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Market Value

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone. But the value of everything – stocks, your home, even the value of money – is completely arbitrary. How much anything is worth is based on what someone is willing to pay for it, which is controlled almost completely by emotions like fear and hope. It isn’t rational at all.

And as they say, what goes up must come down. And as long as bankers and realtors make lots of money from people buying and selling, then bubbles aren’t just some anomaly, they are a feature designed to take money out of your pocket and give it to Wall street.

If news about corporations, banks, and speculators buying up rights to fresh water doesn’t scare you, then you aren’t paying attention. Remember the oil crisis? You ain’t seen nothing yet! Think we fight too many wars for oil? What will happen when countries (or worse, corporations) start hoarding water?

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He’s Baaaack!

Stephen Colbert debuts as himself, hosting the Late Show, and talking about Trump and Oreo cookies:

You can watch the whole show on the CBS site.

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Trumping Trump

Salon has a good read titled “The shocking truth about Donald Trump: He’s actually the least terrifying GOP candidate“. Not only that, but this loud obnoxious buffoon actually has a chance of winning the GOP nomination for president, because in reality, his beliefs aren’t that different (and in fact are often more reasonable) than the rest of the rest of the pack of GOP candidates. The main difference between Trump and the other candidates is that he doesn’t speak in code words – he just says out loud what the other candidates are thinking, which is somehow appealing to the average Republican voter. He may say things that are intolerant and racist, but none of the rest of those jokers is willing to publicly disagree with his racist and xenophobic remarks.

Salon’s point is that Trump may be loud and obnoxious, but his opinions are actually more moderate than most Republicans. For example, when all the other GOP candidates were calling for Planned Parenthood to be defunded, Trump (correctly) pointed out that abortion services are a very small part of what they do. Jeb Bush, who is supposed to be the moderate candidate, claimed that Planned Parenthood is “not actually doing women’s health issues. They’re involved in something way different than that.” Which earned him a “Pants on Fire” from PolitiFact.

He is also the only GOP candidate who has talked about raising taxes on the rich. He also has opposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, previously supported universal healthcare, and opposed the war in Iraq.

And yet the Republican base loves him. Crazy, isn’t it? But has been shown over and over again, GOP voters don’t care about policy and governance. They care about bravado and bluster, something Trump has in spades.

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Late Night Political Humor

“It’s come out that Donald Trump’s grandfather owned a brothel. When reached for comment Trump said, screwing people for money is a long family tradition.” – Conan O’Brien

“There was a time when it seemed unimaginable that Joe Biden could ever be taken seriously enough to win his party’s nomination, but Donald Trump just blew that idea right out the window.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“A spokesman for the White House yesterday said Vice President Joe Biden has received president Obama’s blessing to run for president. Not that he necessarily needs it, but Biden hasn’t made a decision yet, but he plans to as soon as Amazon delivers the magic eight ball he ordered.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“A lot of people are upset because Jeb Bush used the term ‘anchor babies’ to describe children born of illegal immigrants. Calling a child an anchor baby is almost as derogatory as calling a child Jeb. But he was in McAllen, Texas, defending himself, reminding everyone that his wife is Mexican. You don’t mention that your wife is Mexican as much as Jeb Bush.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Bill Gates alone, lost $3.2 billion on the stock market yesterday. To put that in perspective, that’s like a regular person losing a dollar in a vending machine.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The CEO of Starbucks sent the message to Starbucks employees yesterday, instructing them to be sensitive to customers who might be feeling stressed out about the market. I like that the place that charges $5 for a cup of coffee is concerned about our finances.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“South Korea has agreed to stop broadcasting insulting propaganda over the North Korean border. They’ve agreed to stop doing it. They’ve also canceled their Comedy Central roast of Kim Jong Un.” – Conan O’Brien

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Trumped Up

The old saying that it is easier to tell the truth than lie (because it is more difficult to keep track of lies) doesn’t seem to apply to Donald Trump. Of his 43 statements fact checked by PolitiFact so far, not a single one has earned a True rating, and he got only two “Mostly True” ratings, while 21 were rated False and eight were “Pants on Fire” (that’s more than Sarah Palin!).

