Here's our summary of key economic events overnight that affect New Zealand with news the US is today moving from a prosperous and strong four years into an unknown future; the age where billionaires get all the gains. Markets are showing caution, especially the bond market which is likely to be the most reliable predictor of what is to come. And the USD fell. It is all very fluid.
And in the US, it seems the 'promise' of immediate tariffs on his first day in office isn't going to happen. The Trump team now says it plans to direct federal agencies to study trade relations with China and other countries without imposing new tariffs on his first day in office. (He has the office now, so the promise to voters is so last year.) But the tariff uncertainties and their threats to inflation control remain.
One thing he did re-promise in his speech today is war with Panama, committing to seize the Panama Canal. (Almost certainly, that will start work on a wider, more efficient alternative canal in another country.)
In Canada and in a central bank survey of firms taken in mid-November, after the Trump victory and before the Trudeau resignation, Canadian businesses were girding for a rocky relationship with the US marked by higher costs and new tariffs. But they were seeing improved demand. And if they can navigate the new US policies, they seem confident businesses there will improve.
Across the Pacific, Japan released machinery order data yesterday for November and that brought a much stronger result than expected. Excluding volatile items like ships and power companies, they rose +9.5% from the same month a year ago to a nine month high. And for the first time in more than a year, that propelled the annual levels to a small +1.2% gain. The recent strength comes on top of a good result for October as well.
China held its loan prime rates unchanged yesterday at its January review. The one year LPR, the benchmark for most corporate and household loans, remains at a record low 3.10% and their 5 year, the benchmark for mortgages, stays at a record low 3.60%.
In Australia, and following its pull-out of personal banking in New Zealand, HSBC is said to be considering doing the same there for its much larger retail banking operation.
The UST 10yr yield is now at just on 4.58%, and down -4 bps from this time yesterday. The key 2-10 yield curve is also less positive at +31 bps. Their 1-5 curve is holding at +22 bps. And their 3 mth-10yr curve has flattened, now to +29 bps. The Australian 10 year bond yield starts today under 4.53% and up +3 bps. The China 10 year bond rate is now at 1.67% and up +3 bps. The NZ Government 10 year bond rate is now at 4.75% and again unchanged.
Wall Street is having its standard inauguration holiday so there is no Monday trade. Overnight European markets were up about +0.3%. Yesterday, Tokyo rose +1.2%, Hong Kong rose +1.7%, but Shanghai was only up +0.1%. Singapore dipped -0.1%. The ASX200 rose +0.4% in its Monday trade while the NZX50 fell -0.3%.
The price of gold will start today at US$2707/oz and up +US$5 from yesterday.
Oil prices are down -US$1.50 at just over US$76.50/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is now just under US$80.
The Kiwi dollar starts today just under 56.6 USc and up +70 bps from this time yesterday. Against the Aussie we up +30 bps at 90.4 AUc. Against the euro we are unchanged at 54.4 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today just on 67.1 and up +30 bps from yesterday.
The bitcoin price starts today at US$106,643 and up +1.9% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been very high at +/- 4.8%.
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151 Comments
Trumps live speech was a classic, all the talk about a man on Mars and then they couldn't even get the music started at the end for the singer who reminded me a bit of Stormy Daniels. Talk about awkward, both presidents just standing there like opossums in the headlights, eventually she had to make the executive decision to go it alone without the music. Will the real president please stand up, please stand up...
I admire you for actually watching it live..
... it was a beautiful thing ... the finest inauguration of an American president ever , a truly beautiful thing . . .. I'd give it an A+ ...
GBH,
it was a beautiful thing. Yes, as the great Irish poet Yeats wrote; A terrible beauty is born. Stalin called those in the West who supported him useful idiots. I would call those who support trump as just idiots.
That man who aligns himself with Christains wouldn't put his hand on the bible while swearing the oath.
wonder if there's a legal issue with that part
After all that man has been put through over the last 10 years only to return as POTUS.
He is the GOAT. God bless him and America.
