Do the people yeeping about inflation even realize...

...the effect Trump's economic policies (to give them a serious-sounding label that they don't deserve) would have on the price of consumer goods? Blanket tariffs--a 20% sales tax on not only every imported product/good/commodity, but also every domestically produced good that uses foreign ingredients or components. Mass deportations--a gigantic farm labor shortage. Crops rotting in the fields. Whadda you MAGAs think that would do to the grocery prices you've been incessantly whining about?

EVEN MORE tax cuts for the rich and big corporations. Anyone pay interest on anything? Whaddya think will happen to interest rates when the government is forced to borrow to make up for lost tax revenue? Do you own bonds, or have shares in a mutual bond fund? Prepare for bond prices to drop as the government competes in the marketplace for investors' money. Your retirement nest egg just took a hit.

Let's go back to those mass deportations. Who pays for all of that? The workforce of ICE and the Border Patrol would have to be quadrupled (at least). The people rounded up would have to be fed, housed, and medically cared for. ELEVEN MILLION people. The largest refugee camp(s) in human history. You wanna pay for that? Because you're going to!

And just to combine those two topics...the presence of so many workers who will never collect Social Security benefits but, nonetheless, pay into the system moved the year that Social Security will become insolvent from 2022 to 2029. What happens when there aren't enough young people working to pay for SSI, Medicare, and Medicaid? We'll have to raise taxes, and since Trump and his lackeys will stop any increase in corporate taxes, who's gonna pay for that? You guessed it--YOU will.

It's something that people should consider quite separately from ideology. Trump will completely fuck up the economy if he's elected. And he's far too stupid and stubborn to change his mind--when we start circling the drain, he'll just blame the Democrats rather than rethinking his "policies."

If you think the Great Depression was a fun time for all, vote Trump!

A large portion of Americans are just plain stupid and don't understand basic economic concepts like inflation.

The only silver lining is that the candidate these ignorant fools want to vote for will make their economic life measurably worse for years to come.

If they prevail, we can get years of enjoyment congratulating them for getting exactly what they voted for.

Yeah, I've been thinking that it wouldn't be so bad if the idiots got four more years of Trump and were shown just what a horrible President he is/was/will be. The only thing is, the rest of us will have to suffer along with them as they're taught their lesson.

What are you guys thinking will happen with this election?  I'm curious.  I am trying to not follow it very much as I just have about zero tolerance for politics of any kind these days.  

I'd say 5O/50 at this point  because we don't know who is going to turn out. 

I think that it's about -115 for Harris, meaning that I think she's a slight favorite. I have a LOT of skepticism about the accuracy of polls, as polls are generally taken from a particular demographic, and only from those who are willing to answer them!

One interesting wrinkle is that early voting in Nevada appears to favor Trump. Usually, pretty much everywhere, early voting and mail-in ballots tend to favor Democrats. Republicans bleat and moan when early tallies, due to this factor, give Democrats early leads. Democrats in Nevada should flood social media with accusations of Republican voter fraud. It would only be fair.

One of the other peculair aspects of this election is that it isn't about politics at all--it's about competing ideologies. Politicians attempt to project charisma and ingratiate themselves with potential voters. But this time, we have one candidate deliberately being offensive and ugly, and his opponent spending far too much time paying attention to that. Neither has been specific about issues or made any real attempts to win over anyone but the "faithful." Harris has campaigned away from her base, but Trump hasn't done that at all. The culmination of that is his coming idiotic appearance in Madison Square Garden--an utter waste of time from a political standpoint. But as I said, Trump is NOT being a politican.

