Yeah, it works really well. It puts the results in a single page that includes links to each individual post. I can share it if you're interested. Here's a snapshot of the results page.

Yes, but I'm going to stop your right there because your personal budget is far more influenced by your own personal decisions than anything a president does. I mean, why is it that in 2012, your budget was only $2900.00 and mine was $8600.00? I'm going to guess it's because my income was higher which allowed me to commit to more financial obligations. I would credit my higher salary to decisions *I* made as well as my commitments to greater financial obligations.

Try to stick with things like the consumer price index which takes all your personal decisions out of the equation.


Look, I understand the pain of inflation and I get that it's a frustration for a lot of Americans today, including myself but just blindly throwing the blame at the president isn't going to help you. If anything, it will keep you from understanding what the actual problem is.

First of all, prices NEVER remain flat for decades at a time. If you're a grown adult, you should know that.

Secondly, the economy in the first year of any presidency is ALWAYS influenced by the previous president. Trump took office in 2017... Guess who signed the 2017 budget? Obama did. Biden took office in 2021. Guess who signed the 2021 budget? Trump did.

That being said, your numbers are actually working against your argument because you stated that between 2012 and 2016 your personal budget went up by $100. That was under Obama's budget. Then you state that your personal budget went up again, between 2020 and 2021, by $150... ($50 more than before) and THAT was under Trump's budget. THEN you say it went up by ANOTHER $150 between 2021 and 2024, which was under Biden but where under Trump, it only took one year to go up by $150, it took three years to go up by that much under Biden. So clearly, Trump is your worst bet.

Now, like I said using your personal budget does well to illustrate your bottom line and that's what should really matter to us as middle-class workers but it doesn't give us a clear read on presidential influence.

That being said, there are a LOT of things that influence the cost of living that has NOTHING to do with who is sitting in the White House. The pandemic for instance had a massive influence on the economy that eclipses the influence of a president entirely and that isn't just limited to depressions created by a pandemic but the inevitable inflation that comes recovery.

You said that the cost of living was flat until Biden came along. Well, Biden came along in 2021 and like I said, Trump signed the budget for 2021 and trust me I would LOVE to blame Trump for that spike but I know that despite Trump signing the budget for "the year that Biden came along", the pandemic was a far greater influence. This is also why I don't blame Trump for the economic shut down in 2020. By contrast, you are chomping at the bit to blame Biden.


Hate to tell you this (not really) but you're flat wrong. Here's a chart showing us the Consumer Price Index over all the years in question...


As you can see, almost ALL of the increase in the CPI actually occurred during the years that Trump's budget was in operation... 2020 and 2021. It actually peaked at the end of that year. Biden's budget took over in 2022 and what do we see? A decline in the CPI.

So the FACT is... Under Trump's policies inflation went up. Under Biden's policies inflation started to come down. But this is how Trump leverages the ignorance of his base, by letting you remain ignorant about the federal budget while stirring up emotions about the hated "Brandon".


Well now that I've exposed that little detail about the federal budget, we can see that inflation actually happened under Trump's influence, not Biden and yes, the data shows that Trump was in fact the worst out of all three. But again, I cite the pandemic as a far greater influence, so Trump get a pass on this one. Even though I think the pandemic itself would have had less influence if Obama or Biden was in charge when it happened.



Another one? I was asking someone to provide ONE thing that Trump DID to help the middle-class American. So far that hasn't happened. Instead, you reverted to attacks on Biden. Ranting about how Biden did this or that is not showing me what Trump did to help us.


OK... FINALLY an example of what Trump actually did. Too bad it's wrong. So I guess I'll have to explain this one too.

Trump didn't actually "secure the border" until the pandemic hit. That's when we did what most other countries were doing at the time. We closed the border BECAUSE of the pandemic. That's what the provision in Title 42 was... a TEMPORARY shut down that was NEVER meant to be permanent. It was one of the two gifts that the pandemic gave Trump... an inevitable recovery and inflation that he could try to blame on Biden and an automatic shutdown of the border that he could pretend was his solution to "securing" it.

So it's not really anything Trump actually did. Congress had already created Title 42 and it was automatically enacted in response to the pandemic. All Trump did was pretend it was all him and of course no one believed him except for those who were ignorant about the details, which of course includes his base.

After the pandemic Title 42 was lifted (as it was always planned) and we were back to business as usual, with one small difference. There were a LOT more immigrants at the border. Part of that was the backlog of immigrants that piled up when Title 42 was enacted but by far the biggest reason is that people were (and still are) migrating out of Venezuela and the reason for that is pretty obvious to anyone who looks... Trump. Venezuela was already hurting economically because of some bad management but when Trump slapped sanctions on the country it collapsed entirely and now the people can't even find food.

So while Trump didn't do shit for us, he certainly did something for the Venezuelans... He destroyed their county and now the people of that country are knocking on our door. Most immigrants at the border are in fact from Venezuela and the numbers are breaking records.

