'Looking down their nose at you': GameStop frenzy showed a fresh contempt for hedge funds. Why do Americans hate them? Updated 2:25 pm EST Feb. 11, 2021 In the middle of a pandemic and slow economic recovery, Americans think they’ve identified their Wall Street villain: hedge funds. Their nemesis is summed up in a few searing images: a hedge fund manager who makes millions betting that the subprime mortgage market will collapse, without warning them. Or another relaxing on a yacht as the economy tanks. Years of anger culminated late last month when a group of angry small-time investors on Reddit took on a few of those firms in the GameStop “short squeeze” frenzy. That spurred millions of others to join in, as their effort to drive up the price of a stock perceived as undervalued soon shifted to a campaign to “Stick it to Wall Street." They used the "squeeze" to rally the share price and make profits for themselves while forcing the hedge funds who had bet it would fall to buy it to prevent greater losses. What are these funds, and where does this resentment come from? Hedge funds, known for using higher risk investing strategies, are private investment vehicles that typically wealthy individuals use to get higher returns. They control more than $3 trillion in assets globally. They've angered many Americans by gutting companies such as former American retail icon Sears, causing layoffs and engaging in questionable financial practices that contributed to the near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008, experts say. 'This is life changing': Meet the Redditors behind the GameStop saga “Most people see it as guys in suits looking down their nose at you,” says Adam Bixler, 28, an active user on the WallStreetBets Reddit forum, whose members led the charge against the funds. “How I feel is probably how a lot of people feel when thinking about the financial crisis and the massive wealth inequality that exists in this country.” Radio Shack, Toys ‘R’ Us and Payless ShoeSource, along with mall-based retailers such as the Limited, Wet Seal, Claire’s and Aeropostale faced further financial woes after hedge funds and private equity firms loaded them up with debt. A fight is raging in the stock market: Should you worry about your 401(k)? Where to get vaccines: CVS, Walgreens to begin delivering COVID-19 vaccines on Friday “The idea that you can crack open a hedge fund like a piñata and redistribute all this money to people in the form of a short squeeze is very appealing,” says Bixler, who lives in Boonton, New Jersey, and works as a product manager for a company that makes software and tools for the advertising industry. “These are the stimulus checks that everyone wanted.” Proponents of hedge funds say the firms identify and support distressed industries such as retailers and newspapers. These funds are owned by groups of big investors pooling the savings of millions of unionized workers, such as teachers and firefighters, who count on hedge funds to grow and protect their nest eggs. Even so, hedge funds are viewed as vultures by many Americans. Kaysha Apodaca, an emergency room nurse in Dallas, was furious last summer when she lost thousands of dollars after CytoDyn, a biotechnology company she owns, was hammered following a negative report from a “short selling” research firm, about one of CytroDyn's drugs in clinical trials. The post with the research was later pulled. This year, Apodaca thought she missed the opportunity to jump in and buy GameStop or AMC, so she supported the Reddit campaign against hedge funds by investing a few thousand dollars into shares of Nokia, another beaten-down stock discussed on the forum. “I hate hedge funds. Even if this goes to zero, I’m OK with it. I’m not selling, just to prove a point,” Apodaca said. “Hedge funds have unfairly made money off retail investors for years. Now they’re getting a taste of their own medicine.” For Iris Findlay of Orlando, Florida, joining the movement was a way for Americans to show their strength in numbers. “I’m definitely not OK that there are so many billionaires hoarding their wealth while people are struggling, especially during the pandemic,” said Findlay, 31, who is disabled and retired from the Air Force. A large portion of hedge-fund assets are owned by institutional investors, such as pension funds and endowments. Hedge fund research has been critical in exposing an array of accounting fraud scandals in recent decades, including the one involving energy firm Enron. “Hedge funds do play a very important role in the financial ecosystem, but at the same time, they have a PR problem,” says Andrew Lo, a finance professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. They are an easy target, experts say, because some high-profile managers' massive wealth offends Americans who struggle to make ends meet. Michael Burry, founder of Scion Asset Management, is an investor whose billion-dollar bet against the housing market was chronicled in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short." He personally collected $100 million and made $750 million in profits for his investors. These managers “are seen as multibillionaires that really don’t care about the public good and are focused on enriching themselves and their investors,” Lo says. “But I think that’s a caricature, especially given that hedge funds now have become much more institutionalized as pension funds and endowments are investing in these financial vehicles.” Who do Americans blame? When asked who was the “most in the wrong” in the trading mania that set off one of the biggest short squeezes in history, nearly half of Americans polled said it was either hedge funds (27%) or online brokerage Robinhood (22%), according to a Harris Poll survey conducted Jan 29-31 that was given to USA TODAY exclusively. Just 8% said it was the Reddit retail investors on the WallStreetBets forum, who angered hedge funds that had bet GameStop's stock would remain low. The small-time investors used the forum to help drive up the prices for shares such as GameStop, theater chain AMC Entertainment and several other companies. Many respondents were angry that hedge funds were shorting stocks – betting that the share prices would fall – of companies that average people use and love, according to John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll. “This wasn’t just an attack on a few weak companies,” Gerzema says. “These are companies that are a part of middle-class America and ordinary people’s lives.” How did these funds begin, and how did they grow into such big villains in the minds of so many? What are hedge funds? Hedge funds are financial partnerships between a professional fund manager and investors who pool their money into the fund to earn active returns. Hedge funds can be traced back to the 1940s when Alfred Winslow Jones, an investor, sociologist and former Fortune magazine writer, created a "hedge" by “shorting" stocks he thought were poised to fall. The "hedge" was meant to reduce risk and protect against market fluctuations. It was unconventional at the time but remains the basic strategy for these funds. Hedge fund strategies today are more diverse and run the gamut of extremely risky to fairly conservative. There's another theory about the origin of hedge funds, and this one is connected to a more beloved figure. Some people credit the founding of hedge funds to Benjamin Graham, a mentor to Warren Buffett and the author of "The Intelligent Investor" – the bible of everyone who loves Buffett's method of investing. Buffett, one of the world's richest people and a folksy inspiration to small-time investors, argued that Graham managed a fund with a "hedge"-like strategy in the 1920s. So you made a bundle on GameStop: Get ready to pay the taxes How did hedge funds evolve? Hedge funds have gained in popularity over the past two decades after many of them delivered hefty outsize returns in either up or down markets, an attractive selling point for savvy investors. Some of the world's largest hedge funds include Bridgewater Associates, founded by billionaire Ray Dalio; Renaissance Technologies, founded by billionaire Jim Simons; and Pershing Square, run by Wall Street billionaire Bill Ackman. They have historically charged much higher fees than mutual funds, which are professionally managed funds that invest in stocks, bonds or money market instruments. Since hedge fund managers are nearly always paid a performance fee, or percentage of the gains they create, they have a strong incentive to make money for their investors. For the hedge fund managers to earn performance fees, their investors have to make money first. Hedge funds charge an expense ratio and a performance fee. The common fee structure is known as two and twenty – a 2% asset management fee and a 20% cut of generated gains. How did they become villains? While many Americans lost money during the depths of the financial crisis, some big-time investors did astonishingly well, including those who predicted and profited from the buildup and collapse of the housing and credit bubble in 2007 and 2008. For those Americans who had their livelihoods upended in the financial crisis, it left a bad taste in their mouths, experts say. “They’re associated with ruthless financial institutions that are out there to make money and not care where it’s coming from,” says Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. A big winner from that time is billionaire investor John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who netted $20 billion in profits when he bet against subprime mortgages at the peak of the credit bubble in 2007. In general, short sellers keep stock prices in check by voicing their opinion on where they believe a stock is valued, says Dennis Dick, head of markets structure and a proprietary trader at Bright Trading in Las Vegas. “I’m concerned with this public image that ‘evil short sellers are betting against America’ and that it’s ‘un-American to short stocks,’” Dick says. “It’s not like every short seller is making bets against America. They’re making calls on whether a stock is overvalued or not.” GameStop: Reddit ran a 5-second Super Bowl ad in honor of WallStreetBets, GameStop stock volatility The hedge fund industry has faced a rough stretch in recent years and underperformed the broader stock market but produced its best return in a decade at 11.6% in 2020, according to data provider Hedge Fund Research. Some received a boost from shares of technology firms and companies that focused on goods that people used when stuck at home during the pandemic. Americans who don’t invest directly in hedge funds still receive a benefit from the returns that hedge funds generate, according to Daniel Smith, a partner at ACA Compliance Group, an advisory firm for financial services. Of the $4.5 trillion in state and local pension plans, about 6.9% is allocated to hedge funds, according to data published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. ”Hedge funds help secure the retirement of more than 26 million teachers, firefighters and other public employees by helping pensions navigate all market conditions and meet long-term financial obligations,” says Bryan Corbett, president and CEO at Managed Funds Association, a hedge fund lobby group. GameStop and questions of power The rollercoaster involving GameStop, Reddit and Robinhood has prompted Capitol Hill’s harshest criticisms of Wall Street in years. Several prominent lawmakers on Capitol Hill have warned of such moments, cautioning that companies and hedge funds have too much power. One of these lawmakers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is well known for her disapproval of Wall Street, called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to address the dramatic swings surrounding these companies. Warren wrote in a letter that it is “long beyond time for the SEC to act” and asked it to investigate the rallies in GameStop, AMC Entertainment and others that “have seen huge shifts in their share price driven by similar internet reading schemes.” "These wild fluctuations are just the latest indication that many private equity firms, hedge funds, and other investors, big and small, are treating the stock market like a casino, giving little consideration to the companies, communities, workers, and consumers that may be affected by these risky bets," she wrote. The House Financial Services Committee will hold a virtual hearing Feb. 18 regarding “recent market volatility” involving GameStop and the other companies. According to Politico, the CEO of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, is likely to testify. GameStop-Robinhood stock revolution: Not a secure retirement plan Does the movement have legs? Questions have been raised as to whether the populist movement threatening to disrupt the financial system will be sustained. It’s too early to tell, experts say. “It has the potential to gather momentum. It depends on whether we see other related episodes in the next few weeks that show the same kind of patterns in the financial markets," Goldstein says. "We live in a period of so many unusual things going on that it will probably take the edge off this event." Hedge funds such as Melvin Capital Management took the brunt of losses from soaring stock prices of GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks. Others made a ton of money on the rally, including Senvest Management, which had a profit of nearly $700 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Is it sticking it to Wall Street? Only temporarily, but in the long term probably not,” Goldstein says. “At the end of the day, the sophisticated financial institutions will find ways to recuperate and make money out of this.” Lo of MIT agrees. “This incident highlights the growing dissatisfaction, distrust and dislocation that many people feel with respect to the financial sector,” Lo says. “It suggests that people are sick and tired of being disenfranchised and being pushed around by large financial institutions.” Contributing: Savannah Behrmann

