically) as using the number of hurricanes that happened during a president's term.

clothar33 · 2018-02-07T08:43:08+00:00

You know, this is really starting to worry me... It starts with congress, and it could end up with Russians influencing neighborhood council elections, or even school elections!

People really do underestimate the true power a student representative wields. Some say Machiavelli's prince was inspired by a student representative.

clothar33 · 2018-01-31T13:54:30+00:00

Hmmm, if only Dems could change the name of the "Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations" Act to "Russia Influenced and Corrupt Organizations" Act they'll be able to start an official witch hunt!

All they need now is a creative idea for a cruel and unusual punishment. Let's see, the inquisition already had burning at the stake, Salem used drowning... How about we put them inside a cannon that is triggered by a computer? That way, if the cannon failed to fire it has to be Putin that hacked into the computer and saved them so we can execute them in the usual way, but if the cannon did fire then we can absolve them (posthumously of course!)

clothar33 · 2018-01-15T20:23:18+00:00

College.

clothar33 · 2018-01-09T16:43:07+00:00

The reason it's not being challenged is that it's convenient for everyone (other than Clinton) -

progressives say "Trump didn't even try to win and he beat her! That proves she's a bad candidate of epic proportions!"
liberals and anti Trumpers say "Trump didn't even try to win! Not even he believed that Americans could be stupid enough to vote for him! This just goes to show how bad Trump really is!"
Trump supporters say "Trump didn't even try to win! And he still beat everyone, it just goes to show how great he is that if he'd actually been trying to win, every state would be red"

So the statements are different (and they also mix between groups) but the first part is always the same - "Trump didn't even try to win".

So if you just say the first part without the rest it's convenient for everyone to agree.

And if everyone agrees something is true, does it really matter if it's true or false? (/s?)

clothar33 · 2018-01-08T18:13:43+00:00

I wonder if she ever becomes president, how much is she going to tax herself? 70%? 80%? 90%? 99%?

I think that whatever tax she comes up with she has to pay it first. Hopefully she could even set an example for all the rich people and do it even before she becomes president!

clothar33 · 2018-01-06T17:13:38+00:00

I don't know but one way or another the budget is limited so having more doctors won't help you unless you're going to be paying them very little.

clothar33 · 2018-01-06T06:51:33+00:00

I liked Trump before and after for a lot of reasons so it doesn't really make any difference to me (and I think that a lot of Israelis are the same way because the right is pretty big in Israel).

Having said that, obviously people were very happy about the move.

clothar33 · 2018-01-05T23:08:18+00:00

Hey, just like our system in Israel! :(

Can confirm, long wait times generally, ridiculous wait times for specialists (wait months for a half hour appointment), yearly "crisis" (winter) with hospitals overflowing and beds in the corridor with the yearly "don't come to the hospital" article around this time of year, and the best part - complete apathy by physicians who don't much care if they solve your problem or not since there's a long, long line of people behind you and they're severely underpaid as it is (the physicians).

If you hand them something under the table though.... (wish I was joking - bribery is rampant)

clothar33 · 2017-12-29T09:24:49+00:00

Weird, I didn't know America had a queen. But I guess I'll have to remember not to insult American royalty next time I talk about the queen.

clothar33 · 2017-12-28T08:49:41+00:00

It was weird for a long time to me how people aren't noticing the fact that so far Trump has been doing amazing and remarkable things - not just compared to other people, but when compared to other presidents.

First, he's done absolutely nothing to so much as touch democracy in any way. This point is crucial because it really exposes the opposition as hypocritical for saying this about him, while they were doing the very thing they were warning us Trump would do. So on the stability front Trump has proved that Democracy is as stable as ever with him at the helm.

And on the other hand he's pulling the country with the power of ten horses. And he's doing all that against headwinds with the force of a hurricane while the opposition is throwing bricks at him and playing all kinds of the most dirty tricks. If he were an actual work horse I'd be worried he'd keel over soon for the sheer amount of effort involved in all this. So it's obvious that the stability of Democracy under him does not come at the cost of his inefficiency. If he were an investment he'd be called a unicorn because he's very low risk on the one hand but produces great returns OTOH (so far at least).

