Playpen 4.8.25

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If you’re anything like me, you’ve appreciated being liberated from much of the equity in your 401(k) plan over the last week.  Fortunately for us, this is exactly what we were promised.  

And the best part was that it was so easy.  Believe me.  Trust me.  Everyone says so.  

These are reliable, serious people. 

I just don’t know how much more winning I can afford.  

Discuss. 

128 thoughts on “Playpen 4.8.25”

  1. If only Cackles had won. We’d all be drinkin that three bubble up and eatin that rainbow stew.😆

      • They are the party of personal responsibility. Btw: did Sigmund Freud write a book which quoted an invented anagram of himself.

        Peter Navarro did: “Ron Vara.” And then “John Barron” hires that guy to take the lead on international trade.

        How does one mock a mockery?

        • You just wait! We’re all about to have so much money that we won’t know what to do with it.

          I already took out what was left of my 401k and put a down payment on my new yacht! America is coming back baby!

          Trump is playing 4D chess with all these other countries! We are just so blessed to have the most successful business mind in history willing to run this country and turn things around.

          • I knew when he bankrupted a casino at the same time Choctaw Indians in the swamps of Mississippi were getting shit rich in the very same industry that the guy had talent.

    • It was my understanding that in such an event that the markets would crash and the that the alternative would be cheap groceries, a booming stock market and peace in Ukraine… all on Day 1! So easy!

    • All this is happening under the President who was going to reduce prices on consumer goods on day one, isn’t it? Pejorative nicknames for a person who has been a private citizen since noon on January 20th and wise acre emojies aren’t restoring the market value lost since that date.

  2. So Brandon couldnt take the blame for the economy going to shit when it had been great. But Trump is to blame within weeks of taking office after four years of Brandon. Hell yeah.😆

  3. The fat lady has not sung, it ain’t over till it is over.
    Hang in there.

    • Prognosticate. What happens and why?

      Why will we be happy that we’ve gone through this?

      When will that realization hit? 6 months. A year? 4th term?

  4. What I like best about the Hogpen here is it’s not ideological or biased.😆

    • I am very sorry if promoting free trade and a growing investment portfolio are too conservative for you.

      Maybe next week we can talk about how much better the Government can make the economy work through political intervention and coercion and we can even things out for you.

  5. I keep waiting to find out what type of obvious corruption or just general dumbfuckery from the current administratoin that MAGA will not defend. I should have brought more lunches.

    • Oh I know. I keep waiting for anything the democrats do that their cult won’t defend. Child rape as an “alternative lifestyle “? No sweat. Genital mutilation of children and calling it “gender affirming care”? Why would anybody have a problem with that? Attempts on the president’s life? Hey, we’re “the resistance”. Nothing is off the table is the cult demands it.

      • I was very interested to see all the assassination conspirators Kash and Pam have jailed so far.

        Btw, just because trump partied with Epstein doesn’t mean he was doing all that back when he was a 60+ year old democrat. And though he probably was, that wasn’t like “policy.” It was personal, private, disgusting behavior.

      • This my favorite. You shit libs have tried to make pointing your bullshit out to you into an ism. “You can’t do that! It’s whataboutism!” Dont throw stones if you live in a glass house is about all I’ve got for you on that.

        I’m not on a team. I don’t care how much you hate Trump so I’m not worried about defending him. Just because you’re in a cult dies t mean everybody is. Good talk.

  6. Trump believes he has all the cards and China will soon buckle. Xi is a communist dictator with a state controlled economy. He doesn’t have to care what Chinese citizens think. Trump, on the other hand, has midterm elections coming up. He has to care what U.S. citizens think. Market meltdowns are not good but what’s about to hit is even worse. Prices will escalate quickly, inflation will follow and recession becomes almost inevitable. Certainly highly likely. For the party that campaigned on bringing down prices, inflation and interest rates on day one, this is a disaster. They can talk all they want about short term pain. Carville was right, “it’s the economy stupid.” If Trump continues on the current path the economy will be his undoing. Oh, and isn’t the war in Ukraine still raging? I thought he was going to end that in 24 hours. Maybe him and Putin aren’t as buddy buddy as Trump likes to think.

    • Why do the real winners always seem to be Russia and China?

      Why when we could/should be leading the free world in isolating Russian and China, economically, diplomatically and militarily that instead we piss in the free world’s face thereby benefiting both?

      Is it just incompetence/incoherence or is it more sinister?