Previously on Guess the Company
Hi fellow kids, I'm back again today with yet another DD where I reveal the ticker at the end rather than the beginning.
Let's see how many clues it takes for you to correctly guess today's company:
-This company's Q2 2020 revenues dropped 98% compared to a year ago, and its quarterly EPS plunged from $1.24 in Q2 2019 to a loss of ($1.07) in Q2 2020.
-Despite these revenue numbers, shareholders were barely fazed and the stock continued to trade sideways between $40-$50 from June to November 2020
-If you bought $10000 of this stock at its all time low in March 2009, you would be receiving about twice that much in annual dividends up until it was suspended in Q2 2020 due to the pandemic
-As part of the terms of a $1.5 billion credit facility, this company is not permitted to pay dividend until Q4 2021 unless it can maintain a $1 billion+ liquidity after paying the dividend.
-During the height of the financial crisis in 09, this company was reportedly losing $1000 per *second*
-When this company was about to go bankrupt, its owner dug into his own pockets and loaned the company $1 billion
-Before his company's stocks took a nosedive in 2008, the owner of this company was briefly the 3rd richest person in the USA behind only Bill Gates and Warren Buffet
-Although this company is based in Paradise, NV, the majority of its revenues comes from China. More specifically, Macau, China.
-In 2010 this company built a $6.88 billion resort in Singapore, billed the world's "most expensive standalone casino property"
-With annual revenues of $14 billion, this company is the largest casino operator in the world by market capitalization
Have you made your guess yet?
If your guess was LVS , you are correct!
Outlook for LVS: There are speculations that LVS might sell its Las Vegas Strip properties to a REIT and then lease them back, a move that would raise about $6 billion and allow it to further focus its efforts in Asia where most of its revenues come from. Although my outlook for LVS is bullish, I expect this stock to trade mostly sideways until later this year or early 2022 when it resumes paying dividends to shareholders. OPTAP: $75