I just loved El Presidente Musk and his mana wave. B- could have been snappier with a heel click
The guy is a nut job, everyone needs to watch it and plan accordingly.
Maybe he just represents the good old USA today?
The USA has had its time in the sun, it was the 1960's for them. Yes they all want the good old America back, but the world has moved on. They got greedy and tried to get the rest of the world to pay for their continued exuberant lifestyle. The chickens are coming home to roost.
That is a fair comment I believe. They pushed Friedman's Free Market economic policies out on the world and the damage they do continues.
If " the chickens are coming home to roost " , America will make buffalo wings out of them ... I mean , how great is that ... buffalo wings from a chicken , wow , some amazing genetic engineering there ... America is great already ... you gotta respect that ...
Another thing that happened this morning was Biden's preemptive pardons of Milley, Fauci, and his family members on his way out the door.
Giving presidential pardons at the end of a term is not uncommon. Giving preemptive pardons for people who are not even under investigation is unprecedented.
Of course, the narrative being pushed is that these pardons are necessary to prevent political persecution. But unless they are overturned, this opens the door for the Trump administration to get away with whatever they like for 4 years, because it provides a precedent for him to preemptively (and retroactively) pardon everyone later on too. This is not how justice in a democracy works.
The pardons will not stop the truth from coming out, regardless if those responsible are ultimately prosecuted or not. By issuing them, Biden has not exonerated anyone for their crimes. He's incriminated himself.
The past few months have been almost surreal, I have a hard time believing a lot of what's going on. I can't imagine what the rest of this year has in store.
How the fark can a pre-emptive pardon even be a thing?
If a crime hasn't been committed or there is no prosecution, why the need for a pardon?
It's absurd that Biden has done it, and I'd be saying the same thing if Trump or anybody else had done it.
Firstly, it smacks of there being some underlying guilt. Secondly, it means a precedent is established that it is fair game to pre-emptively pardon your buddies even if they have done wrong.
Not even the most advanced of tertiary syphilitic Roman emperors would have dreamt up such nonsense.
Gives a bit of a clue as to why joe public voter in the US put in the boot. A pity there wasn't a better alternative to Trump, but I get why they were over Biden and co.
You hint at the problem, but it is much, much bigger than Biden and co. The US seems intrinsically unable to do effective critical self analysis. And Trump has promised in the past to clean out the swamp, but just to get into a position to do that means you have to become a part of the swamp. The US establishment still doesn't seem to get why someone like Trump can even get traction, let alone elected.
Can he make it better; I doubt it? He routinely demonstrates a seriously flawed character, that is at least as bad as the other politicians there, he just has no skill nor awareness (apparently) that he should try to conceal his flaws. He will just likely put his own taint on the corruption that is there. I postulated some months ago that he may have matured since his last term, and having been shot at and missed (Winston Churchill seemed to understand that effect) but one has to wonder if he has asked himself why someone would even try? The next four years no doubt will be interesting and how long will it take the world to recover from that?
How can such an exceptional country, indeed being preferentially blessed by a God, be in need of critical self analysis? Being perfect comes naturally.
They should elect an anarchist to offers who then pre-emptively pardons everyone in America for anything ever.
Boom, anarchy!
It's extraordinary and the clearest sign yet that their are dark secrets to emerge that I expect to border on treason.
Even the liberal tech elite are now full MAGA as the Stasi like, totalitarian though control of the hard left is exposed by the likes of Zuckerberg.
It feels like the wicked withc is dead and the world is a better place. Yes, Trump is an ego driven idiot at times (Gulf of America?), but mostly he is about making life better and safer for the average hard-working US citizen. If he can even just reduce the flood of meth and Fent he will have made a massive difference.
Haha.
He'll probably preemptively pardon the Sackler family if they donate.
I think this is fantasy land stuff. Making life better and safer for the average hard-working US citizen? Really? He is a billionaire from a wealthy family, he has no idea what life is like for the average US citizen. What makes you think he would even know where to start to make changes?
He will enrich himself and his cronies. Why? Because that's what he knows how to do, he has been doing it for decades. Now he just has more power.