Trump doesn’t even care to keep track of his lies. He seems perfectly willing to contradict himself, and if anyone points out his mendacity he’ll just attack them (for being a loser). For example, Trump completely contradicts himself when he bashes Obama for withdrawing troops from Iraq. In May, Trump said on Fox News:

It’s the fault of Obama—there is no question. It’s the fault of Bush for going in. It’s the fault of Obama for getting out. It’s a disaster—the war should have never happened. And then once it did happen, you should have at least left the troops in. So it’s really a double fault.

On another Fox appearance he said:

We shouldn’t have been there, and once we were there, we probably should have stayed. The Middle East has been totally decapitated. It’s a mess. The balance has been lost between Iraq and Iran.

But back in 2007 on CNN, Trump said quite the opposite:

The war is a total disaster, it’s a catastrophe, nothing less. It is such a shame that this took place. In fact, I gained a lot of respect for our current president’s father by the fact he had the sense to not to go into Iraq. He won the war and then said let’s not go the rest of the way, and he turned out to be right. And Saddam Hussein, whether they like him or didn’t like him, he hated terrorists. He’d shot and killed terrorists. When terrorists came into his country, which he did control, which he did dominate, he would kill terrorists. Now it’s a breeding ground for terrorists. Look, the war is a total catastrophe. And they have a civil war going on over there. Well, there’s only one person you can blame, and that’s our current president…[Cheney] is obviously a very hawkish guy on the war. He said the war was going fantastically just a few months ago. It’s just very sad. I don’t know if they’re bad people. I don’t know what’s going. I just know that they got us into a mess the likes of which this country has probably never seen. It’s one of the great catastrophes of all time. And perhaps even worse: The rest of the world hates us.

Interviewer Wolf Blitzer asked Trump, “How does the United States get out of this situation?” and Trump replied:

How do they get out? You know how they get out? They get out. That’s how they get out. Declare victory and leave. Because, I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They’re in a civil war over there, Wolf. There’s nothing that we’re going to be able to do with a civil war. They are in a major civil war. And it’s going to go to Iran, and it’s going to go to other countries. They are in the midst of a major civil war. By the way, we’re keeping the lid on a little bit. But the day we leave anyway it’s all going to blow up. And Saddam Hussein will be a nice person compared to the man…that takes over… This is a total catastrophe, and you might as well get out now because you’re just wasting time and lives. You know, nobody talks about the soldiers who are coming back with no arms and no legs. And I saw at Mar-a-Largo on Monday. I make Mar-a-Largo, my club [in Palm Beach, Florida] that you know about… On a Monday, I let returning Iraq injured soldiers come to the premises. The most beautiful people I’ve ever seen, but they’re missing arms and legs. They’re with their wives. Sometimes they’re with their girlfriends. And the tears are coming down the faces of these people. I mean, the thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands—and the Iraqis that have just maimed and killed. This war is a horrible thing. Now President Bush says he is religious. And yet 400,000 people, the way I count it, have died, and probably millions have been badly maimed and injured. What’s going on? What’s going on?

So Trump now blames Obama for following the policy that he vigorously promoted. You wouldn’t think you could get much more hypocritical, but you can. Because it was Dubya who signed the treaty withdrawing our troops from Iraq, not Obama.

Trump even lies about his money and success. Trump likes to brag that he is very wealthy. How wealthy? When he announced his bid for the presidency in June, Trump claimed that he was worth $8,737,540,000 – close to $9 billion dollars. And he added “I’m proud of my net worth. I’ve done an amazing job.”

But Forbes magazine has been tracking Trump’s wealth (the same as they track other rich people) since 1982, and they dispute Trump’s number, calling it a “whopper”. They put his net worth at $4.1 billion, less than half of what Trump claimed. But Trump doubled down (contradicting himself) in July at a campaign rally in Iowa, claiming that he was “actually worth more than $10” billion.

It could be an even bigger lie. Bloomberg evaluated Trump in July and claims that he is worth only $2.9 billion.