      • In the U.S. “long term” planning stops at the next election. Economic theory and practice is based on 90 day increments. Communists have a 100 year plan. Their citizens live and work where they’re told. Complain and you die. When Gorbachev opened up Russia that experiment failed almost immediately. Using money to liberalize China only worked until they became the world’s second largest economy. Now we can’t get that toothpaste back in the tube.
        I’ve been telling my children they will live to see a war with China for the last 30 years. It’s one of the few things Trump gets correct. That we aren’t already prepared for it may have devastating consequences. As far as something more sinister, I am not a conspiracy theorist. I believe the number of global conspiracies is exactly zero. If you want to know why, read Chuck Colson’s book about Watergate.

        • You don’t need to sit down and plan when your interests align.

          Does “find and release her emails so I can win” establish a knowing criminal conspiracy? No. It does communicate an alignment of interests upon which the other party may see action could obtain a reward. What we don’t know is whether that public utterance was born of utter stupidity of something malign.

          “Will someone rid me of this meddlesome priest?” was never seen a sufficient to establish a murder case but nor has it been viewed as entirely innocent. Instead, it was Henry the VIII saying what he wanted to happen without accountability towards him. And it did.

          Why we refuse to carry forward these lessons is not something I can explain, but it does frustrate me.

          As far as China, it was the right who embraced trade and openness with them and assumed that wealth would lead to democratic reforms. Same story they told about Iraq 25 years later.

          I think they shouldn’t have made China rich until it showed it was willing to be free.

      • He was a trusted advisor to Reagan, he was a key part in creating a golden age……

        • Off topic BUT they both told us:

          1) that if you cut taxes spending would of necessity go down AND

          2) if you cut taxes, revenue goes up.

          Those premises are both inconsistent and wrong and we’re now sitting on 37 trillion reasons to show for it.

  8. Derek and The Shit Libs-I’m feelin the Bern!

    Also Derek And The Shit Libs- Muh portfolio!😆

  9. fitin2 <— because WordPress just loves Anonymous.

    And here we go again…….so far, Derek is batting .000 against Orange Hitler. Every single 5 minute hate in his Pigpen has been proven to be bullshit within 48 hours, but he keeps swinging.

    The world is a terrible place for people like him right now. Everything they thought they knew, everything they believed in, has been shown to be an absolute lie. All their "organic" causes were actually astroturfed with taxpayer money. All their politicians are just grifters and thieves (we found this out about ours around 2012). All their causes are not "50-50" with the general public, but actually 80-20. All the protesters are paid actors, the President's approval ratings keep going up, Democrat politicians approval ratings keep going down, and more people watch Cartoon network than CNN or MSNBC. The scale and scope of the theft, corruption and fraud gets bigger every day with each new discovery. The helplessness on the left is so overwhelming that right now they are keying each other's cars!

    So today Derek tells us we must rage against tariffs because trying to rectify a 4 decades long trade deficit of $1.2 trillion, address a $36 trillion debt, and stop being the world's piggy bank is terribly upsetting to the people who have benefited the most from it. And their media organs are doing a full court press to convince the masses that THIS time, they are correct and Orange Hitler is wrong. The shift back to a goods based economy from a service based one is long overdue and won't be without some pain, but a couple of partisan tik tok videos and a few leftwing mouthpieces say this is terrible so Derek's gonna run with that. No matter how many lies they tell, Derek will always believe them because he WANTS it to be true with all his heart. That's the textbook definition of confirmation bias. There is one upside to these weekly sessions though – if Derek says it's true, you can bank on it being bullshit. And if it pisses him off, it will turn out to be a good thing. Always.

    • World’s largest economy? World’s number 1 military? Undisputed leader of the world?!?

      Who are the morons who built that?!?

      Let’s ask Ron Vara what he has to say?

    • I don’t always agree with Derek. But we won’t rectify trade deficits or the national debt with tariffs. Those issues MUST be addressed, but tariffs are a wholly inadequate and inappropriate tool to do so. Importers pay tariffs. Which means American citizens pay for tariffs. The deficit won’t shrink by implementing huge tax cuts while increasing spending. If that worked we wouldn’t have a deficit today. We’ve tried that a bunch of times already. And yes, Trump’s current budget plan will significantly increase spending even after Elon finishes with his chainsaw. Hate to point this out but the last person to balance a budget was Bill Clinton and the last person to reduce the deficit was Obama. I’m a lifelong Republican but our track record on spending is abysmal. We’ve often talked the talk on smaller government and reduced spending but we don’t walk the walk. Trump wants to do something about it and that’s good. But how he’s going about could not be more wrong. The only people claiming Trump’s policies make sense are those being paid to say so. And not even they can’t make a coherent or consistent argument.

