sherpa

I have absolutely no problem with monetary policy. I think it saved us in 2008 and again during covid. I am not concerned with what has happened or assigning some political component to Fed policy. I think the independent Fed has been brilliant. The problem is with fiscal policy designed to buy votes, and we are in the "silly season," between the announcing of the candidates and their attempt to win an election. Promises made during this sill season are nearly always bad policy.

No. The US Central Bank was not the only one printing money. Covid related price increases were real, but should have been short term unless there was another factor. The other factor was the massive printing of money without similar increases in production.

Tariffs nor tax cuts are an inflation fix. They have their own reasons for efficacy. Inflation is solved by sound fiscal and monetary policy. Certainly, the absolute dumbest ideas come from those trying to buy votes ie., a $25k "award" to first time home buyers, or forgiving student loans. Those are idiotic. The way you "fix" inflation," which is nothing more complicated than a diminishing of the currency value vis a vis a product, is to stop printing money at ridiculous rates, or upsetting market dynamics by throwing money at "preferred" products.

Please. The recent bout of inflation, about 20% since 2020 was due to over stimulus excused by covid. It was necessary to stimulate, but the last one was ill advised. Much more money chasing the same production results in higher prices, and a good deal of that money has entered capital and stock markets, as always. The argument that it was due to supply shock is specious. That black swan existed for a bit, but having returned to normal, if that was the case prices would lower as supply chain issues resolved. Same thing happens in the energy market all the time. Hurricanes, refinery issues, middle east turmoil etc cause a brief spike in prices. Once those individual issues are resolved, prices fall to normal supply/demand levels. The point is that the inflation we are now paying for was do to over supply of money and bad fiscal policy. Not supply chain problems which, largely, no longer exist.

The Cowboys. Undeserved sense of royalty. When I was but a pup I got an electric football game for Christmas. I ordered Bills and Cowboy jersey decals and put them on. Time after time in my games the Bills destroyed them Then........weird situation that I won't go into, but it involved over confidence, the person I was playing against won it for the Cowboys, though it was really my fault. Anyway, theses players/figures were made out of plastic. The next day I melted the Cowboy figure who scored for their win.

A twenty first century version of the old Trojan Horse operation. Bravo. Well done.

Another in the seemingly unending chain nonsense of energy market understanding.

I get it. But the original in Top Gun is what it's really like. The music score is perfect. The buildup you feel prior to launch is captured. The steam. The deck guys, "shirts" as we knew them and respected them by, is so accurate. Any scene that effects my metabolism is one that I will note, and this onw always has.

I was a check captain on the 757/767, qualling a new copilot. Left JFK for San Francisco on 9-10. Left San Francisco for the return a 6am west coast time. After level off, made the usual seat belt PA. Got a message on our cockpit printer from the company: "Numerous cockpit incursions. Do not allow anyone in the cockpit." I thought that was weird, so didn't mention it to the new copilot. A few minutes later, we were north of Las Vegas and got another message. "Numerous cockpit incursions. Do not allow the door to be opened. Defend the cockpit at all cost. Suggest diversion." These are not normal comms. There was an extra guy in the cockpit, an old Navy bud who was going to New York, and I invited him up to catch up. We had the capability to pick up AM radio, though we never did, so I asked him to listen to an am station and he told me about the breaking news. We were the only ones on the ATC frequency, so not any info, so I told the controllers I was turning back to San Francisco. Pushed it up to max mach and started back. As a west coast Naval Aviator, I knew all the civilian and military runways that could handle us, so I was prepared to drop in if anything happened. Had the flight attendants build a mini barricade in from of the cockpit door, manned by our three, of eight, male flight attendants. Never said a word to the passengers until well into the descent. The company kept bothering me with messages to verify i still had the cockpit. Eventually they asked me to verify by sending a password that nobody when you selected it, was told nobody would ever see as as a check airman, it gets you into really back door stuff. I sent it. A few days later I asked how they knew it. The guy said, " We didn't, but we typed in your employee number and it worked, so we knew it was you." Bay approach control cleared me for a noise abatement approach called the "Quiet Bridge," which avoids high density areas of the east bay and comes over the San Mateo Bridge, but is longer. By now, knowing my company had lost planes and with no idea what was to happen, I told them I was not going to fly any noise abatement approach, but was going to point the thing at the approach end of 28R, the closest runway, and land it. I also added, and if someone tries to get through our door I'm going to put this ***** thing in the Bay, and you better come get us. Using profanity is not legal, so during the pause in his response, I thought he may not have liked that. Anyway, after a pause he said" If you put it in the Bay we'll get you." Landed, followed by about 30 vehicles with armed folks. Called home to have the Mrs. tell the kids I was OK, as they knew I was flying transcons from NY to the west coast that week on my airline which was involved. Found out who had been killed. Having flown 77 from Dulles to LA for the previous two years I knew those people. Did a conference call with the FBI that afternoon and told them saw nothing in the exiting passengers, and also told them they were off before I ever got to the door because I was busy shutting the airplane down. Simply horrible.