What makes this even more hilarious is that Trump tells everybody that he is a huge success. But is he really? Trump was the son of real estate tycoon Fred Trump, and received an inheritance from his father estimated as high as $200 million. If he had invested his inheritance in the stock market using a simple index fund of S&P 500 stocks, Trump would be worth $8 billion today. Other estimates say he could have been worth as much as $13 billion today by investing his money in the stock market.

But it gets worse. The only reason Trump has as much money as he does now is that he was able to take advantage of various forms of corporate welfare. It is widely known that Trump companies declared bankruptcy four times (in 1991, 1992, 2004, and 2009), which allowed him to shield his personal assets from losses incurred in his businesses. How much less would he be worth now if he had not been able to do that?

In addition, according to an article in the LA Times:

From his first high-profile project in New York City in the 1970s to his recent campaigns to reduce taxes on property he owns around the country, Trump has displayed a consistent pattern. He courted public officials, sought their backing for government tax breaks under extraordinarily beneficial terms and fought any resistance to deals he negotiated.

He has boasted of manipulating government agencies, misleading officials in one case into believing he had an exclusive agreement to develop a property and then retroactively changing the development’s accounting practices to shrink his tax bill. In New York, Trump was the first developer to receive a public subsidy for commercial projects under programs initially reserved for improving slum neighborhoods.

In other words, Trump brags about being a corporate welfare queen. How much less would he be worth now without all this government assistance?

Just how did he manage to get these subsidies and tax breaks? By bribing politicians with (legal) campaign contributions:

He has also curried favor with elected officials through campaign contributions and lucrative job offers.

His giving has long been carefully targeted. A 1980s study by Newsday found that Trump had donated more than anyone else to members of the New York City Board of Estimate, which at the time approved all land-use development. A recent study by New York’s Public Interest Research Group showed that since 1999, Trump has donated $595,638 to the state’s lawmakers.

Still think Trump is a shrewd businessman? Business Insider compared Trump to other billionaire businessmen on the Forbes list, and Trump hasn’t done all that well compared to them. Of the 56 billionaires whose net worth has increased, Trump came in at position 42, with a net increase of 300%. To give you an idea, the top billionaire on the list increased his net worth by 14658%, and I’m sure none of us would want Larry Ellison (Oracle) to be president! Number two is George Soros at 8245%, then Bill Gates at 7027%, Phil Knight (Nike) at 6175%, Charles Butt (HEB Grocery stores) at 3977%, and both Koch Brothers at 3855% each. Compared to them, Trump is an amateur with a big mouth.

How can Trump lie so much (and exaggerate so much) and get away with it? Why does anyone believe anything Trump says? An answer might be found in the beliefs of the people who support him. According to a new national poll:

66% of Trump’s supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim to just 12% that grant he’s a Christian. 61% think Obama was not born in the United States to only 21% who accept that he was. And 63% want to amend the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship, to only 20% who want to keep things the way they are.

When Trump questions Obama’s religion or his birth place, or calls illegal immigrants “rapists” and “criminals”, he is appealing to the racist elements in our society. As the poll concludes:

Donald Trump’s saying things out on the campaign trail that a lot of people think, but that have generally been seen as not appropriate to talk about in public. So it’s not surprising that people who hold those kinds of beliefs are gravitating towards him.

And if these people believe in Trump, they will believe anything he says, even if it is an outright lie.

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Low Information Voters

I understand that most people pay little attention to politics. If they vote, those people are called “low information voters”. But there are other people that aren’t exactly “low information”, they are more like “wrong information”. They think they know things, but those things are just plain wrong.

A prime example of this is a recent national poll from Public Policy Polling. They asked Republicans if they think that Barack Obama was born in the US. Only 29% said yes, while 44% said no, and 26% were not sure. They also asked Republicans if they think Ted Cruz was born in the US, and 40% said yes, while 22% said no, and 39% weren’t sure. The only problem is that Ted Cruz freely and publicly admits that he was born in Calgary, Canada. Showing this graphically:

obama cruz US birth

I know where these people get the idea that Obama was not born in the US, even though there has never been any actual evidence to the contrary. So it is annoying, but not totally surprising that Obama has been president for almost 7 years but less than a third of Republican voters believe he was born in the US. But how can these people believe that Cruz was born in the US?