So Russia and China share a border though they fight they have to get along. Russia and Germany are divided by Poland, have an up and down relationship, but ultimately depend on one another (they are building this pipe connecting them together). Then there is China and the USA who has an up and down relationship or so it seems, when in reality they were working together. Then there’s the USA and Russia, it seems like they don’t get along, but in reality behind the scenes trump is always a business man first. Some say he has that dirty Russian money. And here’s how..
He owns multiple business under the name “The Trump Organization,” which owns a group of about 500 different business entities.” 5 names of these businesses are called the Trump National Doral (real estate/hotel/golf course), Trump Old Post Office LLC (which is now the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. with the clocktower that reminds you of the movie Back to the Future), Trump Ruffin Tower LLC (casinos/real estate/hotels/spas), the Trump Turnberry (golf course in Scotland/ he also has one in the UK), and Mar-a-Lago Club L.L.C (clubs/spas). The trump organization as a whole is mainly composed of real estate. If one owns one single large corporation (The trump organization) and then uses that organization to disguise his smaller companies (the 500 other businesses he owns under different names) one would own a monopoly since every smaller real estate company belonged to a larger company, that belonged to an even larger real estate company until, it reaches its mother company aka the trump organization.
The trump organization files it’s own taxes since it is a privately owned corporation (how do we know the numbers reported are Accurate?) and he doesn’t have to publicly release the tax documents either, instead they get sent straight to the IRS. This is highly concerning considering he owns most of the real estate companies in the country, which is where most of his money lies. If one owns all the buildings and companies just like in the game monopoly one would be the ruler of the land aka how he became president. Ever wonder how the Simpsons knew 20 years before that he would be president? Bc the elite already knew he owned most of the estates and land in the country. Land is after all the most valuable. What better way to disguise it then by marketing it as different business that all ultimately belonged to a single entity.
Well how would one hide all his money if he had a lot of money and didn’t want to loose it? By building golf courses, spas, casinos, and hotels to cycle the money through and also launder it. If one owns so many businesses, it is quite easy for the business to “accidentally loose money.” How? By holding two separate accounting books or setting up a fake robbery, for example. One could then use this “lost” money and invest it somewhere else or even set up a hidden Swiss bank account, for example. Well since the money cycles through his different businesses all across the country and even world, he builds his famous golf courses he emphasizes he loves so so much. One could only wonder why. The answer was simple, to launder money into a different country through his other golf courses located in Scotland and UK. Suddenly the money didn’t fall under us laws anymore, and thus could be used in a different country with different laws allowing it to be transferred to a Swiss or German bank (Deutsche bank, for example). Russia has done the same and randomly stored $330 million dollars at the German bank a couple years ago. It would be quite simple for Trump to have the dirty Russian money transferred into his foreign bank accounts. 
It is very important to note that the first major bank the Deutsche bank was owned by the Rothchild family. The Rothchild family was like the Trump Monopoly, they owned ALL the banks around the world including in Afghanistan, China, Italy, Japan, France, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The list of owned banks was actually so long and all over the world, one could not possibly list them all. They were just like The Trump Organization who owned all the real estate companies. The Rothschilds owned all the banks under different names throughout the world, which is what made them the richest of course and gave them world control. One who owns all the banks, that own all the different types of money of the world, owns almost everything. And if you happend to be part of the top 1% with all the money and control in the world, you would want to keep control over the money and world somehow, but in this modern world you have to plan it out Intricately, one could compare it to them having a criminal mind.
So you work with other top 1% families to circulate the money back and forth between the families who controlled everything. These families owned banks, real estate (land/, transportation( railroads/cars/planes), water supply, electricity, and electronic devices including computers/phones/tablets/gaming consoles. What is very interesting is that the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the one of the richest people in the world. Warren Buffett also fall under that umbrella. Buffet owns BNSF Railway Co., owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which is North America’s biggest railroad. Bill Gates is the largest shareholder of the Canadian National Railway Company. Though they make it seem like they go separate ways in businesses, behind the scenes, together they controlled All of the railroads across the country. So now, we have Bill Gates and Buffet working together. Buffet controls the railroads bc Bill Gates also has Microsoft aka half the electronic devices under their control. The electronic devices such as gaming consoles, phones, and computers are worldwide. Once again, a monopoly hidden under different names and businesses. One who controls the land and the railroads and technology controls all.
Let’s not forget the Andrew Carnegie Steel Company, which is now part of the United States Steel Corporation. They produce the following: steel, coal, coke, flat-rolled and tubular steel products, railroad rails. The US Steel Corporation (mother company) is now owned by David Boyd Burritt. This means that since steel is needed to build railroads, used in factories, and real estate (steel used to build buildings) all comes from one source, the Coal is mainly used as fuel to generate electric power in the United States. One who controls the power aka the electricity controls everything. So now we also have the steel corporation. The top 1% had to continue cycling (recycle) the money through their money pool somehow to stay rich and powerful, by working together. Now we have the US steal corporation who supplies the railroad and other steal companies and supplies the coal for energy (electricity), we have Bill Gates who owns Microsoft electronics which needs power for the electric devices, (so he must work with the US steel corporation for his railroads and electricity from the coal to power up the railroads, computers and other electronic devices). And then we have Warren Buffet who owns the BNSF Railway Co. meaning he must also be working with the US steel corporation and Bill Gates’ Railroads in Canada (bc the railroads connect) and they needed coal to power their railroads so the money goes round and round. It’s just like the game monopoly, but in real life, the 1% worked together under different names and corporations to build a monopoly, so they would have control over the whole world.
The Rothschild owned all the banks and used Foundations to launder money and to get out of paying taxes. Any foundation created was a way to launder money and not pay taxes, since the money donated into the different charities went right back into their hands, bc they owned the foundations and the corporations. All the different elites including Trump, Rothschild (owner), Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, David Burritt, Germany, Russia aka Putin, even elites in China, India, Afghanistan used the banks the Rothschild owned to store their money...one could call it a money pool. Steve Jobs’s widow (largest shareholder and owner of Disney) and Tim Cook who was the largest shareholder of Apple. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and his widow owned Apple and Disney. Apple used China to build their devices, which means that Disney and Apple was working together with China. This allowed China to get its hands on everyone. They also controlled the Entertainment industry through Disney and all the electronics including Apple and Microsoft since they produced the electronics. Jeff Bezos owner of Amazon, first worked with China and was now o after India (one of the highest populations) to make/sell his products as he does all around the world. Some of the products he sells and uses require power and needed to be transported via mail/plane/fedex/ups/etc. aka transportation.
So he worked with the other elites to make it happen. It destroyed many businesses and gave the 1% even more control over us. I want to note that the Rothschilds own the Federal Reserve of the USA since they owned all the banks. What is the Federal Reserve System? It is the central banking authority of the United States. It is part of the U.S. government, it controls the reserve accounts of commercial banks, and oversees supply of currency, including coin and the U.S. Mint. This would mean that the Rothschilds are the owners of the USA government! This would explain how Trump got away with filing his taxes for all his businesses Privately through his Trump Organization. In order for Trump to become President he had to liquidate all his assets. The issue was that since he owned a lot of real estate and also owned the trump organization that owned all these real estate businesses he could not liquidate them since he was the owner, so he gave control to his 2 sons who now owned the Trump Organization and all its businesses. They allowed Trump to get money any time he needed from a separate account they owned.
The icing on the cake is that the United States IRS is illegal. How so? I will prove it to you. What is the IRS? the IRS is the government authority which collects taxes and enforces the Treasury Department's revenue laws, through the collection of taxes. The Federal Reserve is a nonprofit company aka a Charity, who pays its remaining profits to the department of treasury. This charity is owned by the Rothschilds and as stated above ANY Foundation or charity was fraud, bc it circulated the money back into the 1% pockets, it was simply many different companies under different names owned by one mother company or entity.
According to the article, ‘31 Questions and Answers about the Internal Revenue Service,’ “The IRS was NOT an organization within the U.S. Department of Treasury.” The treasury department was organized under laws now classified in Title 31 of the US code, called “31 U.S.C.” The IRS is only mentioned once in the US code in Title 31 sections 301-315. Title 31 U.S.C. 301 states, that the president may elect, “an Assistant General Counsel in the US Department of Treasury to be the chief counsel for the IRS. In 1979, the case of Chrysler Corp. v. Brown (441 U.S. 281), the U.S. Supreme Court admitted that no organic Act for the IRS could be found. The Guarantee Claude in the U.S. constitution guaranteed the Rule of Law to all Americans (we are to be governed by law not arbitrary bureaucrats). See article IV Section 4. Since there was no Organic Act creating it, the IRS is NOT a lawful organization.”
So what is the IRS? Mitchell states, “The IRS appears to be a collection agency working for foreign banks and operating out of Puerto Rico. It is money laundry, extortion racket, and conspiracy of racketeering activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1951 & 1961 (“Rico”).” There is no known Act of Congress, nor any executive order,** giving the IRS lawful jurisdiction to operate within ANY of the 50 states of the Union.”
In other words, since the IRS was not legally within the USA, bc it’s headquarters were located in Puerto Rico, it didn’t fall under the US laws. The department of Treasury and the IRS simply had an “agreement” to work with one another. The issue is that since the IRS in NOT a lawful organization within the US department of Treasury it would be illegal for the IRS to send mail through the U.S. Mail for fraudulent purposes. That would mean that, “every piece of U.S. mail sent from the IRS with “The Department of Treasury” in the return address is one count of mail fraud. See also 31 U.S.C. 333. Although the U.S. Department of Justice does have power of attorney to represent federal agencies before the federal courts, the IRS is not an “agency.” Why? Because, “the IRS is residing in Puerto Rico, it is thereby excluded from the definition of federal agencies which can be represented by the Department of Justice.” So, we have the Charity the Federal Reserve System owned by the Rothschilds, we have the IRS which is not located within the USA making it unlawful, we had the department of Treasury working with the IRS and the Federal Reserve System, and the Department of Justice who can’t represent the IRS even though they make it appear as if they are all within the USA following the same laws. And now we also have our President Trump who owned the Trump Corporation, which was privately owned, so it didn’t have to publicly release its tax documents and audits, bc they were directly sent to the IRS. Ever wonder how he could lose so much money, not be concerned, and gain it right back? Because he was part of the 1% money pool. The money was always recycled, so it didn’t hurt to loose it, bc it ultimately would always come back. Him becoming president was all part of the plan, because of the part he plays in the elite club.
I must also mention that I am sure that some of these families disguised themselves with different last names, so it would be harder to spot. I can also show very specific laws stating animal testing, abortion, prison laws, etc. which are major issues and have been decided on and made into law a long time ago and hidden within the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, which also mentions the War on Drugs and how fertilizers (radioactive poisons—see other posts in my history) are used for coca aka cocaine eradication in the USA. They are committing genocide, which I can also explain in further detail with step by step examples. Everything is a lie, the government is a lie and people need to know the truth, before it’s to late. It can be different, but we need to work together to change it.
**executive orders are BAD. They give the president full control. He can write any law he pleases and NOT need the house and senate to vote on them. This means the president has full control. This is very dangerous. One must also be aware of how FEMA can take over the president, government, all the people, and the country instantaneously if the president were to declare a national emergency executive order. This means he has no power allowing fema to take over and not give back control. Suddenly, overnight it would turn into a living hell military environment for the people and it would eventually turn sour and create a genocide like environment. We do not want this! We should not vote. We should take control away from the top 1% instead of allowing them to continue dividing the people.
Things can be different. We as a whole can build a newer and better system for the world, where we head towards future technological advances, while having a clean earth instead of the toxic earth the 1% are creating with us the people through the inhumane corporations and trash created (we must build recycling incentive programs worldwide to clean our Earth as a collective). Electricity and water should be made free for everyone, instead of using it as greedy leverage to make money and control the world. And yes it is possible to have unlimited electricity it works hand in hand with Earths magnetic field. We could even have water powered cars without carbon monoxide emissions, but again, greed is a powerful thing, so we make no new strides as humanity as a whole, since the 1% wouldn’t want to loose their place in the real-life monopoly game.
In the comments will also be the link to the full article that explains why IRS is illegal.

