High demand suggests increased prices.. Good grief.. supply and demand...

Yes he did. He was out of the Oval Office at the exact time/date specified by the Constitution and Legislation. What he did was dispute and challenge the election. So what? That's why we have 3 branches.. The SCOTUS made their ruling and he left. Nobody mobilized the military in an attempt to stay in power....

Intel might not be 30-seconds from collapse, but it is undergoing severe financial problems. It also employs 109,000 people. Just last quarter it reported (for its manufacturing division) a loss of $3.2 billion.

You say that like it's a fact. Is it? I don't have access to Intel's internal financial information. Do you? I do know, from their SEC filings, that they had a loss of $19 billion for FY 2024. Now, I'm not suggesting that means they are on the brink of collapse, but I do know their Market Cap is $119 billion. So, that loss represents an amount nearly equal to 1/6 of their total market capitalization. That's not good..

The government has always had that power. Hell, the government, at all levels, often enacts legislation that gives a company a total monopoly (not relevant here - except to point out that the government has often used legislation to benefit companies). At the Federal level we had the Bell System (for nearly a century). At more local levels, often cable TV companies are granted total monopolies.

Likewise, when the government approves a purchase contract with a company, it's often based on specific legislation.

The Federal Reserve is not, nor has it ever been, independent. It's no more independent than the US Postal Service. C'mon... the President appoints the Chairman of the Fed... He also appoints every single one of the Board of Governors. i.e. 100% of the governing body of the Federal Reserve is appointed by the POTUS. (All appointments are confirmed by the Senate)

Except he can't. That's as crystal clear as you can get in the Constitution. We only ever had one President that served more than two terms and that was that FDR clown. Congress and 100% of the states signed off on the Amendment to prevent that from ever happening again.

Where? Every single time he does anything, he gets sued.. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses, but all 3 branches are operating properly. What I'm believing is that y'all are just unhappy with the outcomes (fair enough), but that doesn't mean the system isn't working. It's just not working the way y'all want. But it is (mostly) working the way our side wants.

Are you really suggesting everyone should get worked up over things that only exist in your head? It's 10% now. We don't react to shit that hasn't happened and may never happen.

Maybe it will change.. Maybe he wants 99%. I don't know. Neither do you. You aren't a Trump insider.

The facts, as they stand now, are that Intel is in some financial woes and the Federal Government is buying a 10% stake. That's the sum total of what's going on.

What in the actual fuck are you talking about?

A 10% equity stake is nationalizing, eh?

And, for the record fucktard, that'd be Fascism, not Communism.

What fucking textbooks is your dumb ass reading?

Thank you. Likewise, I agree that not every Democrat wanted Kamala and it's quite likely that some Republicans voted for her.

This time, Yes. I did not vote for him on his previous two runs. CA is a winner-takes-all state and leans to the left by about a 6-4 margin. I took the opportunity during the previous two elections to vote for the Libertarian candidate. Prior to that I voted for Obama twice.

It's a 10% equity stake, from what I understand. 10% gets you control of nothing. (Perhaps a seat on the board). What coercion to you speak of? As for how I feel about it.. Mixed feelings. I tend to be a "if they're gonna fail, let them fail" person. Intel, however, does employ north of 100,000 people.. And while I'm not a "too big to fail" believer, I do accept that perhaps 100,000 people losing their job all at once might not be a desirable outcome in this economy. If it is being done as an investment (they get cash, we get dividends (or can sell the stock later at a profit)) then I don't really have a major problem with it. I'm not a binary thinker. I believe in nuance. I do hope that someone has done their due-diligence and has determined this to be a minimal/acceptable-risk investment.

Well, he does appear to be shrinking the overall size of the federal government. There has been a lot of leftist angst about that... And I'm not convinced that the government having minority stakes in companies is at odds with Capitalism. If the government can award a company a contract, why can't they take a minority equity stake?

I know what fascism is. I don't believe we have fascism. I'm also very aware that this is not something new. I could cite dozens of previous instances of the government buying equity stakes in companies under both Republican as well as Democratic administrations. (see the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) for examples of similar under Democrats). This has been occurring, off and on, for longer than a century.

Was it fascism when Democrats or previous Republicans did it? I don't think so.. I'd argue that Fascism comes about when the Federal Government begins directly controlling entire sectors of the economy and we're not in a national crisis. For example, I don't think it was Fascism when FDR basically nationalized entire chunks of the economy during World War 2.. We were engaged in Total War.... And afterwards, things mostly went back to normal.

