We were in an expansionary phase. And, as far as we can tell from the hard data, we still are. The most recent GDP data (for the first quarter) showed the US economy growing at an annualised pace of 3.2% (the revised calculation or the same quarter is released on Wednesday and the market is expecting a revision to 3.0%). GDP data is always released with a huge lag, because it's such a complicated and large amount of data to compile. However, it tends to correlate strongly with jobs growth. US nonfarm payrolls grew at a very healthy 263k in April. Everyone is expecting a downturn sometime relatively soon, because we have been in expansion for a decade, but as far as the data is concerned, the US economy is still expanding at a solid pace. 

Sorry.  What's typical rhetoric among you guys?  Snowflake, is it?  Didn't know you were so sensitive, so much so that a dialog we had months ago stuck in your craw so much that you had to make reference to it here.  It's obvious that what I said struck a chord in you.  Hurt your feelers because I called you out on ONLY posting in political threads on a board obviously devoted to an artist when you could, I dunno, go to a bajillion 4Chan and 8Chan threads to do the same?  

I know you want to "ding" me for being a mod and ::gasp!!:: having an opinion on your posting habits, but that shit don't fly.  Good on ya, though.  Hold onto that anger.  I'm sure it will serve you really well.  I wish you luck in your future endeavors.  

Facts, Peter.  Facts and context.  I'll note that when you put it all into context, Paul didn't counter.  He couldn't.  He knew the truth, but then instead tried to paint himself as the "victim" of the JBF.  The poor, put upon Trumper who only extolls the truth while the mean old board beats up on him.  We had a name, years ago, for people like Paul: a troll. He doesn't give two shits about JB but has found that posting his shit in specific threads (and ONLY in specific threads as Paul hasn't posted anywhere else) gives him some sort of juice. He can be a soldier.  He can be a crusader.  And now anyone who disagrees with him is part of an echo chamber.  That if they'd only open their "doors" they'd see the light.  And it's Paul's mission to post it here.  Mods (me) beat up on him, people curse him, others make fun of him.  It only adds to the persecution complex and reinforces his "rightness".  

Trump recently said he was, quite possibly, the most transparent President in history.  HA!  So too is Paul the most transparent poster on the board, only in this instance it's true.  

One of the things that was most alarming to me in the run-up (and post-game) of the 2016 election was seeing some friends whose intelligence I've always respected not only go all-in for Trump, but also talk about him and defend him with all of the right-wing media talking points.  That fear thing, yeah.  It's like he's completely bypassed all of their conscious, trained, analytical thinking and plugged directly into their lizard brains.

Frankly making a blanket statement that liberals are smarter than conservatives, Democrats are smarter than Republicans ,( or visa versa ) should disqualify you from the "smart end" of the column no matter which side you lean politically, or who you think is "smarter". And making such statements, as if that somehow bolsters your reasoning behind your individual political arguments, is ludicrous. 

Koroush - Thank you for posting the Psychology Today article. I know you love to find articles that somehow fit your narrative, however poorly thought out or obscure they may be. You're the master of the appeal to authority fallacy. 

In this article Kanazawa somehow chooses to define intelligence as being altruistic. Never heard it defined quite that way, but I'll play along. He then states that b/c he believes that liberals are more altruistic (through supporting more government programs that give money to complete strangers), they are therefore more evolutionarily advanced and thus smarter. He then in the same article states as FACT studies that have shown that conservatives give more to charity than liberals. The very definition of altruism as he defines it! But he gets around this by saying that b/c they get to pick and choose where their money is going, it somehow lessens their altruism! Brilliant thinking! He also uses IQ studies that end at "young adulthood". I suppose intelligence and learning stops at 21. It certainly seems to have stopped no later than this for a lot of the members on this board. But I will say that Kanazawa's reasoning was better than your conclusion that Trump is a failed at President based on IMF global projections while ignoring all the other positives I mentioned. But hey, it had fancy charts. And we know how you love those as much as you've logical fallacies.

And those that think I give a tinker's damn about being "bullied" on this forum once again show their ignorance. Don't think you're that important, because you aren't. For the 10th time, I was responding to the question someone asked as to why there aren't more posts supporting Trump in the Forum. Your responses illustrated, and continue to illustrate, my point perfectly. I even gave specific examples of being called an asshole by a moderator -Matt, and called racist, and nazi numerous times by other equally brilliant minds on the board. I don't want sympathy. Couldn't care less. Just pointing out why others may not want to join in to the wonderful discussion and exchange of ideas. And BTW Matt, I'll post a response on whatever I damn well feel like here, be they Trump topics or not. You don't like my arguments, fine. But unlike you I never resorted to calling someone an asshole for stating an opinion. If I had, then I probably shouldn't be here. The Acting Presidential thread has over 100 pages of responses, so it's obviously a hot topic. And you also know nothing about my love of JB's work. I'm old enough to have been buying his Superman run off the racks, and have probably read 90% of his work (in fact other than JKFW, New Gods, and Star Trek books, I can't think of much I haven't read). So stick to drawing conclusions to things you have a clue about - assuming you find something.

And those that keep dredging up Trumps, "fine people on both sides" statement as supporting Nazis, even Jake Tapper isn't buying that anymore. Maybe revisit Trump's numerous statements denouncing nazis and KKK members too. 

PS - I sure hope I haven't misspelled any words in this post. I'd hate t be ticketed again by the grammar police and have all of my arguments rendered null and void by a spelling error.