He went into politics a billionaire, the Democrats come out of politics a billionaire - can you see the difference?
Greed generally goes one way, people don't generally get less greedy.
So yes, I see the difference. The dems start out poorer, then seek to get rich, which they accomplish via power.
Trump is already rich and by all appearances is a greedy egotist. Believing he will become altruistic and seek to understand say the problems of middle or poor America, is laughably optimistic, likely delusional. And we have clear example of this with his first term, did life get easier for middle or poor people during his first term? Or did the wealth divide continue to get progressively worse? Here's graphic evidence: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wealth-distribution-in-america/#:~:tex….
We've never seen good conduct from Trump in the past. It would be naive to expect it now. Just more tax cuts and enrichment for himself and friends, more likely.
There was also plenty of doubt re his wealth.
Preemptive pardon - For, from what I've read, Faucci has been suspected of 'gain of function' (weponising) various virus in labs outside of the US, China and Ukrain for example. Co vid manufactured to cross speicies in a lab, so not a natural mutation seems likely to become public knowledge. Also the rise in mortality since co vid cannot be hidden for much longer, along with the increase in cancer and heart problems in much younger deomographics, people will want answers.
Mexico has already spent billions on a railway to take containers across their narrowest point.(well the shortest distance between a Pacific and Atlantic port.
And the US landbridge is pretty efficient and fast too. Unload on the USWC, fast double-stack rail to the East Coast, and reload. Mexico is shorter. But both have rail capacity limits compared to demand. There is room for all these alternatives.
Yes, though the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenos railway link up through the Midwest hasn't taken off as they thought it would. Congestion at the border doesn't help.
Longterm, passage through the Northwest passage into the Hudson Bay port will become year round with global warming.
"Longterm, passage through the Northwest passage into the Hudson Bay port will become year round with global warming."
Shipping won't use it until passage becomes virtually guaranteed.
When do think that'll happen?
Long time since the Suez & Panama canals were completed. Since then great advances in tunnelling and similar earthmoving techniques and machinery. Areas of Mexico & Nicaragua would likely welcome such investment income. What a project for Trump Inc!
'news the US is today moving from a prosperous and strong four years into an unknown future; the age where billionaires get all the gains.'
Oxymoron of the day.
Think about it...
Because billionaires haven't received any gains up till now. Has this site become a satire one rather than news?
I think PDK was referring to the "unknown future" - in a world with dwindling energy resources the future is very much known, and it's not a pretty one. The "gains" made by billionaires are simply bets placed against those resources that are increasingly hard to win, and eventually the house of cards comes down.
Happy to be corrected.
... " dwindling energy resources " ...WTF !!! ... don't tell me that under the summer fire ban we're gonna put out the sun , or something ... darn ... it's a pretty sun , I hope they leave it alone , I really do ...
Seems PDK is away at present so I'll try to stand in. The sun doesn't have to be put out, we just need to run out of resources to harvest its energy. Solar panels are not natural elements, but the oil used to produce them is.
I'm paraphrasing, of course. I can't do world-ending sermons without Mr Grimwood's depth of knowledge in this area.
... it seems to me that Mr Grim destroys all the pleasure of living in the current moment by endlessly focusing on his narrow vision of a doomsday apocalyptic future ... a bleak future vision that probably will be wildly off the mark ...
It is sunny : let's us sing / dance / rejoice ...
the ant and the cricket - enjoy winter!
The median full time wage in the US is about $60k ($106k NZD). A median full time couple get $212k NZ. It’s not all going to the billionaires. Cry me a river hard done by average American.
Only if you believe the numbers. So the minimum wage is like USD$7.25 an hour and you think the median is USD$60K ? Is that wage including all what the illegal immigrants are being paid ?
many working Americans work 3 jobs.
Yeah that's a CLEAR sign that the average job has great pay. Median wage based on what ? 80 hours a week ?