Likewise, 54% of Republicans believe that Obama is not a Christian, while 32% aren’t sure, which means that a whopping 86% of Republicans are skeptical of the president’s actual faith.

In the interest of being fair and balanced, another poll shows that partisan influence is not confined entirely to Republicans.

The 2013 poll asked people their opinion about repealing the 1975 Public Affairs Act. The trick is that there is no 1975 Public Affairs Act, it was completely made up. But the question was phrased three ways.

When phrased as “Some people say the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree?”, the results were as follows:

Some People Say

Fewer Democrats agree with the statement than Independents or Republicans, but the results are not statistically significant.

But now look at the alternative phrasings, which injected partisan information. Some people were asked “President Obama says the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree?” and others were asked “The Republicans in Congress say the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree?”. The opinions were dramatically different:

2013-04-11-ObamaGOPSay

When Obama said it, 39% of Republicans disagreed with him, while only 13% of Democrats agreed. But when Republicans in Congress said it, then 28% of Democrats disagreed, while 20% of Republicans agreed. This shows that Republicans are more easily swayed by partisan arguments: 39% swayed against something if Obama says it, while 20% swayed for it if Republicans in Congress say it. Democrats were still affected by partisanship, with 28% swayed to be against something if the Republicans in Congress say it, and 13% swayed to be for something if Obama says it.

But the interesting conclusion is that a significant number of voters of both parties are willing to express an opinion about an issue they know nothing about (indeed, could not know anything about because it was made up for the poll).

But what about real issues? A new poll tries to answer that question.

In the new poll, respondents were asked about universal health care, Social Security, the Iran nuclear deal, and affirmative action. Half the respondents were told that Donald Trump supported these issues. The other half was told that either Obama, John Kerry, or Hillary Clinton supported the same issues.

For example, universal health care:

Health Care

It is true that both Obama and Trump have publicly praised universal health care. But the survey response depended heavily on whether the question attributed Obama or Trump as praising it. Unsurprisingly, if Trump praised it Democrats were less likely to support it, while Republicans were more likely.

The results were similar for Affirmative Action:

Affirmative Action

For Social Security, there was less partisan influence, showing that there is strong support for protecting Social Security among both Democrats and Republicans, although both were somewhat influenced by whether it was Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump who said it.

Finally, the results for the Iran Nuclear Deal was interesting:

Iran Deal

Democratic support for the Iran deal went up slightly (from 52% to 54%) when told that Trump opposes ripping it up. Maybe a few Democratic voters were convinced if even Trump doesn’t want to rip it up. But Republican support went from 20% when told Kerry opposes ripping up the deal to a slight majority of 53% when told that Trump opposes ripping up the deal.

I suppose the Iran Nuclear Deal is more influenced by partisan support because there are few voters who would know enough about the details of the deal to actually have an opinion whether it is a good deal to sign or not. So people have to depend on who supports it and whether they like that person.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Today the stock market plunged 600 points and One Direction announced they’re breaking up. Yes, both of these things happened. It was good timing for me because when people asked why I was sobbing uncontrollably, I was able to blame it on the stock market.” – Conan O’Brien

“Today China’s stock market went down 8 percent and France and Germany’s both went down 5 percent. When asked for comment Greece said, ‘boo-hoo’.” – Conan O’Brien

“Donald Trump had a rally at a football stadium in Mobile, Alabama, after planning to have it in a hotel ballroom. It got too big for the ballroom, so they moved it to the convention center. It got too big for the convention center, so they moved it to a football stadium. Apparently the strategy of saying whatever crazy thing pops into your head is really paying off for him.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“President-elect Trump discusses all of the big issues, China, opponents, Univision, Mexico, Oreos … everything. He even talked about the weather and how the weather might affect his hair. ‘You know if it rains I will take off my hat and I will prove, I will prove once and for all that it’s mine. Okay.’ Sounds good to me. Why not just dip it in a bucket? You don’t have to wait for the rain.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Jeb Bush has photoshopped a photo for an ad which gives him a black left hand and a much different looking body. Jeb just can’t get it right. I wonder if his black hand handshake is different from the white hand handshake.” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Cheaper to Do Something

Here’s something interesting from a source I would not have expected. A new comprehensive report from Citibank (the third largest bank in the US) found that taking climate change seriously and doing something now to lower carbon pollution will save the world $1.8 trillion through the year 2040. Not acting, on the other hand, will not only not save that money, it will cost an additional (and stunning) $44 trillion through 2060, caused by the negative consequences of climate change.