      • Even Musk is coming out against it. Koch a conservative donor is filing lawsuits against it.

        We have smid size business owners who coming out against it as their input costs are going which is making it cost less to import a single item finished product, just about everything now uses a global supply chain. If the raw inputs don’t use imported items, the machines used in the process often do.

      • “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” Dick Cheney 2002. It’s like the Republicans know that they can run up the credit card because when the fiscally responsible party follows them, they’ll pay down the debt.

  10. Dems: Tariffs cause inflation!

    Also Dems: Printing money and giving it away to every American and free “loans” to businesses won’t cause inflation!

    Funny how everyone becomes an economic expert in only what their side of the aisle promotes. Real economists can help explain both actions are incredibly stupid. Can Trump leverage tariffs to some favorable trade deals? Will companies invest and bring jobs back on shore? Will those jobs come with lifetime healthcare and pensions? Can Xi outlast Trump to the midterm elections? Can the Fed lower rates when China is dumping our bonds? We may get $2 gas at the pump, but that latte is going to cost me $20.

    • No… I’m going against what was my side of the aisle. Based on the Vietnam Vet hats at the recent county Democrat meeting I recently attended, I am not alone.

      The tariffs idea as been tried twice before, the last times deepened a depression, time before caused a recession. It is basic history of economics.

    • If your point is that tariffs and protectionism have long been promoted by people on the left, primarily labor unions, you are correct. As per usual, the democrats are either silent or incoherent on this issue.

      As I have said, I have long been a free market proponent and I am not changing any positions to suit the times.

      I would say that this policy is the end result of the failure of “trickle down” or “voodoo” economics to serve/benefit the bottom 90% of Americans. They are pissed and angry and have reason to be. Tariffs ain’t the answer.

  11. First off, the fact that he went from “lowering egg prices on day 1” to “well, there will be a little pain” says all you really need to know, but sure, let’s vote and support the felon anyways. But let’s say for the sake of argument, that tariffs can work, despite what Ferris Bueller taught us about the Smoot Hawley tariffs. Why not try planning ahead and easing into them, seeing what businesses might actually be able to do to re-invest into manufacturing in the US? Why not start there instead of tariffing the hell out of the penguins? Are these billion dollar companies able to instantly re-shift and re-organize at the whiplash pace trump is rolling this out? Fuck no, especially when companies have to pay for all the increased costs of the supplies needed to expand. Maybe if he had listened to some actual experts first, maybe we could’ve avoided this panic and downturn. But the felon is just too dumb, too narcissistic and too much of a wanna be king to actually do it (or anything) smartly and efficiently. I actually agree with the idea in principal of reducing the federal work force, cutting back on foreign aid and the need to bring jobs back to America. The felon could probably garner more support if any of this were done in any sort of organized fashion that doesn’t cause chaos, but he’s literally put the most incompetent and least qualified suck ups into place to do this work and what passes as “governing” just looks like a bunch of monkeys humping a football, all while literally shitting on the Constitution at the same time.

  12. Boomers wanted to crash the economy for a virus with a survival rate over 99%. I don’t care. Burn em all with Tariffs.

  13. You can’t say that! It’s whataboutism . Here in the Hogpen there is only room for “Orange bad, orange man racist!”

    And to the dumbass that made out like the only reason to not like Kamala was her annoying laugh, you’re wrong. Lots and lots of reason to not like Kamala.

  14. In the United States of Derek everybody is a democrat or a republican. There is nothing else. And everybody supports everything their sauce does and says no matter what. That guy tells on himself so much more than he realizes. Since everything is about teams and winning no matter what in his works he can’t conceive of anybody not thinking that way. It’s sad but it’s also funny.

        • Denial is a natural, often unconscious, defense mechanism that helps individuals cope with the initial shock and overwhelming emotions associated with a loss or difficult news.

          • Oh snd Grafton, go hump somebody else’s leg. I’m not interested in a warm shower with you. Sorry not sorry.😆

  15. fitin2

    Not even 24 hrs on this one Derek…….you got to up your game bro.
    How’s it feel to be the one chasing a news cycle for a change? Glorious, fucking glorious………….

  17. Pleased with the pause in the tariffs. Not pleased with what appears to be chronic market manipulation from the White House.

    • They wouldn’t be playing the market with this would they?

      I mean, a felon? Surely you jest!