Yes, they have very bad wage disparity. But that is how they like it, capitalism, free market etc are not even questioned by those that get paid badly, you would have to be a damn commie to expect your employer to pay above the market rate. I doubt Trump is going to raise the min wage etc.
Exactly remeber sitting in the Blue Marlin in Pensacola with friends and a friend of theirs joined us for a while then left to do a uber his parting shot was that the uber driving paid for his petrol and running costs of his vehicle. And he was some blue collar worker. Most americans work their full time job with 6 public holidays a year (NZ 13) then work a part time job and most a either selling real estate and or solar panels as an example.
I doubt most work more than one job and/or sell solar panels. Many maybe, but not most. This is the median wage, and I suspect the median person only works one job.
Correct they don't get as many holidays as us.
Remember that the median is what the middle person gets (sort and take the middle). It isn't affected by the highest and lowest earners.
The Federal minimum wage is exceeded by individual State minimum wages in many states. Eg California minimum wage on 1 January 2024 was US$16.50/hour. Some cities have mandated minimum wages that differ (are higher) than both the Federal minimum wage and the State min wages. Using the Federal minimum wage to promote your argument is a waste of time. By the way, California's exorbitant minimum wage is killing off businesses in that state, as it does in NZ.
$212k? Have you got a source for that?
Top google result:
For the year 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the median annual earnings for all workers (people aged 15 and over with earnings) was $47,960; and more specifically estimates that median annual earnings for those who worked full-time, year round, was $60,070.
$60,070 * 2 = 120k = $212k NZ
Lots of the word "estimates" going on there. When you get a job done do you want an estimate or a written quote.
Feel free to give a more exact number, I couldn't be bothered looking past the first google result, I figured the U.S. Census Bureau knew what they were talking about.
It seems Americans are paid a lot more than some people think, here are the 2023 wage stats for an extensive list of jobs from the US Bureau of Labour Stats. The lowest mean hourly rate I saw was around $15 for laundry and dry cleaning workers.
Its irrelevant to use USD/NZD exchange rate comparisons for USD earning residents spending in US economy & NZD earners in a NZ economy. Even the BigMac PPP index would be a better comparison.
Commentators keep saying the US has a lower cost of living than NZ, things are cheaper in NZD there than they are here. If that is true then the median family there is actually better off than a rich family here on $212k NZD.
Absolutely, taxes are way lower in the US (and Oz too) due to much higher tax thresholds and expense deductions for wage earners available in those countries, leaving more money in the hand for wage earners. That's why it is useless to compare marginal income tax rates between countries without also taking thresholds and deductions into account too (which lefties and politicians are loath to do because it undermines their thesis). Make no mistake, NZ workers pay much higher taxes than their OZ and US counterparts on equivalent gross incomes, plus NZers pay higher taxes on fuel and alcohol (to mention two) plus 15% GST on top. Over 50% effective tax rates for many working NZers (those who don't get the free ride of Working for Families welfare).
Absolutely, taxes are way lower in the US (and Oz too) due to much higher tax thresholds and expense deductions for wage earners available in those countries, leaving more money in the hand for wage earners. That's why it is useless to compare marginal income tax rates between countries without also taking thresholds and deductions into account too (which lefties and politicians are loath to do because it undermines their thesis). Make no mistake, NZ workers pay much higher taxes than their OZ and US counterparts on equivalent gross incomes, plus NZers pay higher taxes on fuel and alcohol (to mention two) plus 15% GST on top. Over 50% effective tax rates for many working NZers (those who don't get the free ride of Working for Families welfare).
A comment on the weekend suggested US$53K. NZ$212 seems too high when our median wage in $ terms is about the same as the US one. US spending power is better though.
And people wonder why it is that there is a cost of living crisis here in NZ.
Our median wage is only around $60k, but the median wage in the USA is equivalent to NZ$106k.
Given that so much of what we buy here in NZ - including in supermarkets - is imported from overseas, the ability of NZers to buy a house, to pay for electricity, to pay for transportation, to pay for healthy food, and to buy reasonable (not stupidly expensive) clothing and household furnishings, is compromised as a result of employers having not maintained the real income of their employees over time.