Top of the Day for 26/03/2020

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Most Upvoted Posts of the Day

First Place

He is immortal
posted by BigAmerica on /memes
Click here to view the post. ● 130,662 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 12:05:05 UTC

Second Place

Trump Nopes out of press conference when Dr. Deborah Birx mentions she had a fever over the weekend
posted by FTThrowAway123 on /PublicFreakout
Click here to view the post. ● 121,060 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 01:26:58 UTC

Third Place

My dad is a pilot and during the pandemic decided to make a work simulator at home
posted by thanos764 on /funny
Click here to view the post. ● 119,701 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 15:10:48 UTC

Fourth Place

Jeff Bezos, world’s richest man, asks public to donate to Amazon relief fund
posted by -kizza- on /worldnews
Click here to view the post. ● 96,015 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 12:46:11 UTC

Fifth Place

Chuck Schumer made sure businesses controlled by Trump, his family, and top US officials couldn't get money from the government's $2 trillion coronavirus bailout fund
posted by DaFunkJunkie on /politics
Click here to view the post. ● 95,506 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 12:19:59 UTC

Most Downvoted Posts of the Day

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First Place

No, I don't think I will.
posted by RickC410 on /worldnews
Click here to view the post. ● 45,469 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 13:01:25 UTC

Second Place

No political shit but him as a charcater is just funny as hell
posted by Fstompy1 on /PublicFreakout
Click here to view the post. ● 19,625 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 03:30:50 UTC

