slugsrbad wrote:Melanie gave a gift to Michelle, is that normal? It was odd and normal to see the gift given to POTUS to try and find a place to put it.

Youseff wrote:all the #$!&@ vendors outside the train station who usually sell statue of liberty hats and other crap were selling wool MAGA hats. I'd be surprised to see people wearing them around lower Manhattan but we shall see.

Werthless wrote:

Youseff wrote:

slugsrbad wrote:

Youseff wrote:& how would Putin's friend become billionaires & get rich from buying public land where subsequently no industries would exist?

I assume the hypothetical would be that his friends would buy, or already own the land, and then the Russian government would pay outrageous sums to buy it for parks and preservation.

oh, so werthless was proposing a hypothetical that has nothing to do with our public parks situation. great.

I didnt think the words in my post were that hard to follow -- I wasn't intentionally doing a docsmooth imitation -- but my apologies that something was lost. My Putin hypothetical was about land-buying, as a follow-up to my argument that the decision to buy/sell is symmetrical, and holding a huge amount of land is not a neutral position; it's a position in favor of land-buying as a reasonable national policy.

At the risk of adding confusion, I'll attempt another analogy. If you personally own a bunch of Apple stock, and you think "I would never buy more at this price," perhaps that's an argument that you shouldn't be holding what you have at this price. if you wouldn't buy more, why hold?

Tying it all together, I brought up Russia because they are much more ok with nationalizing industries. Perhaps I could have used China as an example. It's a contrast with the US; while Americans tend to be generally predisposed to oppose the nationalization of most industries -- except in the auto industry, apparently -- a quarter of US lands are nationalized.

pacino wrote:

Youseff wrote:all the #$!&@ vendors outside the train station who usually sell statue of liberty hats and other crap were selling wool MAGA hats. I'd be surprised to see people wearing them around lower Manhattan but we shall see.

go to wall st

CalvinBall wrote:trump definitely has had the worst designed souvenirs, posters, shirts, etc from any recent person running for president i can remember.

Slowhand wrote:Still holding out hope that right as he's taking the oath, Ashton Kutcher jumps outs and is all "Punk'd like it's 2003, bitches!" and everyone gives high fives as they bring out the real president.

pacino wrote:maybe Trump will put cuffs on the founder of ISIS (President Barack H Obama) and finally bring him up on charges for treason to our great nation

Youseff wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:trump definitely has had the worst designed souvenirs, posters, shirts, etc from any recent person running for president i can remember.

the hat was iconic from the start. it was basically his Shepard Fairey Obama Hope poster. I missed it but it was an early sign he had captured the public's attention.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

Youseff wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:trump definitely has had the worst designed souvenirs, posters, shirts, etc from any recent person running for president i can remember.

the hat was iconic from the start. it was basically his Shepard Fairey Obama Hope poster. I missed it but it was an early sign he had captured the public's attention.

Agreed. They are awful to look at from our perspective, but people LOVE them.