The real value of wages have not kept up with inflation over the last 4 decades, and successive governments have allowed that to happen.
Well spotted, PDK.
For those confused, the billionaires have been creaming it in over the last four years.
Not much will change in the next 4 years - they'll continue creaming it in.
Trump's original tax cuts from his first term - that went mainly to the rich, very rich and mega-rich - were set to expire this year. Now they won't. But worse - the Trump Cabal wants them made even bigger !!
wd.
When regimes change there will be good things happen and bad things happen.
To put forward an opinion of the bad things is a little..... one sided.
Has David Chaston received a Biden pardon yet?
Is that a cologne?
nickb. Comment of the week.
Kudos to the editor for self awareness
Panamanian government should start arming everyone of military age and distributing supplied/medicine. The US doesn't have the stomach for long, bloody wars.
Also call up the Nicaraguans, they still have a lot of bitterness and resentment about the US. The Venezuelans have little to lose either.
Look up the modern history of Panama.
wait a minute, then how do we prove Russians are evil bastards if US go take over panama?
Comparing them to Ukrainians is a false analogy. Think brown skin and Gaza.
We just increase the number of countries defined as evil bastards.
You are correct. If the US invades Panama, they join the evil bastards club with the Russian Empire #2.
'One thing he did re-promise in his speech today is war with Panama, committing to seize the Panama Canal. (Almost certainly, that will start work on a wider, more efficient alternative canal in another country.)'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/nicaragua-cancel-…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Canal_and_Development_Project
https://porteconomicsmanagement.org/pemp/contents/part1/interoceanic-pa…
Good. Having a choice regarding what canal to use for crossing the middle of the American continent can only be a good thing.
UST10yr heading back down, oil heading back down, NZD heading back up.
Higher for longer?
So long as Trump puts a stop on the "gender" woo woo in the USA, I don't care how long he takes to impose tariffs on NZ. The longer he takes for tariffs the better as I see it.
I wonder if Disney will postpone or cancel their new Snow White movie destined for release in Mar25. Full of wokeness from what I can gather.
In the new movie a different shade of Snow White and the evil queen appears to be preferred over Snow White.
I also understand Jesus was a different shade of white...is that woke?
I don't care what skin colour Jesus was. Skin colour is irrelevant. You too should not care what anyone's skin colour is, and there should be no law that discriminates - in any way - based on ethnicity, or race, or skin colour.
Ironically, the whole tie-up of evangelicals with Right Wing politics came from skin colour.
Funny he never married..
And all his disciples were men.
*Apostles. His disciples were from every sex/gender.
So he kept his men close to protect himself from temptation? Or was he never tempted - because his men satisfied what he desired?
you mean Snow Brown?
I don't think it matters because if they don't then it is likely that Disney will go bankrupt. Go woke go broke.
Doesn't seem to be going broke with their latest offering Davey?
Moana 2 box office: Hit animated film earns over $1 billion worldwide through theatrical release
Must be what happened to Reality Check Radio
Are you feeling threatened David by the Gender woo woo in USA?
No. Why should you think that? "Gender" is little more than fashion choice. There should be no laws regarding what fashion choice a person can wear. But there are indeed only two sexes, and no human - indeed no mammal - can change sex. Not biologically possible.
Just being a bit picky here. How do you define what biological sex someone is? Is it based on their X and Y chromosomes, as I believe there are people who are not normal in that regard. Some people also don't have normal bits also if your going to define it that way. Some people can never reproduce if you go from that direction. I don't think it is a strictly binary option biologically.
Oh and plenty of animals can change their sex. https://www.treehugger.com/animals-can-change-their-sex-4869361
You're sounding dangerously Scientific and perhaps even empathetic there.
The new memo is that anyone who doesn't fit or is slightly different biologically is going to be forcibly shoehorned into one of the two main templates and live a life of fear and shame. You may think they're doing no harm expressing themselves how they want, but unfortunately it makes some old white men feel a bit icky and confused so it's got to stop.