The other thing I have to ask is this... What makes you think that shutting out the immigrants actually helps middle-class Americans? That was actually part of my question... to explain HOW the action taken actually helped the middle-class.

So... I still have yet to see ANYONE provide just ONE example of what Trump actually DID to help us.

So we're back to the MAGA tradition of shooting in the dark.

Where in that sign do you see the word "illegal"?

First of all, not ALL immigrants are "illegal". In fact, there is no such thing as an illegal immigrant. They are either documented or undocumented. If they are undocumented it means they crossed the border illegally which is WHY they didn't get documented... OR because they let their temporary documentation (work visas) expire. Either way, without valid documentation they can't actually get legitimate jobs, which means they aren't included in that big number you got there.

So you are following the MAGA tradition here of making bold accusations based on data you don't understand. Well done.

Yes, I do. I asked you to explain ONE thing that Trump did to help the middle-class and you decided to point out that gas prices went up during the Trump administration causing the price of everything else to increase. So can you explain HOW that helps the middle-class?

Also, looking at the graph... I can see that you are correct in that gasoline was at $2.25/gallon at the end of Obama's term in 2016 and then went up under Trump until the pandemic hit then it dropped again. I'm going to say that had more to do with the pandemic than Trump policy. I would say the same for the sudden rise after the pandemic during Biden's first year when the economy was recovering. But what's interesting is how under Biden the prices started to fall again. Interesting because I can see the prices fall under Obama and I can see the prices fall under Biden, but under Trump the only time it fell was during the pandemic.

Maybe you need a different chart because this one is working far better for my argument than it is for yours.

As for my original challenge. I'm not going to ask anymore. I asked you to show me ONE thing that Trump actually did to help the middle-class, not what price of gas was. Presidents don't control the price of gas. Presidents do things like work with Congress to pass healthcare reforms, or invest in infrastructure projects, unless it's Trump the one president in my life time that didn't do sh.t.

So, I'll write this off as just one more example of how Trump supporters can't actually point to a single thing that Trump did for them.

I agree, it's a part of human nature. But the difference I am finding in the aggregate is that liberal and even the old school conservative positions tend to match up more with data and evidence. The alt-right from the Tea Party to MAGA appears to be void of ANY such matches.


At least they're looking for evidence. That's the part that I can't say the alt-right EVER does. Instead, they rely on conspiracy theories.

And just so you know, I am only referring to what we are calling the alt-right, which includes the MAGA folks. Not the folks you call RINOS.

I'm still trying to figure out why the alt-right is so unique in that respect.

LOL - MAGA stands for "Make America Great Again" which actually implies that it's not "great" at the moment, hence the need to MAKE it great again and yet here you are calling it a reminder that is *IS* a great country. This just further emphasizes the point I'm making about Trump supporters struggling with language.

Of course, it's not a new term. Reagan also used the term, Make American Great Again, although to his credit he actually worked on doing just that. With Trump, it's just a slogan.

If we go back a little further Hitler also used a similar term... Make Germany Great Again. So it's literally a well-worn bit of sloganeering popular with fascists who want to convince people that things are bad now, but if you elect me, I will bring us back to our glory days.

Releasing an agency from it's obligation to the Constitution would require a paper trail of historic significance. Why don't you stop being such a drama-queen and just say what it is. You think the Biden Administration is violating the Constitution. This happens all the time, an administration will try something that might be constitutionally questionable and leave it up to the courts to decide. Sometimes, it's not even a question. Such as when Trump in 2017 tried to ban all Muslims from entering the country and the SCOTUS had to interfere stating very clearly that the ban violated the Constitution. And this was one of Trump's first actions.


So the conspiracy theory goes. Still waiting for evidence. BTW, in case you forgot, we're talking about how these agencies have (and are still) interfering with our elections. I'm noticing that you're getting pretty vague about what the agencies are doing here.

So... what you're saying here is that if evidence is not true (in which case it wouldn't be evidence) it would be delusional to ignore it. That is literally what you just wrote.


Such as what?


LOL - wow... First of all, PR stunts like pardoning a few black people for crimes committed isn't ENORMOUS evidence that he isn't racist. Secondly, whether or not Trump is racist or not, people are picking up on his dog whistles. We KNOW he isn't going to come out and say "Hi, I'm a racist!" But we have noticed a very obvious hesitancy to condemn the racist actions of others, such as at Charlottesville.

We also noticed his personal relationships with racists like David Duke who was the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the KKK. Trump even invited him to Mar a Lago. Any president in his right mind would have distanced himself from someone like David Duke, but Trump finds a way to excuse it.

Then there's all the endorsements that Trump gets from racist organizations.

We are also aware of his past history where in 1972 he and his father were prosecuted by the DOJ for discrimination against African Americans in their renting practices. He wasn't even running for office then, so you can't say it was a Democratic plan to "destroy" him.

There is also his appearance on the Howard Stern show in 2005 where he told Howard that in the next season of the Apprentice he was going to put a team of white people up against a team of black people, which actually shocked the shock-jock himself. BTW, the network wisely decided against it.