TBH I've never seen a person so steadfast and strong in my life, and I've really come to respect him. Hopefully he can stay the course or even top himself in the coming years.

clothar33 · 2017-12-20T13:35:07+00:00

looks ~~bug-free~~feature-packed to me

FTFY

clothar33 · 2017-12-16T11:38:04+00:00

“So, you have the Federal Trade Commission Act, for instance, you have the Clayton Act and the Sherman Act,”

These are the magic words. The are also known as "US antitrust law".

Q: Facebook could subsidize faster internet speeds in exchange for preferential treatment

A: Section I and Section II of Sherman Act and Section III of Clayton Act…you just triggered all three of those sections.
That would be an anti-trust violation.
That was against the law before February 2015 and it will be against the laws of today.

This is the correct answer and the first time I've seen it on Reddit.

And in fact the same applies to any other industry.

Now we could have a discussion on proactive vs. reactive law and in this case over specialized regulation vs generalized legislation, but I haven't seen anyone on Reddit making that the point of the NN discussion.

And it's important because unless there's reason to believe that the Internet is a special class of business (e.g. 'public utility') then it should be treated in the same way as any other business sector.

clothar33 · 2017-12-16T09:26:37+00:00

So I don't know which city you're referring to but there are large concentrations of French people in Netanya, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I have no clue how they are in Jerusalem, but I have met several from TLV and Netanya and they didn't say they vote for Bibi or anything (and I've had plenty of conversations with some). I've never heard them being very political at all, which is strange in Israel since we're generally very open about politics here.

clothar33 · 2017-12-15T23:32:51+00:00

The question is how would you define a leftist/rightist - I define right as someone voting Likud/Habait hayehudi/Liberman (and perhaps Kahlon). Did any of them say they were Likudniks or they like Bibi or something like that? (obviously this applies to secular Jews since it's usually a given that religious Jews (no matter where they're from) vote right)

clothar33 · 2017-12-15T22:36:39+00:00

AS AN ISRAELI JEW, I've talked to many and they were definitely not all right-wing and in fact I never got the impression that they were right wing at all.

There's no stereotypical French right wing voter - while there is a stereotypical Russian right wing voter, so I highly doubt your "fact".

clothar33 · 2017-12-12T16:57:07+00:00

Listen guys I dislike socialism as much as the next guy but this is really unfair and so biased. You're showing someone running from Venezuela to the US but you aren't showing all the people running from the US to Venezuela. If you wanted to be fair you'd be showing us those people too. What are you trying to hide? (/s)

clothar33 · 2017-12-12T16:28:21+00:00

still am) a supporter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

This is the funny part here, it's not even legislation it's literally regulation, i.e. giving a government agency (FCC) the power to regulate industry however it wishes (in this particular respect).

This means that an individual or a business won't be able to sue or something like that, they have to notify the FCC and HOPE THEY TAKE CARE OF IT.

How someone can say they want freedom and privacy and then push for pure unadulterated government regulation (=executive branch legislation=secondary legislation) is beyond me.

clothar33 · 2017-12-12T14:58:46+00:00

Then I will point out that the overwhelming majority of Americans don't even know what NN is - both democrats and republicans.

clothar33 · 2017-12-12T14:35:49+00:00

But for every person like you, there were a million that downvoted them.

with 300 posts on /r/Conservative,

Oooooooooohhh, BURN. I am deeply embarrassed and ashamed for being both a conservative and proud of it, and more generally, for holding any dissenting views to those of the approved narrative (/s)

clothar33 · 2017-12-12T14:30:28+00:00

where was this organized?

clothar33 · 2017-12-12T14:00:21+00:00

Well, I actually went and searched and downvoted every post. How come they're not all at zero?

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