Are you suggesting the only woo woo is the "outrage delusion" that is being politically grifted from people based on their prejudices and ignorance (and in the meanwhile being extremely dangerous for a small marginalised community who dared ask for inclusion and protection)?
Actually David there are 3 recognized sexes but you carry on, all this science stuff can be scary. I believe they used to burn people at the stake for saying the world was round and the Earth circled the sun.
The US has a long history of Steers, Beers and Queers. It's actually one thing that makes America great. You know - individual freedom.
Make America Generic Again is an homogenous movement of less than average based on fealty - it will be those individuals who won't bend the knee who will do the heavy lifting for US democracy... again.
Fancy thinking that how other people dress and what they do with their genitals is a major political issue.
Fancy thinking that males in dresses exposing their genitals in your daughters change and bathrooms was not an issue, political or law enforcement wise and if you think perverts are not taking advantage of this gender woo woo craziness, you dont live in the real world.
Oh, I'd certainly agree that sexual assault should be illegal. Pretty sure it is already.
Not sure that this fear means we should stop everyone else from doing what they want just because it makes you uncomfortable. Doesn't sound very free to me.
You think when women and girls feel uncomfortable around men, we should be telling them to suck it up and pretend they don't and that they are the problem. You are obviously a man, so you have no understanding what you are asking or at least I hope it is just ignorance not misogyny
Yeah, that's not what I said.
There are very real discussions to be had on bathrooms, changing rooms and participation in sports. These are difficult issues where any compromise is going to be tough for some segment of society. I wouldn't say I have a firm view on any of them although I'd tend towards excluding some who have transitioned from competitive sport. It's pretty tough to say they won't be able to continue with their careers in any meaningful sense but there are some situations and sports that may override that.
What's happening in the culture now is a massive overreaction to this discussion that's going to seriously hurt people who struggle with gender issues. We flipped too far one way, now stand back for the overcorrection.
I am more interested in protecting the rights of women and girls and the safety of female's spaces then upholding the delusions of mentally ill people which is the path most western nations are on- a vocal and strong turning of the tide is needed and it will be messy
I agree that as a society we need to be supporting and caring for these individuals but that is not what we have been doing. it never should have got to this but here we are
I don't see it as a massive overreaction, it's closing the door on the conversation that has got well out of hand.
People have a right to express themselves however they want, but their identity shouldn't be wrapped around a word. Getting offended by somebody using the wrong word, however well intentioned, is a slippery slope.
Also a slippery slope is identifying outside of biology. If I want to identify as a different culture? Fine?
The compromise your alluding to is the problem when it shapes future of society for the 0.0005%.
Is that actually happening? You would waste your vote on that one issue?
Yeah, I can't imagine voting for a slide deeper into Oligarchy and only being happy that they're going to step up discrimination against some types you don't like much.
Any beach in Germany this happens..you must be a purtitan?
Can confirm - on a day trip to the English Garten in Munich; a boiling hot day, I got to see a handful of aubergines and several pairs of melons. No one gave a poo emoji.
Careful, the loons will start shrieking "groomer!"
People can dress however they like.
Adults can have sex with whoever they like.
Adults can marry whoever they like so long as they are not closely related.
Nobody, however, should be required to pretend that anyone else is a sex different from what is biological reality - and that is what the "gender" woo woo is seeking to impose on everyone else.
How many times have you been forced by society to use she or he when you didn't want to?
What is your go-to option for checking someone's biological sex when meeting someone new? Do you ask for birth certificate or do you ask to see their bits? Some people can be hard to tell you know.
I personally just call someone what they introduce themselves to me. Whether it is their real name or sex on their birth certificate doesn't really come into it. It is just good manners isn't it?
"How many times have you been forced by society to use she or he when you didn't want to?"
Frequently !!!
I prefer the royal "We".
[And if you don't find the humor in that - We don't care.]
Maybe everyone should walk around with their genitals on show, something like a little see through window in your crotch area so that these people who are outraged can definitively ascertain what sex the other person is.