    • Perhaps you should look at history, The stock market was in somewhat of a bubble and has corrected. That was healthy and will happen many more times. The only people that lost money were the people that can’t “stomach” the temporary downturns. Yes Trump is somewhat causing the market to go down but this is necessary to correct all the unfair trade practices and bullshit spendinging of the past 40 years.

        • For clarity’s sake, the sammich comment was directed at Derek. It took over 4 decades to fuck things up this bad, gonna take some heavy lifting to unfuck it. I’m ok with that.

      • Get it right! The stock market only matters when a Dem is in the WH. When it’s a Rep it’s whatever excuse you pull from your rectum.

  19. I guess we won’t be making iPhones and Nike’s here after all. Sad

    • You’re right. We should go back to living like the Amish. That must have been when America was great.

      • I don’t have a fucking I phone or Nikes and I don’t think I live like the Amish. You fucking liberals can’t even have a fucking conversation without some kind of bullshit like “perhaps we should live like the Amish”

        • And by the way, Why don’t you send your part of the 50 million dollars over the Gaza to pay for the freaking condoms.

          • As a nonbelieving ex Christian, I think humanitarian aid is something Jesus would approve of. Maybe you’re just not a big fan of helping others.

        • Anything that does t include eating at some “foodie” restaurant, regular trips to the coffee shop, and other such nonsense is “living like the Amish” to them. A hard day’s work would kill those boys.

          • Yes I think Jesus would approve of our nation going bankrupt sending condoms to Gaza and funding gay sesame street to some country…S/

          • Perhaps IF we lived like the Amish, We wouldn’t be in this fucking mess we’re in.

  21. Just checking up on the news, I’ve been in a flat on my back, incommunicado situation the last few days. It’s good that I always check GTP first for the news or I might have misinterpreted all of the minus numbers flashing across my TV screen.
    You see, after reading Mike Cooley’s rendition of how real men such as himself wait for opportune moments to make cuckolds out of husbands called out of town, I started wondering about my own home life. Now Mulva is a pious woman, beyond reproach I would say, but I do remember those “Then Came Bronson” episodes when Michael Parks would look directly at the camera and give that wry grin of his. I believe I could see the goose bumps on my beloved’s arms in those moments.
    In truth, things have slowed down a bit in the canoodling area in the last few years. For my part I blamed my arthritis. I just can’t maintain the dexterity, balance and endurance of a Chinese acrobat like I once could. Fact is I’ve come to rubbing almost my whole body with Icy Hot to relieve the pain. It was about the time that I started my extreme treatment when Mulva first started showing the twinges of a lack of interest. Sensing it was something that Mulva didn’t feel comfortable talking about I switched to Ben Gay, but to no avail.
    Anyway, when I heard the “potato, potato, potato” of a full dressed hog from my office here at The Tackytoo Trailer Park, I rushed out just in time to see an Electra Guide in Blue sporting two flags mounted to the saddlebags. One said, “Kill A commie For Christ” and the other read, “January 6th, Never Forget.” What I didn’t see was Mulva leaning on the sissy bar, or the sprinkler head that had just popped up. The sprinkler sent me tumbling and I’ve been flat on my back the last few days under the care and watchful eye of my betrothed.
    What did I miss? Was it the DEI or the Trans folk that tanked the economy? The Donald has got to be right about something, you know “broke clock and twice a day.” so it couldn’t totally be on him.

    • Pro tip….whatever the “news” is on any particular day, as it pertains to our current President, rest assured that the exact opposite is true. Today’s freak out was over before Derek finished typing up his outrage. Orange Hitler had him madder than a hung-over sore assed sailor waking up next to a drop dead gorgeous Bangkok hooker with a dick bigger than his. But he persists, so there’s that. Hell, the law of averages says he will eventually be right about something…..just not today.

      • Trump was right in imposing and suspending the tariffs.

        Not a cult.

  23. Derek’s Hogpen is comic gold. Just under unintentionally so.

  24. Bets on how long Trumps 125% tariffs on China last. And whos he going to blame when he eventually tucks his tail?

    • He’ll probably blame all you liberals who don’t have the stomach to endure some short term pain to get this country on the right track. We didn’t get here in a fucking year and it will take awhile to get out of it.

      • So, when he inevitably fails, he’s not going to take any ownership? I thought when he said that the buck stops with him, he was turning over a new leaf.

  25. Market closes up 10% on the day. 75 countries want to negotiate lowering their tariffs they have on US while we are keeping a 10% across the board tariff on them. Massive bond sale at a rate lower than expected took place. China is taking it in the shorts, their currency has been devalued by about 30% recently. Now somehow my DAWG friends on the left will bemoan all the good news that happened today. That is to be expected. What is good for Americans bad for democrats. Now all I want to say is everyone should have bought the dip and then enjoyed the uptick. Stay cool.