Ironically, the investment costs for the two scenarios (inaction versus action) are almost identical, with the “action” scenario costing a bit less. That’s right, it will cost us less to do something to reduce carbon pollution than to not do something about it, because of savings from reduced fuel costs and increased energy efficiency. Money invested in renewable energy now will pay off because of the rapidly falling costs of renewables.

The report starts with a prescient quote from Thomas Edison:

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy – sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.

Unfortunately, critics of taking action to reduce carbon pollution (when they aren’t denying it outright), claim that it would cost too much to do something about it. Some, like Charles Koch, claim that the cost of doing something would cause an economic disaster, saying “So do we want to create a catastrophe today in the economy because of some speculation based on models that don’t work?”

The report specifically addresses this concern, and dismisses it as false. Even not counting the cost of the damage caused by climate change, they found that investing in renewable energy will save money. But so far, the Republican party refuses to even consider doing anything about climate change.

The bottom line? Climate denial will cost us trillions of dollars, while doing something about it will save us money.

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Late Night Political Humor

“In an interview this week, Jeb Bush said that if he had a magic wand, there are at least ten things that he would like change about the Constitution. Then Jeb Bush was given the prize for ‘lamest use of a magic wand’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A new poll shows that Jeb Bush is now even more unpopular than Donald Trump. Or as Jeb put it, ‘Well, at least there’s one poll where I’m ahead of Trump.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Donald Trump had an interview with CNN in the lobby of the Trump Tower Hotel this week, and apparently someone yelled, ‘You’ll never win the Latino vote.’ And then immediately, Trump had the guy deported over to La Quinta Hotel.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Trump was also recently quoted saying he can’t remember the last time he apologized. His barber said, ‘Well, I definitely remember the last time I apologized.'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Turnabout

Turnabout

What are the chances that some pious presidential candidates would promise to protect this person’s religious freedom?

UPDATE: Here’s an even better (and real) example. Have any presidential candidates expressed outrage that a Muslim flight attendant was suspended without pay from her job because she refused to serve alcohol in accordance with her Islamic faith? This case is more compelling because (unlike Kim Davis) the flight attendant was more than willing to let other flight attendants serve alcohol. Before you react, read the article to get the full story.

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Gun Dialog?

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

Why is it that we keep having the same stupid conversation over and over again? Is there no room for compromise?

I believe that the second amendment does give people the right to own guns. But no right is absolute. The right to free speech does not give people the right to yell “Fire” in a crowded theatre. But gun nuts, egged on by the manufacturers, seem to think that any restriction (no matter how trivial) on their right to own and carry guns is completely unconstitutional. Even closing huge loopholes in current laws is verboten.

So far, in this year alone (which is not over yet) we have had 255 mass shootings in the US. That’s just crazy.

There are plenty of laws we could pass that would not unduly restrict people’s right to own guns, and which could help reduce the number of gun deaths in the US. In fact, states that have passed such laws have seen the number of gun deaths drop.

It is time we had a real conversation about this, where both sides are willing to compromise.

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Above The Law?

I’ve resisted saying anything about Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who is still refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay people. The legalization of gay marriage happened so quickly, it is no surprise that there are a few problems here and there.

It doesn’t matter if she isn’t much of a poster child for religious piety, that’s not the point. The point is, nobody is above the law. Nobody is forcing her to issue marriage licenses for gay people. If she, an elected official, cannot follow the law and perform her job, she should resign. But Davis has taken it one step further and won’t even let other employees in her office issue marriage licenses. She is not only violating her oath of office, she is forcing her beliefs on other people and making them violate the law. Not to mention her forcing her beliefs on gay people. I’m glad she is going to jail.