There certainly is a cult of personality. I will not disagree with that. However, Trump is, by convention, the leader of the Republican Party. When we have a Democratic President, he is (also by convention) the leader of the Democratic party. So no, I don't have a problem with his massive influence. What I do have a problem with is the left constantly fear-mongering that he's not gonna leave office when his term is up. My response to that is generally something along the lines of "We had a two-term system for 158 years. It wasn't enforce by law, it was enforced by tradition... Right until that cunt FDR decided he was not only deserving of a 3rd term... but a 4th term as well. (and then, thankfully, he died).

Well, that freaked everyone out so bad we made an Amendment so it could never happen again. Trump will bitch and moan and whine and then HE WILL LEAVE OFFICE.

It's Friday night. I have to work tomorrow so I'm going to beg your leave to cut this short. Though we may disagree I respect (and appreciate) the way you have expressed yourself. I often fail short of that same level of maturity. That is my failing.

Okay... I'll give you that. But that's what's known as a "nuance". That's not what the OP said or even implied. He said & implied that every Republican is pro-Trump and that's simply not true. I don't know what the percentages are.. But there are a few in my circle and it's not a huge circle.. So.. It's some non-insignificant percentage.. Most of them are "Trump-tolerant", for lack of a better term. And there are certainly Republicans at the local level who aren't Pro-Trump.. Point is, I never would have said some dumb shit like "All Democrats are Biden-ites". Thankfully, enough of you voted for our guy.. and we appreciate that.

The retards are the morons who keep pointing to the "book" definition of Communism rather than the "as implemented by 100% of the countries that practiced it" version of Communism.

I might look retarded, but you are actually retarded.

Dude, it's not like there were a few bad actors in the "Let's give Communism a try" collection of countries. The way it was implemented was nearly identical in 100% of cases.

It always started with "Socialism" and then rapidly progressed.. 100% of the effing time. And don't you dare point to the Nordic countries. They aren't socialist and they never have been. They're welfare states. Huge difference. They know damn well that their Capitalism must be strong and vigorous to generate the amount of taxes they need to dole out all those nice benefits.

Right.. Because every person who identifies with the Republican Party is a Trumpist... That's all you people can do... 50/50.. Yes/No.. Right/Wrong... Everything is binary with you idiots. Should I assume that, because the Democrat Party appears to be endorsing actual Communists, that every single one of you left-wingers is a Commie-lover? Should I assume that every. single. one. of you Democrats hates Trump? (If you think that's a true statement, then you're not living in reality, pal).

So, should I tell those non-commie, Trump-tolerating, Democrats that they aren't Democrats anymore?

For the record: I do like Trump. But I know Republicans that do not like him. Oddly enough, we never argue about it.. Yep... On this side, we actually tolerate diversity of thought. Hell, I know Pro-Abortion conservatives.... I don't harass them about it.. I don't try to get them cancelled, and I don't try to get them fired from their job. We just agree to disagree and then we don't bring it up anymore...

The balls you must have to stand there, on your (probably) white soap box, and tell us what we are. Well, fuck you.... :)

Par for the course though.. The only thing you people hate more than Republicans are pro-Trump minorities.

One does not need to create a boot disc. You can make a bootable thumbdrive or you can just buy a copy of whatever distro you want off eBay for a couple of bucks... Easy peasy.

It's funny that you think some major cities being shit holes somehow defines the entire country. Actually, it's pretty fucking ignorant.

The US only has 10 cities with a population greater than 1,000,000 persons.(And only 110 with a population in excess of 500,00 people)

Not even all the top 10 are shit holes. One major commonality though is that all the cities with high crime rates are run by liberals.....

I'm fully aware that local elections are not federal. I fully understand that states can regulate their own elections. I still DO NOT SUPPORT non citizens voting in any of our damn elections. I understand my position exactly.

You're absolutely right. I don't like Democracy, idiot. NO FUCKING SHIT.

It's like talking to a wall with you morons. And it absolutely does have a meaning. That's the problem with you leftards. You'll discount just about anything, including what someone says to you. I know exactly what I want and you tell me I don't want what I want.

You WANT democracy and I don't. I understand the dangers of democracy. I live in one of the states that has implemented a ton of democracy and IT SUCKS. There is a fundamental difference between democracy and a Constitutional Republic, dumbass.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.” Alexander Fraser Tytler

Pretty fucking accurate, no?

I didn't say it was illegal or unconstitutional, fucktard. The citizens of a country are the only ones that should be voting in any fucking election.

THIS COUNTRY WAS NOT SET UP TO BE A DEMOCRACY, YOU GIGANTIC PIECE OF LIBERAL SHIT.