Joe will have a lot in him... just like the SOTU.

The five-second rule for food that has fallen on the floor is now 8.3 seconds.

I'm sure that he'd have no problem with it... he's a teetotaler slick.

I read that Trump accepted four debates and Biden refused two of them... I also hear that Trump's only demand, unlike Biden's many, is that Biden take a drug test before them... 'nuff said.

The most insane presidential campaign of all time continues apace, and it's leaving people with two choices. One can either fret about it or laugh about it, and the latter is probably much healthier in the long run.

Luckily, Donald Trump is providing the comedic relief we all need amid the continued crumbling of the nation's social fabric. Hey, if the ship is going down, we might as well enjoy the ride, right?

I'll admit that despite me being far more concerned about policy these days than the "show," I busted out laughing at "KEEPS FALLING" in all caps as the only caption on the video. If you can't watch it, it's a parody of Tom Petty’s hit song "Free Falling" – which just cemented my opinion of him as my favorite artist of all time – that begins with a litany of clips of Joe Biden being creepy and senile. He's seen sniffing kids, staring blankly, and getting confused while trying to walk off a stage (something that has happened repeatedly over the last several years).

When the chorus kicks in, the president is then shown falling multiple times. His infamous face plant at the USAF commencement makes an appearance, and who could forget when he fell off his bike while trying to talk to the press while on vacation? Of course, what provided the most fodder for the video was Biden's numerous stumbles while trying to board Air Force One. The short stairs even make an appearance, having not solved the issue.

Trump wasn't done, though. He then posted the following video of Biden having no idea how to walk through a door set to the "Visiting Angels" jingle.

I hope radio host Chris Stigall gets credit for that because he's been doing the "Visiting Angels" bit for years. I'm pretty sure it originated with him.

Believe it or not, there's a strategy behind all this. Yes, it's funny, but I would suspect nothing has helped build Trump's current polling lead more than the painting of Biden (accurately) as old and senile, incapable of competently fulfilling the office of the presidency. The risk is Biden being so pumped full of amphetamines that he appears sentient at the coming debates, shifting public perception.

Color me skeptical there's a drug strong enough to accomplish that feat, though. He may not pass out on stage, but like his recent State of the Union address, it'll be obvious what's going on.

There is now an agreement on two 2024 presidential debates, one in June with CNN and one in September with ABC.

Former President Donald Trump accepted two more, proposed by Fox and then on Telemundo/NBC, but Joe Biden has not agreed to those. He obviously only wants debates on networks he thinks he can influence:

“The debate about debates is over,” a Biden campaign official said. “No more games.”

In a statement Friday night, the Trump campaign responded by blasting Biden's decision.

"The Telemundo/NBC debate would be widely watched by Hispanic voters, but Biden’s handlers are petrified to allow him to defend his disastrous record," campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said. "Crooked Joe Biden is too 'cobarde' to address the Hispanic community and answer for his failures on the debate stage!"

It's been the Biden team that's been playing the "games," and trying to set all kinds of restrictions and only agreeing to the things that he thinks help him. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also claimed that he would qualify for the first CNN debate; Biden had said he didn’t want Kennedy included. So, what happens there remains to be seen.

Trump spoke at the Minnesota GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan fundraising dinner on Friday.

While he identified a debate requirement he wanted of his own. Trump is now asking for what I think is a very important requirement for the debate — a drug test. He said he thought Biden was going to be “jacked up.”

"He can't talk, he can't walk, can't find his way off a stage. Can’t put two sentences together,” Trump said.

“Although he has agreed to debate, so I don’t know, maybe they know something. He’s going to be so jacked up for those debates, you watch.

"I'm going to demand a drug test," he declared.

"I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union,” Trump said. “He was high as a kite.” By the end of the evening, Trump said, Biden was “exhausted.” “We’re going to demand a drug test.”

According to Politico, Ron Klein -- who runs the Biden debate camp -- wouldn't respond when asked if any illegal substances were used as part of their debate prep.

That says it all right there, doesn't it? They can't answer that question. That should send off honking red alarm bells. And actually, I would have made the question broader: Are any drugs -- illegal or not -- being used to help enhance his performance?

One has to wonder if this is a requirement, whether Biden would be able to comply and would he blow off the debate instead? I think Biden may simply say "no more rules," even though he's the one who put all kinds of restrictions that favor him on the debates. But then, the Trump campaign can call him out for being a coward and keep raising questions about being "juiced."

The only good thing for Biden may be that people have such low expectations for him if he walks across the stage and doesn't fall off, the media will spin it as a win.

The problem with Joe is he's still Joe. No matter how much they try to help him, that's the biggest weight around his neck.

Let's talk again when Russia and the BRICS nations replace the United States as the global reserve currency slick.

Just look at my avatar... need I say more?

So you're saying that your Hindu?

Actually I wanted to give you a concept that you might understand instead of the Christian one that “you reap what you sow” which originates from the Bible.

REPUB´LIC̵
A form of government, in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in which the people exercise the powers of sovereignty in person.

DEMOC̵´RACY
A form of government, in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of the people collectively, or in which the people exercise the powers of legislation. Such was the government of Athens.

A republic is NOT a democracy.

The United States is a constitutional republic.

Hertz is unloading 30,000 used cars on the market. The mileage might not be the lowest, but they're all 2022 or newer and lovingly maintained by the company's team of professional mechanics. While most used-car prices remain sky-high, the prices on these gently used babies is shockingly low.

There's just one catch: they're all Teslas.

Hertz, you might have read, came out of bankruptcy a couple of years ago and placed a big bet on electric vehicles. The rental firm had originally planned to buy no fewer than 100,000 EVs for their fleet but ended up with quite a bit fewer at 30,000 — almost all of them Teslas.