So it comes down to not the issues that people say they are concerned with, but whether their ideology says that one candidate or the other will solve those issues. For instance, it's obvious that Harris will do better for the economy, including curbing inflation, but many people's ideology forces them to think that Trump will be the superior option. Likewise, immigration concerns are driven by ideology--race hatred and "replacement theory" rather than any true evaluation of the situation. This is why Harris being on the side that tried to solve the immigration problem is discounted, while Trump being the one who sabotaged it is ignored. ALL THAT COUNTS is Trump's red-faced, shouted lies and hatred. The goobers don't care that he has no intention of solving, or ability to solve, the problem. They just see his anger and are titillated, as they project their own hatred onto their idol.

The reason I make Harris a slight favorite is that her campaign is doing much more to stimulate voter turnout. That will probably be the ultimate tiebreaker. Trump is hobbled by his unwillingness to try to appeal to anyone outside his base. He LUVVS acting randomly in front of a crowd of his adoring goobers, but that does nothing to add to the number of people (to use the term loosely) who will vote for him.

What's your betting line?

It depends on the outcome of the House and the Senate.  There's a chance for divided government.  That should nullify the extremes on either side.  I understand how you feel.  I take plenty of doggie treats with me on my morning or afternoon walks and talk to people about their pets.  I'm very popular now.  Take care.

The immigration / border situation is absolutely not about race hatred nor replacement theory for most US citizens. Roughly 80% ( pick your own sordid polling source stats) see it as a real problem that requires immediate attention.  We can't afford a structureless border policy that ignores traditional immigration laws and  compromized vetting of potential criminals. These facts and voter sentiment have caused a recent shift in vocalized border policy stances by the Democrats as the election approaches. Now many are claiming " we have to secure the border" in campaign speeches now , in many cases because it's politically expedient. In several ways, the new D approach is blatantly hypocritical vs the last few years. Despite that, I'm ecstatic that the D's are finally verbalizing that the border is a problem

The recently tabled / canned so called bipartisan immigration reform bill that Trump and the main R body allegedly sabotaged would have accomplished very little regarding limitations on actual border crossings. It's 

plain that Trump didn't want this legislation to go forward for his own political reasons; otoh there are several tenets in the bill that are pretty shallow imo. Just note that 4  R senators plus 5 D senators plus Bernie Sanders voted no on the bill, which required 60 yes votes to move on to the House (in the end it failed 50-49 in the Senate vote). Obviously, the bill  would have never passed the House had it made it there. There were some positive elements to the bill, but it also would not have limited daily crossings of up to 5000 migrants on a weekly average basis. The bill and ensuing law would not have secured the border despite some peripheral positive moves ( more border agents, enhanced technologies, supposedly expedited asylum processes, et al).

The cynical political game carries on.

I have no clue on a reasonable betting line; tight race and there's some days left for one or both candidates to stumble / get caught with a goat, etc. 

So why is the border a problem?

It's not the billions of CRINIMALS a'comin' into our country and raping and looting and murdering and opening up taco trucks. Nationwide crime stats have repeatedly shown that immigrants, both legal and illegal, commit fewer crimes than true-blue Americans. So the problem isn't a crime wave.

It's not drug trafficking. The Cato Institute reports that 80% of the fentanyl that comes north is transported by Americans. It's not guns--a gun is criminally easy to obtain in the US and costs half of what it does in Mexico.

It's not THAR TAKIN' AWAY OUR JOBZ. Immigrants, now and in our entire history, have come here to do the shit work that native-born Americans don't want to do. There's no negative financial/fiscal impact; in fact, immigrant laborers pay taxes but are unlikely to ever collect any benefits. That's a net gain.

So unless one is in fact a nativist/racist/replacement theory advocate, I honestly cannot see why anyone would object to the presence of migrants, legal or illegal. They provide an economic benefit at very little social cost.

I hope you're not one of those fools who think that all immigrants are criminals. I'd also like to know just how you would define a "secure" border. No unauthorized crossings at all? That would cost tens of billions of dollars a year to implement and enforce. 

What grievous harm do these immigrants/migrants/ILLEGULS cause? And the answer to that question is NOT a fuzzy YouTube video of a brown person stealing something from a convenience store.