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[Great Order]

Take into account that, all in all, the guy's an idiot.

He knows how to play to his base, but this is a man who bankrupted his own casinos by having them compete with one another. His overall level of intelligence is, at best, questionable.

[Lord Shonus]

I've stopped viewing Trump supporters as deluded people who love the man. They're worshipping an effigy of their dying world view, the man himself is irrelevant. He literally could shoot someone in the streets and that wouldn't move the needle on their opinions. Because what matters to them is that he legitimizes all their shitty beliefs by embodying them.

For some, perhaps, but the bigger issue is that most of his supporters are in this boat too:

This is the first time Im listening to Trump talk live since he won back in December...

The vast majority of people don't see Trump live - they only see the snippets of what he says on the news or in his campaign materials. Or, in other words, after it has been filtered and polished and had all the meandering taken out. Combine that with Trump being an expert at saying nothing at all, what's happening with most Trump supporters is that they're projecting their own ideas on him. That's why so many people, for example, are still convinced he's not serious about tariffs and is just using them as a negotiating club, or why so many people are actively shocked he's gone so hard on immigration.

[pisskop]

I see why people are worried about what happens when he suddenly gets replaced.

Heck, I heard that most of the living former presidents didnt even bother to show up for his inauguration

[heydude6]

Most likely because he's being paid by Russia to weaken the US.

Eh, for him to be deliberately trying to weaken the country, Trump would have to be intelligent enough to realize his actions actually are weakening the country. Man definitely has a deeper relationship with Putin than he lets on (I still remembered the time he leaked tons of classified documents to Putin for no apparent reason), but it's easier for me to believe that Putin is manipulating-him/propping-up a-useful idiot-whose-beliefs-happen-to-be-convenient-for-us than directly paying him cash to pass shitty policy.

[McTraveller]

Woo that'll get your blood pumping:  a garage basically just across the street¹ from us just exploded.  I thought my kids were fooling around upstairs and knocked over a chair until my wife came downstairs and asked me if I was ok.  I was like... huh? Maybe a tree fell and hit the house?

Looked out the back window and the sky was orange.  A couple secondary explosions after that - maybe more tanks, or something else in the garage going off.

Apparently it was a 25# propane tank (about 10 kilos, for the SI folks) and from what we know so far, nobody was injured. Amazing.

¹We're... almost-rural, so this was maybe, 500 yards away? Basically in the "second row" of houses across the street from us.

[Lord Shonus]

Good thing it was a little one. When I lived rurally the big white one in the backyard always made me just a little nervous.

[nenjin]

Good thing it was a little one. When I lived rurally the big white one in the backyard always made me just a little nervous.

Yeah those 1000 pounders going off isn't dissimilar to military ordnance in terms of their impact.

I'll move my other comments to the Divided States thread.

[nenjin]

or I'll double post here like a spazz first.

[King Zultan]

Good thing it was a little one. When I lived rurally the big white one in the backyard always made me just a little nervous.

Reminds me of a few years ago I had a neighbor that had always had a massive burn pile right next to one of those big propane tanks and we were waiting for the day when the thing would blow up, but it never did, dude got lucky because that pile was right next to it.

[Bralbaard]

On the subject of potentially explosive situations; construction workers broke through a gas pipe a few meters from my office window a few hours ago. We just had the whole circus with the fire trucks arriving and shutting down the street, etc. (no smell of gas inside, so we did not need to evacuate)

The fire department has left again, and the construction workers are smoking their cigarettes outside now, so I guess all is fine.
I'm not getting any work done though.

[McTraveller]

Dear Financial Journalists: "Inflation" refers to the money supply. Please stop misusing it as a synonym for rising prices. Thank you.

I can't tell if the person is uneducated, miseducated, or is intentionally spewing incorrect information.

I think they are confused by "inflation is always and only a monetary phenomenon" without understanding that it is "too much money chasing too few goods."  If the money supply changes at the same rate as demand/supply of goods, there is no inflation; inflation is defined as the change in price level - not the change in money supply!

The lack of understanding of degrees of freedom in problems staggers me... not just in this, but it's a great example...

[Eschar]

I thought it was defined in terms of purchasing power. That can go down while prices remain constant.

[Starver]

Reminds me of the old one that is "they say inflation is going down, so why are prices still going up?". (A: The rate is still positive, just less positive.[2]) Or the even more misunderstanding "they say inflation is going down, so why aren't the prices?"...

[2] Although mercantile inertia might also count as a secondary reason. Even if wholesale prices are now frozen, the goods being put out for retail might still be tracking their changing prices at the time of being ordered, especially if the retailler wasn't pre-emptively price-gouging historic goods for the raised costs of those articles yet to arrive to replace them.

[pisskop]

Thats poor wording for the masses though.  Thats sensationalism getting ahead of adequatly describing the situation

Inflation is a rate of increase, which isnt explained.  So when it 'goes down' its not negative, its a lower rate

[Starver]

(A: The rate is still positive, just less positive.[2])

So when it 'goes down' its not negative, its a lower rate

I don't quite know if you think you're repeating me, or think you aren't.

As for it not being explained, it might be more that it isn't understood. But that's a wider problem.