Then there is his idiot immigration comments like how we only want people from "nice countries like Denmark and Norway". One would have to be VERY oblivious to miss that dog whistle. Meanwhile, he has become infamous for describing immigrants at the southern border (who are mostly brown) as bad people.

So, before I make this response too long, I'm going to cut it here, even though it's only scratching the surface, and say this... No other president or candidate in living memory has done ANY of the things I just listed.

So let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Trump himself isn't racist... He is still, without a doubt, fostering relationships with racists and appealing to the racist voters out there. Maybe it because he knows that a huge part of his base is indeed racist.

Personally, I think it stands to reason that his history of Freudian slips, law suites, dog whistles and presidential actions, such as a banning ALL Muslims which the courts didn't allow, adds up to a deserved reputation as a racist.


All those little "misspeaks" add up, Sparky. Especially when they include executive orders that the Supreme Court had to step in to stop.


TDS was never a legal or academic term. The ONLY context in which it was ever used was in political rants. So there's no rule that says it can't be expanded to include the idolization of Trump by his groupie followers.


Except for one problem... the liberal attitude is based on facts, as is continuously proven by investigations and court decisions. That is why "delusion" is far more applicable to the the Trump supporters who depend entirely on unproven conspiracy theories and the stomping of their feet.

Nah, that side-stepping isn't working, Sparky.

One more chance... Can you explain - in your own words - how one single thing Trump did has helped the American middle-class in any significant way. It's a very simple question. Can you do it or not?

You make spelling mistakes all the time. I only point it out on occasion and when I do, it's to emphasize a person's relative command of language, or lack thereof, which probably says more about you than you think.

The main point here is that a person who struggles to write, probably struggles to read which presents the question, how much can a person know about complex issues crisscrossing politics if he struggles to read?

I don't even know you are as a person, so try not to take this personally. I am only using you as an example to emphasize a much larger pattern. We already know that Trump supporters tend to be less educated than his critics. I am actually suggesting that Trump supporters in general are less likely to understand the complexities of our reality, which would help explain how he has been able to play you for all these years.


Well, there's the literal interpretation, which I went with and there's the forgiving interpretation, where I could say... "Well, what he MEANT to say is..."

But that get's back to my point. If you struggle so much with language, how do you expect me to believe that you actually understand this complex world?

You already failed. I specifically asked you NOT to send me a long list. I said... "And please don't send me a long list of links... I'm not asking you to show me how many idiots are out there publishing nonsense."

I said that because this is what you twits always do. You can't actually explain a single accomplishment so instead you have some bookmark that you can click on to show a long, long list of Trump's "supposed accomplishments" that other people have written, hoping that the sheer volume of words is enough to settle the argument.

The reason why I asked for ONE is so I can read it and respond. Again, I'm not challenging the existence of massive volumes of BS. I'm challenging YOUR understanding of just one of Trump's supposed "accomplishments".

Do you want to give it another try? Or is this already too much of a challenge for you?

Another example of nothing. No data, no reference to anything he actually did while in office. You say we don't want to know the truth about Trump but the only thing we ever get from you is an endless parade of idiot memes that say Trump is some kind of superhero. This is WHY people like me develop this sense (wrong or right) that you're all morons.

How 'bout this... Why don't you tell me the "truth" about Trump? Show me one provable thing that he did to help the American middle class. And please don't send me a long list of links... I'm not asking you to show me how many idiots are out there publishing nonsense. I mean, YOU pick just ONE thing that Trump did and explain to me how that action warrants such admiration from you.

I'm listening.

You said "The FBI, CIA and others in the Alphabet Mafia under the DOJ have unquestionably interfered in Trump elections" Those are your words exactly. Most people would read that the same way I did. I think what happened is I caught you saying something stupid and now your backpedaling.

...and it's excel, not "excell".

I dunno... Maybe you shouldn't have dropped out of school.


Weak.

Why do you people do that? All these false accusations and baseless assumptions about people just because you don't like their view. Mattoid has not actually stated that he supports the killing of Trump. Not once. I wrote a program to scan ALL the pages of a topic in about 6 seconds and I use it to scan for things people say and not ONE person stated they want to see Trump killed.

You're original post implies that Trump's critics want him killed. It would appear that is all your own fantasy. Is this your attempt to demonize them or maybe a feeble attempt to make Trump out to be some great threat to our culture?

Let me help you out here, Lily... None of us are all that worried about Trump. Trump is a moron. What we are worried about is the rise in bigotry and ignorance that Trump is tapping into because it leaves us open to future politicians that might actually be smart enough to leverage that and turn our country into the kind of fascist tyranny that no one really wants.

So if you can drop your idolization of Trump for just one moment you MIGHT give yourself a chance to put credit where credit is due. Trump doesn't scare us. YOU people do. Because if there is one lesson that Trump has taught us, it's that if Adolph Hitler ran for president in 2024, you would very likely vote for him.

Perhaps.