Third Place

I already did, you closed my store by mistake your csr refused to confirm in writing and promised to reimburse me in 90 days. Ninety days went by you still have 2k of money. `3 years ago now.` Amazon go fuck yourself. `Edit: this blew up more than it should. Thank you for the upboats and silver. I hope you all stay safe and healthy.` To answer some brief questions: `Why I didn't go small claims You can see some people have tried and failed in various sellercentral forum posts. Because the seller agreement makes you go through arbitration first. I've spoken with a lawyer and they said I'd save more money walking away from it. I do from time to time email them to remind them about me getting my pay out every year, It an anniversary event on my calendar. [https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/small-claims-action/419991](https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/small-claims-action/419991)` **Why did they suspend you?** I was technically not suspended, my account skipped that step. They CLOSED it. There's a big difference between suspension and closure. If you have a suspension you get to write seller performance and they'll tell you why you were suspended. My account was without warning CLOSED. When you get closed you don't get informed WHY you were closed. You are just told you're done we don't want you back. `It boggles my mind, I had 98% Lifetime feedback, my metrics were perfect the night before. I was doing enough volume to take random hits of feedback / AZ claims. I was one of those sellers called \"refund monkey\" I rather piss away money than to nickel and dime people out of moral high ground.` I asked them for evidence of wrong doing on my part by email they refused. I had to find a way to call them and the only way was to call the customer service line and get transferred to a department that handles seller support (they were doing away with telephone seller support at the time, I imagine its worse now). Guy on phone was telling me that I'd get my money in 90 days, don't make new account write seller performance and advise them that my account was closed in error, as he can see my metrics were good. I asked him to send me all that we spoke about he said he could not. `When your account is closed, you aren't given the opportunity to login to see any of your metrics anymore. You can't go in to remove your billing details. Its not the same as a suspension where you can still login and manage cases through their case log system.` **What the hell were you selling?** All private label goods, nothing that required FDA or certification, and not restricted categories, all the stuff was my own brand. I am still operating the company as a small hobby business on other sales channels (albeit I closed for lock down). `**Why don't you just buy 2K worth of stuff and claim its lost?** ` `There's no victim less crime. You could be ruining it for the person that's picking and packing your order trying to put food on the table. AZ may never check the footage and just blame that person for messing up and sending you an empty box. That person will be kicked to the curb, and because AZ was the only game in town this person is now unemployed.` I can't have that on myself even if I dislike Amazon. **People like a happy ending give us some closure** I'm fine, 2K lost would be like having one of my good on account clients close down during a bad time and having unpaid bills. The only difference in this was that that Amazon accused me of wrong doing and then did not back it up with any evidence. I was lucky as I never over leveraged myself when I started that AZ account, I never bought stock on credit. Thank you for those who shared positive stories and those who shared negative ones. If you had a positive story look back to see if it was a 3rd party seller. Those are the little guys that were like me trying to pack and ship things on their own.
posted by accidentalchainsaw on /worldnews
Click here to view the post. ● 18,560 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 14:45:34 UTC

Fourth Place

That look at the camera though
posted by 666penguins on /PublicFreakout
Click here to view the post. ● 15,237 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 01:27:39 UTC

Fifth Place

I will send my whole next two weeks of thoughts and best wishes STAT. ` He could you know, give like $1 Billion himself. But whatever.`
posted by letsreticulate on /worldnews
Click here to view the post. ● 15,025 Upvotes ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 13:19:56 UTC

Most Downvoted Comments of the Day

This section is currently being worked on.

Most Gilded Posts of the Day

IMPORTANT NOTE: This section may be not be accurate as it is under development.
First Place

COVID CONCERT: ENCORE EDITION
posted by PaperPlayte on /pan
Click here to view the post. ● 6,834 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 23:29:56 UTC

Second Place

It took me several days but finally I managed to make the video tour of my survival world, showing everything of my epic base!
posted by vesko_ on /Minecraft
Click here to view the post. ● 32,461 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 12:24:52 UTC

Third Place

Family now annoyed that I consider my cleaner an actual human and paid her today
posted by 9shadowcat9 on /TwoXChromosomes
Click here to view the post. ● 15,428 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 16:06:00 UTC

Fourth Place

BASS JAM
posted by Computergeek12828 on /pan
Click here to view the post. ● 5,194 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 21:15:14 UTC

Fifth Place

When in Rome.
posted by Jason_Boyd on /DunderMifflin
Click here to view the post. ● 23,174 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 17:54:18 UTC

Most Gilded Comments of the Day

IMPORTANT NOTE: This section may be not be accurate as it is under development.
First Place

Republicans: `I’m gonna choose to believe the lying, unqualified, draft dodging, gold star family disrespecting, POW attacking, US General insulting, racist, sexist, vulgar, confirmed sexual assaulting, trillion dollars to the rich tax cutting, own daughter creeping, wife cheating with a pornstar after birth of son and paying her off to influence a presidential election, $413 million dollar inheritance getting, teen pageant dressing room invading, baby and mother separating, breast feeding mother shaming, fat-shaming while being fat, 17 women accusing him of sexual assaulting, accusers are not attractive enough for him to assault implying, university student defrauding, bankrupt casino causing, kids cancer charity stealing, taped detailed accusation of rape of a minor having, wife-beating, popular vote losing, anti-vaxxing, Christianity-faking, publicist impersonating, tax dodging, friends’ wives pursuing, impeached, foreign aid bribing, 1/3 of the presidency golf playing, free press assaulting, Hannity coordinating, Cambridge Analytica using, Ivanka is a “piece of ass” approving, loan application asset inflating, historically low polling, college achievement faking, unqualified judge appointing, unqualified cabinet member appointing, foreign influence on our election welcoming, tax release avoiding, birther conspiracy spreading, Ukraine ambassador targeting, Russian money taking, Kurdish ally abandoning, soldier brain injury downplaying, full morning “executive time” taking, Epstein befriending, Putin bowing, Kim Jong Un praising, North Korean general saluting, US intelligence denying, tallest building in lower Manhattan after 9/11 boasting, congress obstructing, nuclear non-proliferation deal ending, Justice obstructing, unqualified daughter and son-in-law appointing, healthcare cut targeting, pedophile candidate supporting, trump tower Moscow denying, mail-bomber inspiring, 4 out of top 5 largest protests in US history causing, green energy stifling, clean water regulation destroying, healthy school lunch ending, climate change denying, congressional and judicial branch attacking, economy does better under democrats saying, Goldman Sachs appointing, food stamp removing, emissions standards lowering, press conference avoiding, emoluments clause breaking, longest govt shutdown record holding, Saudi Arabia nuclear tech selling, golf cheating, time magazine cover faking, El Paso mass shooter inspiring, paying legal bills for roughing up protestors promising, killed soldier “knew what he signed up for” saying, pardon abusing, scumbag.` Why wouldn’t I? `Sources:` * lying, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/16/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/ `* unqualified, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/11/13587532/donald-trump-no-experience` * draft dodging, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/12/27/trump-vietnam-war-bone-spur-diagnosis/2420475002/ `* gold star family disrespecting, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/us/politics/donald-trump-khizr-khan-wife-ghazala.html` * POW attacking, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/18/424169549/trump-lashes-out-at-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured `* US General insulting, https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/01/17/trump-blasted-top-military-generals-as-a-bunch-of-dopes-and-babies-according-to-new-book/` * racist, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/ `* sexist, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50563106` * vulgar, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html `* confirmed sexual assaulting, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html` * trillion dollars to the rich tax cutting, https://budget.house.gov/publications/publication/gop-tax-law-showers-benefits-wealthy-and-large-corporations-while `* own daughter creeping, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-ivanka-trump-creepiest-most-unsettling-comments-a-roundup-a7353876.html` * wife cheating with a pornstar after birth of son and paying her off to influence a presidential election, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43334326 `* $413 million dollar inheritance getting, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/10/04/the-new-york-times-revealed-how-fred-trump-funneled-413-million-to-his-son-donald-will-that-change-american-opinion/` * teen pageant dressing room invading, https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2016/oct/18/allegations-about-donald-trump-and-miss-teen-usa-c/ `* baby and mother separating, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/the-weekly/trump-immigration-border-separation-family.html` * breast feeding mother shaming, https://www.parents.com/baby/all-about-babies/fighting-words-donald-trump-called-a-breastfeeding-mom-disgusting/ `* fat-shaming while being fat, http://nymag.com/intelligence2019/08/trump-fat-shames-own-supporter-frank-dawson-new-hampshire-rally.html` * 17 women accusing him of sexual assaulting, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410 `* accusers are not attractive enough for him to assault implying, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-insults-accusers-ugly` * university student defrauding, https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-finalizes-25-million-settlement-victims-donald-trumps/story?id=54347237 `* bankrupt casino causing, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/` * kids cancer charity stealing, https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexande2019/12/23/best-stories-of-the-decade-how-donald-trump-shifted-kids-cancer-charity-money-into-his-business/ `* taped detailed accusation of rape of a minor having, https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/` * wife-beating, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/documenting-trumps-abuse-of-women `* popular vote losing, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-lost-popular-vote-hillary-clinton-us-election-president-history-a7470116.html` * anti-vaxxing, https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/449525268529815552?lang=en `* Christianity-faking, https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article216494035.html` * publicist impersonating, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/05/13/donald-trump-people-magazine-washington/84333614/ `* tax dodging, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/2/17929774/donald-trump-tax-evasion-fred-trump-new-york-times` * friends’ wives pursuing, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-sex-friends-wives-are-book-claims-true-michael-wolff-fire-fury-white-house-bannon-a8142011.html `* impeached, https://time.com/5552679/impeached-presidents/` * foreign aid bribing, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181 `* 1/3 of the presidency golf playing, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/30/nearly-third-days-hes-been-president-trumps-visited-trump-branded-property/` * free press assaulting, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/29/18037894/donald-trump-twitter-media-enemy-pittsburgh `* Hannity coordinating, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop/sean-hannity-trump-allies-mueller-memos-fox-news` * Cambridge Analytica using, https://www.wired.com/story/what-did-cambridge-analytica-really-do-for-trumps-campaign/ `* Ivanka is a “piece of ass” approving, https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-ivanka-piece-of-ass-howard-stern-229376` * loan application asset inflating, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/business/donald-trump-buffalo-bills-deutsche-bank.html `* historically low polling, https://theweek.com/speedreads/890683/trumps-approval-rating-pace-lowest-ever-among-independents-gallup-poll-shows` * college achievement faking, https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2019/02/28/heres-why-donald-trump-doesnt-want-anyone-to-know-his-grades-or-sat-scores/ `* unqualified judge appointing, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/confirmation-expected-for-another-unqualified-trump-judge-pick` * unqualified cabinet member appointing, https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-eli-broad-opposes-devos-20170201-story.html ` continued here`
posted by hereforthefeast on /politics
Click here to view the post. ● 1 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 22:52:03 UTC

