Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

RH could be justified putting a circuit breaker, and it is legal but that's not what they did. By stopping buys only, and only for retail investors they manipulated down the GME stock price. And that's illegal.
And the idea that GME investors are just idiots., and that small investors in general do not know what they are doing?!.
Right, Melvyn Capital, those are the experts. And idiots on the market get destroyed every day, GME or not. The only difference is that the institutional idiots can afford to buy politicians to protect them.

Now the scumbags who manipulate the market every day for fun an profit, are getting hurt, That's why you can watch those alligator tears everywhere , on CNBC in particular.
And the fact that GME exposed that the stock market became a private enterprise where corruption between big business and politicians reached unbelievable level, that what is really driving this "deep concerns for small investors".
I did not hear a lot of this "we are deeply concerned home owners would get destroyed" in 2006-2008.

In fact pension funds and charities are under numerous legal investment restrictions, two most important are: Quantitative asset restrictions (QAR), and fiduciary duty which is broadly defined, and may vary state by state, but people went to prison for violating this rule.
I love this "we have to protect crooked hedge funds, otherwise something bad is going to happen to all of us.". That's all they have left at this point.
I do not think they are so concerned about financial loses, the real problem is that the system has been exposed as corrupt almost beyond repair.

 

Most actively managed portfolios run by fund managers do not beat an S&P 500 index return. Your average investor does much worse than that. I think there is evidence to support that small investors in general, do not know what they are doing, and mostly just follow the emotional trend.

 

As a pretty fervent George W Bush hater (and artist) I really liked watching this interview with him on Jimmy Kimmel show. Really humanizes him which was a nice experience for me in this super polarized current state of politics where people are so often villianized and everything is made black and white. George comes off as a pretty decent guy for the first time in my life.

 

How I feel looking into a mirror.

 

Well put. At the core of his (and Cheney, McCain and the rest of that generations neoconservatives) was an idea of man, government, and liberty that was formed and informed in a distinctly American/Northern European experience of Christianity - more accurately a "Christendom". It failed because it was (and is) in the end parochial. If men like Bush had been more literate and versed in history, they would have been more than vaguely aware of the indigenous (i.e. Eastern Orthodox, Syriac, Coptic, etc.) Christian experience in the middle east and thus more wise as to what does and does not work there.

 

I guess my statement was too extreme as I have too to some degree though I’ve never seen him act so human before. I think he was highly manipulated by the GOP and Cheney along with ignorance and as has been said, hubris, and these factors were to blame for the most egregious policies enacted during his presidency like torture, invading Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthy (which continue to this day), deregulation etc...

 

Although on the other hand as I think about your comment more, there are still things like the outing of Valerie Plame in retribution for her husband not finding weapons of mass destruction, his administration actively looking for reasons to invade Iraq immediately upon entering office and pressuring public officials to find a reason and when they still couldn’t because they didn’t exist, fabricating evidence and lying to Congress to start a war all of which should have landed him impeached if it weren’t for the Nationalism after 9/11 or whatever you want to call it. Hard to call him decent even if he was just getting pressured into doing those things ignorantly. That stuff goes beyond hubris. But he’s still just a guy who really should not have been president and should have been painting instead. (His paintings are actually quite good)

 

Yeah that’s possible though I think the general drive to invade Iraq is hard not to put on him. A “finish daddy’s work” kind of thing.

I guess what I’m saying is that in seeing him act like a human in that interview I saw him as a human more than in the past rather than just a sum of his administration’s policies and actions. Which is very good and should happen more often in Politics. The way he behaved during Biden’s Inauguration had this effect as well after 4 yrs of Trump.

 

Yes this is partly my more grown up wisened self reflecting on George W who was president when I was in high school and college and formed kind of entrenched views back then that I’m realizing now we’re too black and white.

at the same time I don’t think Trump is a decent person. Though I also don’t think he is evil. Just very very ignorant and hurting a lot of people.

 

Time changes your views. You have to let things play out to see the real benefit and detriment of a past administration. Reagan was prez when I was in High School and I thought he was the devil that would lead us into nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Part of this was because I was young and impressionable and didn't understand how biased the media was, which is now 100x worse. My views on Reagan now are that he did some things right and would have probably done better if he wasn't being handled by Bush Sr.

 

Went in the library to drop off a book earlier today. Then I looked around to waste time.

I first LOL on this one:




Then after that I'm like who are you fooling, you smuck:



I just came back from my Libertarian Party meeting today. Met the guy who sued the local city government due to he considered the mask mandate to be unlawful. He is nice actually, pleasant to speak with. His issues was the city passing a law that they don't even enforce, and being compelled to wear something when it is your decision to wear what you want. Agree with him or not, he at least came out and spoken to us.

Also had pasta....

 

Watching the new video compilation of the Jan 6 insurrection again makes me wonder why police didn’t just open fire at least on the people trying to push into the doors that led to the chamber itself where members of Congress were. And I’m very non violent but wtf. There are standards set by this country for dealing with this kind of thing and they are profoundly more violent than what we saw from the Capital Police on 1/6. They could have stopped the crowd at the doors if they just opened fire. And I don’t see how protecting Congress doesn’t warrant that. Even Tibet used some violence to slow the Chinese army and help save His Holiness The Dalia Lama. A doorway is an easily defensible position when the police are armed and the crowd is not, as it bottlenecks the crowd.

 

Because they were white "patriots".

 

yes sad but true. If it was a crowd of Muslims or “angry blacks” they would have opened fire without thinking twice.

 

Bullshit.

edit: I did not say that with the correct emphasis,

Bulllllllllllllllshhhhiiiiittttt

 

I really don't give a shit about this Second Impeachment.

• Senate will not get the 2/3 majority needed to say yes to conviction.
• Most of the GOP Senators know that Trump is a smuck, but GOP voters really love Trump to the point Trump = GOP and you have people like my father who will punish any politician who goes against Trump (did I also say that these voters are the GOP majority type of voters now?). This is why most will vote No after all of this is crap is done. Who gives a shit about reality, the politicians will do what they can to hold onto their jobs.
  • I saw this head on with the local GOP Party, new litmus test: Do you agree with Trump 100%? If not 100%, you aren't welcome.
• The Political Theater is wasting my tax money.
• I still know a lot of GOP voters who are pissed that the election was stolen from them and they will come out hard in the Midterms to fight against an "Illegitimate President."
  • They also want Federal action to stop all mail voting, which is super irony level as f**k.
• I have a job to do.

Goldwater, you were right about no cameras in Congress.