Women know when there is a man in their space whether he has a dress on or not - there is no need for this window and they do not want to be gaslight by this absolute BS
Fancy thinking that how other people dress and what they do with their genitals is a major political issue.
But that's the problem. Its been made into a political issue. Trans people should be treated the same as everyone else, and not discriminated against in employment, housing, access to healthcare etc because they want to be a trans person. But they should not be given the right to take things away from actual women, like scholarships, sporting trophies, right to safety in prisons, etc
If a man wants to put on a dress, call himself Rachel, and travel to Thailand to cut his penis off, so be it. Let him live his life how he wishes. But he's still a man. Pretending otherwise is a travesty.
Probably one of the only two good things in his speech was there is now only two gender types and the guys in the miliary that got ousted with the vaccine mandates are getting full back pay. Trump might actually get some respect from me if he got to the bottom of the Covid saga.
There are only two sexes. This is biological reality. No declaration or law can change that biological reality. All Trump is doing removing all the woo woo that pretends otherwise. Doing that will be one of the best things that any USA president will have done because by doing so he is bringing the USA back to reality.
There are only two genders - but a wide range of mental dis-orders!
Indeed there are. The MAGA crowd is proof. As are flat-earthers. I could go on. But I expect you get my point. Let me know if you don't so I can use smaller words. ;-)
There are only two sexes
Can you explain what intersex is please David as the definitive expert in these things? Thanks.
Do your own research - Intersex is a deformation/mutation of the genitals not an issue of the sex chromosomes - And if you actually care about intersex people, you will know that the vast majority do not want any part of this gender ideology lunacy
The Covid saga has already been gotten to the bottom of. Its just that there is still a concerted effort going on to make people believe otherwise. There is a reason why Fauci was given a pardon, and why that pardon was backdated to 2014.
Is Pardon the right word ? I'm thinking its more like Immunity. A pardon is more like something that has already gone through the courts and you have been found guilty, so if there was a trial for Fauci, I must have missed it. This is more like immunity from any future trial or prosecution. Their system over there is well and truly broken.
Its known as a pre-emptive pardon granting amnesty. Although note that this only applies to Federal crimes, and not State prosecutions or civil cases. I expect the AG for Florida to be particularly busy.....
I'm all for choose yourself when it comes to personal stuff. That said, so many shows now have two grown mean making out with full on mouth sucks and the like. One would think every other person swings the other way in movie world.
Go for it lads, but for a straight guy its bloody awful viewing - I guess I should suck it up.
You were not the only one to make the mistake of seeing Brokeback Mountain at the movies thinking it was a cowboy movie.
A lot of TV is really horrible now. Survivor for instance used to be a great show, but now the producers are so busy casting people to meet diversity quotas (must be x number of blacks, asians, hispanics, gays, lesbians, transgenders, disabled etc) that they have stopped casting contestants on the basis of personality. And its personality that made great TV viewing. Now the show is full of whining snowflakes who cant even handle the show conditions and who quit in the first few days.
I tried to watch Big Brother Canada one day. Over half the cast were black, despite black people in Canada only being 4% of the population. All the black people formed an alliance from Day One and openly agreed to vote out all the white people on the show. This was considered acceptable in the name of "black representation".
"A lot of TV is really horrible now. "
Was it ever good? Nothing more IMO than an opiate for the masses.
I offer up James Burke and Connexions, with The Greatest Shot in Television History:
The BEST TIMED Shot in TV HISTORY?
Survivor used to be a great show. ROTFLMAO.
There's a reason why its on its 48th season. You may not like it, but I always enjoyed it. Well, at least I used to. Survivor Australia is the best of the lot, because its still old school not woke school.
OK so your point is that Survivor used to be a good show but now there are too many black people on it so it's shit. Noted and thanks for clarifying your position.
To be fair, there's also plenty with two women making out with full on mouth sucks and the like.
The world will be holding its breath to see how the Panama Canal issue plays out. Logically I assume China will be asked to defend it as they have business assets at stake? Or is Trump just using the threat to re-negotiate new terms/conditions on US access/charges? Or perhaps a US military base to be established alongside it?