Second Place

Let there be no confusion about who's responsible here. `Trump's direct quotes about coronavirus:` `>` `January 22: “We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. It's going to be just fine.”` `>` `February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”` `>` `February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”` `>` `February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”` `>` `February 25: “I think that's a problem that's going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we're very close to a vaccine.”` `>` `February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”` `>` `February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”` `>` `February 27: “One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear.”` `>` `February 28: \"Now the democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, you know that right? They're politicizing it…they have no clue…they dont have any clue…this is their new hoax.\"` `>` `February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”` `>` `March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”` `>` `March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they're happening very rapidly.”` `>` `March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”` `>` `March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”` `>` `March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”` `>` `March 6: “I think we're doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”` `>` `March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They're there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”` `>` `March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”` `>` `March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”` `>` `March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”` `>` `March 9: ““The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant,”` `>` `March 13: \"I take no responsibility.\"` `>` Donald Trump is 100% responsible for this failure. `PERIOD.` Edit: welp RIP inbox and thanks for the awards. Also, if anyone has sources for anything not being accurate, prove it and I will gladly change it or delete it.
posted by cos_tan_za on /politics
Click here to view the post. ● 1 Upvotes ● 3 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 21:01:26 UTC

Third Place

Still working cause you guys need electricity
posted by CWhiz45 on /AskReddit
Click here to view the post. ● 1,691 Upvotes ● 2 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 0 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 18:19:01 UTC

Fourth Place

You know it's the lack of initial capital. You mention it right there but allude to hey maybe it's these other things. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe if your tenants had the capital they would choose to rent from you because you and them are somehow fundamentally different? Because they lack some sort of internal \"motivation\" or \"courage\" or unnamed quality that you have? Do your renters regularly tell you \"I would love to buy my own place but I just don't have... courage?\" `I think you're giving yourself far too much credit. What separates us from renters is capital. It always has been. Nothing else. What makes it shitty is that most of the time it's not our capital.` We use our leverage to take out a mortgage, find a tenant who has just enough capital or income to pay us, but not enough capital to buy their own place, and this makes us smarter than them? Or more courageous? Come on...
posted by dc2b18b on /realestateinvesting
Click here to view the post. ● 5 Upvotes ● 2 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 0 gold reward(s) and 1 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 24/03/2020 at 00:03:56 UTC

Fifth Place

This just makes common sense. Trans and gender identification issues completely aside, if you were born with a male body chances are good that you'll be inherently stronger and faster than most women. Allowing trans athletes to compete against biological girls/women creates a very uneven playing field. It's just basically unfair.
posted by letdogsvote on /news
Click here to view the post. ● 11,953 Upvotes ● 2 reward(s). ● 1 silver reward(s), 1 gold reward(s) and 0 platinum reward(s) ● Posted: 25/03/2020 at 18:47:55 UTC