Now Hertz is selling them all for the simple reason that people didn't want to rent them. The company bought those Teslas when prices were high, and now they have to sell them at fire sale prices in a market already saturated with new EVs selling at lower prices and bigger discounts than ever.

What an ignominious way to emerge from bankruptcy, right?

While the deals may look tempting — and a used EV sold for $24,999 or less can get buyers a $4,000 tax credit — used EVs come with a bigger caveat emptor than the typical used car.

First, there's the depreciation. iSeeCars reported in January that, on average, "electric cars have a five-year depreciation rate of 49.1%... compared to an overall industry average of a 38.8% five-year depreciation rate." Executive analyst Karl Brauer added, "This pattern will continue until electric vehicles don't require heavy incentives to sell and consumers gain confidence in their long-term ownership costs."

Then there are the little problems that used cars can have — that turn into big problems with electrics.

New York magazine told the story this week of one of those Hertz buyers, Bijay Pandey of Texas. He got a screaming deal on a 2022 Long Range Model 3 with 70,000 miles that ended up costing him about $25,000. They're almost $50k new.

But almost immediately, there were problems. After getting a temporary title, he found the car wasn’t reading voltage correctly. Soon, a body shop found a quarter-size hole in the undercarriage he hadn’t seen before, which led to revelations of deeper issues inside. “The high-voltage battery pack is damaged and could cause extreme safety concerns,” a Tesla technician texted him. Because the hole was “exterior damage,” it wasn’t covered by the warranty, which meant a $13,078.58 repair bill.

Ouch.

There's an old joke that there's nothing more expensive than a cheap BMW, but they might have to rewrite it for EVs.

To their credit, Hertz was willing to work with Pandey and swap out his damaged Tesla for another one, but the process took two months. And, of course, two $500 car payments for a car he couldn't drive.

Between market saturation and the added risks buyers face with used EVs, Hertz has sold only 10,000 of their 30,000 EVs — and sales have slowed. New CEO Gil West said the sell-off will be "complete by the end of the year."

But you have to wonder how much more money the company will have to lose in this market to make that happen, and what other little $13,000 "exterior" problems owners might find along the way.

Yep, karma's going to be a real bitch when you get dispatched to hell unless you repent, ask forgiveness for your sins and believe on Jesus before you die.

Several states have taken action over the last two years in an effort to block the implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the United States.

Indiana was the first state to pass legislation relating to central bank digital currency. Enacted in 2023, the law explicitly excludes a CBDC from the definition of money under the state's Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). The law amends the definition of money to specify, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency that is currently adopted, or that may be adopted, by the United States government, a foreign government, a foreign reserve, or a foreign sanctioned central bank.”

A similar law was enacted in Florida last year, and this year South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah followed suit. A Nebraska bill repealing the capital gains tax on gold and silver also changed the definition of money in the state tax code to exclude CBDC.

This year, Indiana took a second step to hinder the implementation of a CBDC with the enactment of a measure prohibiting state agencies from accepting payments made with a central bank digital currency for any service, tax, license, permit, fee, information, or other amount due the governmental body. It also bars government agencies from requiring payments to be made with a central bank digital currency.

Additionally, under the law, state government bodies are prohibited from advocating for or supporting the testing, adoption, or implementation of a central bank digital currency by the United States government.

Alabama, North Dakota, and Georgia have passed similar laws.

It remains unclear how changing the definition of money in the UCC and other steps taken at the state level would play out in practice against a CBDC if the federal government attempts to implement one.

The UCC is a set of uniformly adopted state laws governing commercial transactions in the U.S. According to the Uniform Law Commission, “Because the UCC has been universally adopted, businesses can enter into contracts with confidence that the terms will be enforced in the same way by the courts of every American jurisdiction. The resulting certainty of business relationships allows businesses to grow and the American economy to thrive. For this reason, the UCC has been called ‘the backbone of American commerce.’”

Passage of this legislation would, as noted by one opponent of the legislation, put a CBDC “into the bucket of ‘general intangibles” – rather than money, and wouldn’t ban its use completely.

But it could still potentially gum up the works and make it difficult for the government to fully implement a CBDC.

Opponents of the strategy and supporters of CBDC generally take the position that states can’t do anything to stop a CBDC, since – according to their view – under the supremacy clause “any federal law on this point will automatically override state law.”

We’ve heard this song and dance on other issues before. That’s what they said when California legalized medical marijuana in 1996. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

In the ramp-up to the 1996 vote on Proposition 215, voters were repeatedly told that legalization of marijuana, even for limited medical purposes, was a fruitless effort, since, under the supremacy clause, any such state law would be automatically overridden by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA). At best, opponents told Californians, the state would end up in a costly, and losing court effort.

But despite those warnings, Californians voted yes, setting in motion the massive state-level movement we see today, where a growing majority of states have legalized what the federal government prohibits. Ultimately, the federal government will likely have to back down, even if just to save face, because it has become impossible to fully enforce its federal prohibition over this massive state and individual resistance.

A similar scenario played out in response to the REAL ID Act of 2005. The national ID system still isn’t fully up and running more than 17 years after the “final deadline” for full implementation.

Why not?

Because a significant number of states decided not to participate, drug their feet, or in some cases, simply provide residents with a choice to opt-out. Federal officials have confirmed that state-level roadblocks to implementation are the primary reason for the continuing delays.

“Roadblock” is likely how this and other state-based strategies to oppose a CBDC will play out. This is part of James Madison’s four-step blueprint for how states can stop federal programs.

But, as can be seen so far with issues like marijuana and the REAL ID Act, whether a federal program is implemented or not ultimately gets down to the number of roadblocks put up by states, and more importantly, the willingness of the people to participate, or not.

Two excellent choices!