But that’s not why I’m writing this post. What really pisses me off is that people who are running for the presidency are praising what she is doing, supporting her, and encouraging others to join her. Mike Huckabee called her up and thanked her for standing up to “judicial tyranny”. “I salute her today, and I stand with her. I thank God for Kim Davis, and I hope more Americans will stand with her.”

Rand Paul also praised her, saying “I think people who do stand up and are making a stand to say that they believe in something is an important part of the American way.” And Bobby Jindal says “I don’t think anyone should have to choose between following their conscience and religious beliefs and giving up their job and facing financial sanctions.” Nut case Ted Cruz said “Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny.” He also called on “every lover of liberty to stand with Kim Davis.”

These people are hypocrites and are not qualified to be president. Yes, people making a stand for something they believe in is a part of the American way, but those people are prepared to go to jail for their beliefs, and have. However, these candidates don’t think Davis should have to face any consequences. They think she should be above the law.

This is not about religious freedom. As the lawyer for one of the couples denied a marriage license put it, “religious liberty is not a sword with which government, through its employees, may impose particular religious beliefs on others.” The point is that religious freedom doesn’t give you the right to impose your beliefs on others against their will, and deny them equal protection under the law. That is not religious freedom, that is religious intolerance.

Imagine for a moment if Kim Davis was not a Christian, but a Muslim or a faithful member of many other religions, and was refusing to do her job because it violated her religious beliefs. These same presidential candidates would be calling for Davis’ head.

Religious freedom does not mean you are above the law. If your religion prohibits marriages between a believer and a non-believer (as many branches of Islam do), you can’t refuse to issue marriage licenses to such a couple. If interest on loans is against your religion (as it is in Islam) that doesn’t excuse you from paying it. If your religion practices animal sacrifice, that doesn’t mean you can violate laws against animal cruelty. If your religion uses illegal drugs in its ceremonies, you will still be arrested. It doesn’t matter how “sincerely held” your beliefs are. Not one bit.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Donald Trump’s recent immigration plan would cost at least $166 billion. When asked how he’d pay for it, Trump was like, ‘No hablo inglés’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“It has come out that implementing Donald Trump’s immigration policy would cost taxpayers $166 billion. Today Trump said, ‘So what? You spend the money, you declare bankruptcy, and then you start a new country. Boom. Right? You move on.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Donald Trump said last night that Jeb Bush is ‘totally out of touch on women’s health issues.’ Which is kind of like Jared Fogle telling you you’re creepy.” – Seth Meyers

“At Ohio State University, it was just announced a tiny human brain has been grown in a lab. Isn’t that crazy? And it’s already announced its support for Trump for president.” – Conan O’Brien

“Trump just gave a big interview to the Hollywood Reporter. And when he was asked what actor he’d want to play him in a movie, he said, ‘Somebody really, really handsome.’ Then he said, ‘OK, I’ll do it! I talked me into it!'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Trump said he thinks Hillary Clinton should face up to 20 years in prison over her email scandal. When they heard that, even the ladies on ‘Orange Is the New Black’ were like, ‘Oh God, please no. Move us.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“CNN’s newest polls show that Donald Trump is leading Hillary Clinton in Florida. It’s scary, because if that could happen in Florida, it could also happen in the United States.” – Seth Meyers

“According to a new survey, 17 percent of adult smartphone owners use auto-deleting apps like Snapchat and Wickr. ‘Yeah, uh, that’s what happened!’ said Hillary Clinton.” – Seth Meyers

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Up or Down

Matt Bors
© Matt Bors

Remember times like now, when the stock market is bouncing all over the place for no real reason. Remember now the next time someone says that we have to change Social Security to save it.

Like in 2005 when Dubya tried to privatize some or all of it by investing it in the stock market. Why yes, of course some people want to throw that huge amount of money at Wall Street and cause the mother of all financial bubbles. The banks would profit handsomely. And if their investments went south, then of course the government would bail them out like we did last time, and the time before that, and…

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Who?

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