The formatting below is pretty ugly so here is a direct link to a PDF of the document.
Disclaimer: I am not majoring in philosophy. It is an upper division general education course. I started doing research about a week before but realized on Sunday that I did not actually completely understand the dialectic process. I’m still not sure if I have correctly. I started writing Sunday at 12pm, wrote until 6am, slept, continued at 10am and submitted it at 4pm on Monday. If I had done this a week ago, I could have asked my professor for feedback but I am taking the class credit/not credit so I just needed to pass. Also, I’m a terrible procrastinator.
Feedback is welcomed!!! :)
edit: I just realized I was braindead upon finishing and didn’t proofread. Sorry for the mess. I will fix it tomorrow. ~~
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) was a predominant figure in 19th century German philosophy. He contributed widely to German Idealism, a philosophical movement spurred as a reaction to Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Generally, idealism is the theory that fundamental reality is made up of one’s thoughts or ideas. It holds that one cannot be certain that any matter of the outside world exists and that the only thing truly knowable is consciousness. Hegel achieved significant renown in his day, given his first book, Phänomenologie des Geistes, was his most thoroughly discussed philosophical work. Since the German word ‘geist’ is understood through multiple definitions, the title may translate to either The Phenomenology of Spirit or The Phenomenology of Mind. In this book, Hegel applied his three-stage dialectical method as an interpretive schema to understand and analyze the life of one’s spirit. According to The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “‘Dialectics’ is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between the opposing sides.” In Plato’s Republic, he presented a basic form of a dialectic as a back-and-forth argument between Socrates and his students. Socrates posed the question, “What is justice?” and goes on to refute each student’s answer; forcing each student to refine their belief by adopting Socrates’ refutation and forming a more sophisticated view. A central term in Hegelian dialectics is the verb ‘aufhebeng’, which, in this context, translates to ‘to sublate’ or ‘to cancel and to preserve at the same time’. In Plato’s example, each of Socrates’ student’s original belief is sublated with Socrates’ challenge to adopt the more sophisticated view. The students cancel parts of their original belief while simultaneously preserving sophisticated pieces to combine with Socrates’ challenge. This process of ‘aufhebeng’ may happen multiple times within a single ‘dialectical conflict’.
The fundamental premise of Hegel’s dialectic method is to understand history as a sequence of ‘dialectical conflicts’. The purpose of the Hegel’s dialectic method is to achieve spiral evolution of higher thinking by using the process of ‘aufhebeng’. Each conflict begins with what is called the ‘in-itself’ moment. This ‘in-itself’ moment is merely potential for a reality to be actualized. The reality one is concerned with is implicit, or implied, in the moment. The German phrase Hegel used, ‘an-sich’, directly translates to ‘in-itself’, but is better understood when colloquially translated to ‘by-itself’. The reality is ‘by-itself’, or implicit, in this moment. The reality must be exteriorized, or made explicit, so one can actualize it. In Plato’s The Republic, reality was the adoption of a more sophisticated view. If a student provided an answer to Socrates’ question, the reality would be implicit, or ‘by-itself’, and not explicit to the student. Without additional information, a student would be unable to form a view more sophisticated than that of their own answer. Additionally, it would be impossible for Socrates to negate the student if the student never initially provided an answer. When Socrates negated their answer, he exteriorized the reality of adopting a more sophisticated view by explicit telling them the more sophisticated view in the form of an argument. The moment in which reality is exteriorized, or explicit, is called the ‘for-itself’ moment. Since dialectics rely on a contradictory process, the ‘for-itself’ moment must negate, or contradict, the ‘in-itself’ moment in order to exteriorize reality. Once reality is explicit, the process of ‘aufhebeng’ starts and creates an ‘in-and-for-itself’ moment by eliminating flaws from the first two moments and leaving behind ideas and elements that hold true for both. For Plato, the student forms a new, more sophisticated view by disregarding the flaws in their own view while preserving the sophisticated elements in both their own and Socrates’ view. Once complete, the ‘in-and-for-itself’ moment serves as the ‘in-itself’ moment for a new dialectical conflict. Hegel believed that by allowing the ‘in-and-for-itself’ moment to serve as the next ‘in-itself’ moment, the dialectical process would result in the spiral evolution of higher thinking because the newly actualized reality would contain potential for another ‘new reality to be actualized’. For example, once a student adopted the more sophisticated view, Socrates refuted it in the form of an argument, effectively exteriorizing the implicit reality contained in the new ‘in-itself’ moment. A student would proceed to form a more sophisticated view point from an already formed ‘more sophisticated viewpoint’. Using more simplistic terms, one can understand this process as: problem → reaction → solution, where the problem contains an implicit solution and the solution provides a new problem that contains a new implicit solution. Going forward, these three moments will be referred to in accordance with Johann Fichte’s commentary, which uses thesis, antithesis and synthesis in place of ‘in-itself’, ‘for-itself’ and ‘in-and-for-itself’. The most effective way to understand Hegel’s dialectic method is to use it to analyze the progression of history.
Hegel’s dialectic can be used as an interpretive schema to understand and analyze the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. In 100BCE, Gaius Julius Caesar was born into a patrician family that politically aligned itself with plebeian politicians (Watkins). In 84BCE, after his father’s death, Julius Caesar married the daughter of revolutionary Gaius Marius, a Roman general and statesmen who held office of consul seven times. When Lucius Sulla, opponent of Marius, gained control of Rome, he ordered Caesar to divorce his wife. Caesar refused, irrevocably committing himself to the plebeian-popular side of politics in Rome. Caesar fled the anti-revolutionary forces and served in the Roman army until Sulla’s death in 78BCE (Watkins). Once free from Sulla, Julius Caesar returned to Rome and served in government as a prosecution attorney. Caesar’s first major case was against an associate of Sulla but the court was composed of senators who sympathized with Sulla’s anti-revolutionary movement and did not charge the associate. Over the next years, Caesar asserted himself into Roman government, organized a private army to defend attacks from Mithridates VI and worked with Pompey, a former lieutenant of Sulla, to repeal constitutional reform enacted by Sulla himself (Watkins). From 69BCE to 61BCE, Julius Caesar served his term as quaestor in Farther Spain, was elected to the office of aedile and held public festivals in order to solicit support from plebeians. Most importantly, by 59BCE, Caesar had formed an unofficial alliance with his old political friend, Pompey, and another former lieutenant of Sulla, Marcus Crassus (Bishop, 7). Caesar was a popular politician who was known for favoring the common peasant. Pompey was a political and military leader renowned for his victories in Italy and West Asia. Lastly, Marcus Crassus was a property speculator, the largest landowner and richest man in Rome. Angered that the senate constantly threw out their proposed bill, the alliance aimed to overcome the senate’s opposition by influencing Caesar’s election into the consul (Bishop, 7). Despite the senate’s efforts, Caesar is successfully elected in 59BCE and his entrance into the consul marked the beginning of the dialectical conflict.
By challenging the senators, enacting reform and expanding the Republic’s borders, Caesar asserted himself into government and gave potential to actualizing the reality of establishing a new government in place of the Republic. Since this reality was still implicit, as nothing had yet exteriorized it, no one was able to create an entire, new government. As a member of consul, the first law Caesar introduced distributed government owned land in Italy to the landless poor for the purpose of farming. This law did not receive explicit opposition from the senate, but neither did it receive explicit support (Bishop, 7). In 58BCE, Julius Caesar was designated governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul and Illyria for five years. Wanting dramatic military success, Caesar found an excuse to invade Gaul and earn what he always sought. In 53BCE, at the Battle of Carrhae, Marcus Crassus perished in war, effectively disbanding the alliance and deteriorating the relationship between Caesar and Pompey (Watkins). With Caesar still fighting in Gaul, Pompey revealed to Rome that he was truly ambivalent toward Caesar and proceeded to ally with Caesar’s enemies. The Roman senators demanded Caesar turn over his army’s control to the government, but Caesar chose a civil war over laying down his command. After forcing Pompey to flee and defeating the rest of his troops, Julius Caesar became the prominent figure of the Roman state, where he enforced his power as ‘dictator in perpetuity’ (Bishop, 7).