Interesting that only it (Panama) got a mention in the inaugural speech - not Greenland.
I'd doubt Panama, Canada, Greenland, mass deportations etc will happen at all. They all just seem like circuses to distract the masses from the looting of the US that they'll carry out in the meantime.
Everything he says is just an opening round in a negotiation. He wrote "art of the deal" remember. You never reveal what you really want, and you pretend to demand something you don't. So when you make a "concession" you end up with the thing that you wanted in the first place, while the other side thinks they also "won". Whether the threats eventuate or not depends on how quickly the other side give him what he really wants. You should see things like tariffs as a punishment for recalcitrance, rather than as his trade strategy.
You're being a little generous there
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Schwartz_(writer)
"Tony Schwartz (born May 2, 1952) is an American journalist and business book author who is best known for ghostwriting Trump: The Art of the Deal"
"According to Schwartz in July 2016, Trump did not write any of the book, choosing only to remove a few critical mentions of business colleagues at the end of the process"
lol - another grift - who would have thought.
What hasn't been mentioned and is of importance is Trump will issue about 200 executive orders in his first few days . Of note is withdrawal from the Paris Accord, cancelling the Green New Deal, a national border emergency, a raft of energy policy cancellations and no more DEI in the federal govt. What's not to like?
Yep its drill, drill, drill baby that was in his speech this morning. All that woke green stuff just went out the window to a round of applause. The USA is going to become an energy exporter baby, they are filling up all those reserve tanks and selling the rest worldwide. Personally I cannot wait for petrol to cost $1.00 a litre again /sarc.
He can have increased US oil production, or he can have cheap oil. He can't have both unless he's throwing subsidies at it - that's not how incentives work.
This will be part of the fun over the next few years - as his BS is exposed (that's if the algorithms set by his new tech mates allow it)
He will throw (even more) subsidies at it. The taxpayers are too stoopid to notice while the owners won't care as they pay little tax anyway.
You increase oil production at high prices to take advantage of Russian oil being off the market, and export it. Then when Ukraine folds, and Russian oil is back on the market, and oil prices drop, you take your excess oil production and refill the SPR at low cost. At least, that's what I would do.
The SPR is 2/3 full. There's no rush.
They US is already the number one oil producer but lets not have facts get in the way of a good grift.
n
Indeed! The last thing we want is user-pays pollution costs when we can leave the bill to the following generations to pay!
From 60% tarrifs on the first day to assigning people to study trade relations, surprise surprise, the orange man has not kept his word. UST 10 year getting nuked right now looks like inflation won’t be taking off any time soon, and should be back to QE talks within a week.
Peace in Ukraine tomorrow?
You can't have it both ways. He was touting tariffs everywhere on the campaign trail with a cost down mantra via DOGE. Behind the scenes he was also trying to negotiate a removal of the debt ceiling and unlimited debt issuance to get his agenda across the line. Imagine that, Trump being less than honest about his actual agenda.
My money is on China landing a man on Mars first. I mean the US President can't even get basic scientific facts right re: splitting the atom and his number one space guy just saluted his way into a bit of controversy. I wonder if he also clicked his heels behind the podium? or was it just a poor attempt at a mana wave?
Surely more than one person has split an atom by now? Since Trump never claimed that Americans were the first or only ones to do so, merely that they had done it. Like he also claimed that Americans travelled in space, without claiming that Americans were the first or only ones to travel in space. And that Americans harnessed electricity, without claiming that they invented it or were the first to use it or the only ones to use it.
If only NZ schools taught English comprehension....
Sloppy reporting. Trump did not declare war on Panama. He said that the USA will “take it back” which could mean anything. Likewise his comment on “splitting the atom” clearly referred to the creation of the atom bomb and atomic power. As for Musk’s salute being a Nazi variation is just pathetic muck racking. He was only showing how his rockets will go into space, presumably to Mars. The Left Wing Whingers just cannot get used to the idea that they lost and Woke is Broke.
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