I'm not sure people know this, but on a widebody airliner you cannot see your wingtips from the cockpit. It is never wise to assume some other airplane will not stop, but if you do assume that and keep moving this can happen. Never, ever a good idea to stop at a taxiway intersection. Always pull away from the intersection, and then stop. Free widebody taxiing advice to stick in your quiver. Where you gonna get that 'cept here?

Funny you should mention that movie. The "shooter," who is the officer that presses the catapult launch button once everything is OK, was my flight instructor during advanced Navy jet training. Good guy and still a friend. That movie had quite a bit of collateral damage. There's an F-14 that does an extremely low to the water pull out. The guy who did it was trying to make it cooler than he should have. Overstressed the airplane. A senior officer doing liaison with the studio got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and lost his career. Top Gun was much more scrutinized as the result, and had no such issues, although famous civilian acrobatics pilot was killed during filming of a spin scene.

Depends on who the advisors are. She has never demonstrated any skill in anything, and also has a history of significant staff problems. Trump is Trump. I think they have a much deeper bench in both economic and foreign policy areas, and if he is elected, I hope he has learned a bit from his first term chaos. Her......I have no hope. I think she is the worst candidate for national office that I have ever seen, and evidently most of the country agreed with that point until she was installed. Either way, barring some black swan event, one of them gets elected and we hope for rational candidates in four years.

I don't know. What I do suggest is that she has absolutely no experience in this, is not a smart individual so will not enjoy a steep learning cure, and being a San Francisco Dem has a very bad, actually nonexistent, connection to any of this. The reality is that she seems to be completely dependent on advice instead of knowledge, experience or core values, so whatever she thinks this week is from advisors that I have no idea of, and quite different from her past. I have no idea who we are electing if she wins, but she seems to not not have the skills needed to do this, so we would be electing another group of back room Dem Party folks like have been running Biden for the last two + years.

The woman actually advocated for US taxpayer funding of transgender surgery for illegals. Goodness, how crazy is that. Now she's suddenly changed? As Bernie Sanders implied, it's simply to win an election. She is crazy and has always been.

Compared to Harris? Absolutely they'd prefer Trump. I don't think Harris could spell military. Trump has said remarkably stupid things, ie. "I know more than the ..." but the bottom line is that he comes down on their side. It's what he always does across so many subjects. Says really stupid things, then chooses the correct course. I have no list of who this "list" of people who said he was a threat to national security is, and I'd like to see it, but i really don't get interested in those things as there are so many agendas. Trump's wines are quite good. The group that runs the place is very good, and has nothing to do with him. The place has an interesting history, nothing to do with him, but I am quite familiar. Gorgeous place, but many around here are. They're about fifteen mins from me and we run into them at various events.

More idiocy. Absolute nonsense. Simply not worth responding to.

It was absolutely Cheney who was the major advocate for the Iraqi action. Absolutely. Anyway, it continues to be your habit to post assertions that are not true, then challenge people about them, no matter how many times it has been explained to you. It's like responding to a wall. I have mentioned many times that I am not a Trump supporter. You are like my golden pyrenees staring at my watch. Seemingly total concentration, zero comprehension.

In fact, the main force in that Administration pushing the Iraq thing was Dick Cheney, who just endorsed Harris.

Would be an interesting, apolitical thread in the off the wall area,

I fully expect you are scratching the surface of an important development that is growing, especially in the last six years or so. Getting elected to that office has become so much of an expensive, all in operation, that the "parties" have decided, early on, who has the best chance, and all labored at that oar. The parties are the problem. As it stands, you simply have to have your candidate well prior to the conventions, which are meaningless, not paid attention to ***** fests. Neither of these candidates is desired by the American public, as revealed in so many older polls. Trump has critical mass at about 50%, but most Republicans would have wanted another candidate, but nobody could get past his support. Nobody wants Harris, but the Dems trapped themselves by hanging onto Biden until it was made unmistakably clear to the entire nation that he was totally incompetent. So.....What we have is bad candidates that nobody wants, but the gravitas of the parties is so overwhelming that they are in control.

Booth Lusteg reprise.

I don't have any problem with people doing their honest best to advocate for various foreign policy positions. I do judge them on whether or not they fund and support the missions they advocate. No problem with Cheney in that regard. We have a voluntary military and and independent Executive and Legislative. I don't judge people on whether they or their families volunteer.

Don't care about endorsements, anymore than I care about VP's, although the clown Harris chose is goofy Never have. Nothing changes the fact that Harris is an idiot and nowhere near qualified,

A bunch for me. The debacle in Afghanistan and the lying about not presented other options, and though she claimed to be the "last person in the room," I doubt anybody listened to her, if she had a view at all. I think she is completely ignorant of anything regarding the military. In fact, I'm quite sure of it. The border. Idiotic tax policy on every level. The undeniable conclusion that Harris is an idiot. Really stupid.

She actually decried some judge nominee for being a member of the Catholic Knights of Columbus? Goodness. San Francisco Democrat.