  26. I have a question for Derek and the other Commies here. Do y’all now regret rigging the election for Biden in 2020? If y’all hadn’t done that then Trump would be out of office now.

    • Why come Trump is the only president to lose a rigged election?

      Obama couldn’t rig it for Hillary. Biden couldn’t rig it for Harris. Hmmmm….

      Its like he sucks at presidenting and stuff.

      • I’ll take that as a yes, you do regret rigging the 2020 election.

        • That assumes a fact only found in complete and utter stupidity.

          If one were inclined to rig an election, you would do it from the White House not against the current occupant. But the last two Democratic occupants saw their own party lose.

          To be the current occupant and complain about such a thing happening on their own watch and act helpless to do anything to detect or stop it is a pathetic confession of total ineptitude.

          It was made up. Just like tariffs will work was made up. Like Jan 6 was antifa was made up. Like lowering prices on day one was made up. Like mexico will pay for the wall was made up. Like peace in Ukraine on day 1 was made up. Like obamacare replacement was made up. Like Iran nuclear replacement deal was made up. Keep buying that swamp land and the beautiful bridges that span them.

  27. I am not sure I am tracking the full discussion today. If the discussion is about market fluctuations in an attempt to paint a political picture, that is a fool’s errand. No matter the decisions made politically, the market will rise and fall on any particular day and over time the market will increase in value. (It’s kind of the nature of capitalism)

    If the discussion is about Tariffs, effectiveness on raising revenue, or in implementing political change, that is a worthy conversation. Based on what we know about US spending behavior, do we think that tariffs will drive consumption down that much? I mean the average US household carries $21,000 without mortgages. The average US household makes $87K. I don’t know how elastic/inelastic the demand curve is in the short term.

    However, I am curious to know what people think about the European Value Added Tax (VAT) which is a consumption tax (you only pay it for those items you purchase) versus Tariffs? If you are ok with European VATs but negative towards Tarriffs, would you support a US VAT? That would seem to be a more interesting discussion than a whatever the wind blows political regurgitation.

      • OK —- Market value indeed dropped due to Tariffs but the gain or loss of an investment only occurs at the point of sale. A similar sell off happened the week of 20 Feb 2020. That was the first real week of COVID and saw the market drop over 10% but was up 10% to the previous close before the COVID drop. I think it recovered from that ok.

        As to your twix link, the discussion is interesting but not one that I would call evidence of not being able to change. For instance, trade certifications are up 11% in the last 12 months while college graduation went down 1%.

        ttps://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/04/09/why-more-students-are-opting-for-certificates-over-undergraduate-degrees

        For a generation of folks who are supposedly not going towards blue collar, that does seem to indicate maybe blue collar is making a comeback. And if blue collar tradespeople can make a comeback, why can’t manufacturing.

        • Who is building the factory? Where? What are they manufacturing? Who is working there? Unemployment is 4%. Who are we outcompeting? From whom do we need to protect that market with tariffs?

          Point being, you simply don’t start with tariffs and expect factories to sprout like weeds. You need a plan.

          When it gets so bad that people are dumping US treasuries forcing interests rates up, and you have to reverse course in a week, well you don’t have a plan. You’re an economic illiterate.

      • It is due to market uncertainty — similar to what happened the first few weeks of COVID. I agree with you that the uncertainty is a direct reflection of Trump’s approach to Tariffs.

  28. Off topic question for Mike Cooley – are you the same Mike Cooley of the Drive By Truckers?

    • I am not. He’s a shit lib sadly. I’m just a big fan of his music. That’s the beauty of not being in a cult like Derek. Although I think Mike Cooley’s politics are retarded he’s a hell of a song writer and one of the more original guitar players around. I’m able to love his music and think his politics are dumb. It’s not hard. But Derek can’t do things like that because he’s in a cult. It’s all or nothing.

      • Your broken clock has no arms and you are wrong 24/7.

        Big Van Morrison fan here.

        Dgaf about his views on politics or viruses.

        Was mentioning just this week that I saw Kid Rock 20-ish years ago at a festival and he put on one helluva show.

        Btw: i do like the “they call us X so if I reverse it and call them that then I’ll seem clever and stuff!” Its quite impressive. Really.

  29. Said the guy who wears a pussy hat and can’t change a fuckin tire.😆

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