A group of senators feared for the safety of the Roman Republic so in 44BCE, they conspired against and successfully assassinated Julius Caesar at a senate meeting. Caesar’s removal from government served as the antithesis, or negation, to his assertion into government. Just like Socrates’ refutation, this antithesis would be impossible if Caesar initially failed to assert himself over the government. Caesar’s murder caused prominent figures still remaining in the Republic to fight for the right to govern it (Bishop, 8). The potential to create a new form of government had now been exteriorized by Caesar’s death because the remaining figures realized that whoever came out victorious, would govern the Roman Republic and be able to form an entire new government. Finally, fifteen years later, in 29BCE, Caesar’s great-nephew, Gaius Octavianus, returned to Rome as the unchallenged ruler of the Republic and started the process of ‘aufhebeng’. Octavianus maintained old republican political institutions by preserving the Senate, popular assemblies, and magisterial offices (Bishop, 8). On the contrary, him and his successors removed parts of the original government and built a system of imperial government that would tend to the empire’s vast territories and connect them with the capital (Bishop, 8). The government Octavianus created, which would come to be known as The Roman Empire, served as the synthesis for Caesar’s assertion into and removal from government by actualizing the original, implicit reality. Just like the politics in the Roman Republic and Empire, the legislation of United States presidencies can be analyzed and understood using Hegel’s dialectic schema.
Barack Obama was born in 1961 in the state of Hawaii, just two years after it was officially inaugurated. After graduating from Columbia University in 1983, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School. He became a civil rights attorney while teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago and representing the 13th District for three terms (“President Barack Obama.”). Obama gained national attention from his landslide win during the November 2004 Senate election. Four years later, on November 4th, 2008, Obama defeated John McCain in the general election and became the first African American elected to serve as president. Obama was inaugurated on January 20th, 2009 and within the first few minutes, his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, issued an order that suspended last-minute executive orders and regulations signed in by outgoing President George W. Bush (“Obama Halts All Regulations Pending Review.”). Additionally, he aimed to strengthen relations with the Middle East by immediately calling for what was to be a “new beginning” between the United States and the Muslim world (“Obama in Egypt Reaches out to Muslim World.”). To do this, Obama pursued a military strategy in the Middle East that emphasized drone strikes, special forces and diplomacy over large ground troop operations (Sanger). Just like his first few minutes in office, Obama’s eight years were characterized by significant accomplishments.
In November of 2009, President Obama announced the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an agreement between the United States and 11 other countries, which would bring jobs back to American soil and boost economic trade between the United States and Asia by increasing American exports to the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific region is responsible for forty percent of global trade and includes some of the most robust economies (“Obama Administration Accomplishments”). The Trans-Pacific Partnership would eliminate 18,000 different tariffs placed on exporting goods produced domestically. Ninety-five percent of the world’s customers exist outside of the United States’ borders. The United States Trade Representative used a Vietnamese auto parts buyer as an example of a customer. A Vietnamese person would have to pay a twenty-seven percent tax on a part made in the United States but only a five percent tax on a part made in Thailand because of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (“TPP Chapter Summary”). Obama was an advocate for free trade agreements because they allow a country’s exports to increase while creating additional jobs domestically.
Many times, during his presidency, Barack Obama described climate change to be the greatest long-term threat facing the world (Davis). In 2013, Obama bypassed Congress by directly ordering the EPA to place limits on carbon emissions. Additionally, in 2015, Obama unveiled the Clean Power Plan, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by twenty-six to twenty-eight percent by the year 2025 (Davenport). Obama’s campaign to fight climate change ended up finding more success at the international level than the national. At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, nearly every country in the world agreed to a climate deal in which each nation committed lowering their greenhouse gas emissions. This deal, the Paris Agreement, was adopted by over 195 countries and attempted to create the, “bridge between today’s policies and climate neutrality before the end of the century” (“Paris Agreement”). In September 2016, toward the end of Obama’s second term, the United States joined China in participating in the first-ever, universal, legally binding global climate deal (Somander). Collectively, the United States and China contribute to over forty percent of global emissions so successfully entering into this deal with China was a major accomplishment for the Democratic Party.
One of Barack Obama’s most controversial actions during his presidency was when he established policy by a memorandum issued from the Department of Homeland Security. This policy allowed certain immigrants to escape deportation and receive a two-year work permit that was renewable if the applicant displayed good behavior. Those who were under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012, had come to the United States when they were younger than 16 and lived in the United States since 2007 were eligible to apply (Napolitano). This policy came to be known as the ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’, or more commonly, ‘DACA’. Many republicans opposed this program and denounced it as an abuse of executive power. In 2013, the House of Representatives voted 224 to 201 in favor of defunding the program, but since the program is almost entirely funded by application fees, Congress did not have the power to do so (Werner). DACA continued to be an active program until the end of Obama’s second term. Barack Obama wasn’t elected into the White House because of his experience nor for his role as a party leader. Obama hadn’t served as a governor of a state or as a general in the army. He didn’t even inherit the presidency because of an impeachment or death. Obama was elected purely for himself: his message, his persona and what he symbolized.
Donald Trump was born and raised in the Queens borough of New York City. After earning an economic degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Trump purchased his family’s real estate business and expanded it to involve the construction and renovation of skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses (“Donald J. Trump.”). He went on to start various side ventures while making sure he remained in the light of the media. Donald Trump co-authored several books and produced and hosted The Apprentice, a reality game show on television. Over his years as a businessman, Trump gained notoriety for his racist and sexist views, which he made obvious during his campaign (Baker). Trump entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican and defeated sixteen opponents in the primaries. Like Obama, Trump didn’t win because of his experience in government. Donald Trump was elected purely for himself: his message, his persona and what he symbolized. In his announcement speech, Trump drew attention to illegal immigration, offshoring of American jobs, the U.S. national debt, and Islamic terrorism (Trump). After defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump became the oldest and wealthiest person ever to assume the presidency, the first without prior military or government service, and the fifth to have won the election despite losing the popular vote.
Once his position as the 45th President of the United States was secured, on November 21st, 2016, in a video message, Trump introduced an economic strategy that negotiates “fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores.” (“Trump Says US to Quit TPP on First Day in Office.”). As part of this plan, Trump confirmed that the United States intents to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on his first day in office. Two months later, on January 23rd, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Though Trump’s actions were criticized by other politicians like John McCain, Senator Bernie Sanders applauded Trump for pulling out of the partnership. Sanders believes that the Unites States participates in too many free trade agreements, “that cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and a ‘race to the bottom’, which has lowered wages for American workers.” (Smith). As recently as January 9th, 2018, the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced an agenda for the year that is set to replace Obama’s Clean Power Plan and Waters of the United States rule (Reuters Staff). Additionally, according to the fiscal 2019 proposal released on February 12th, 2018, the United States government plans to reduce the EPA’s budget by $2.5 billion, almost twenty-three percent (Dennis). On March 8, 2018, Donald Trump signed an order imposing import tariffs of twenty-five percent on steel and ten percent on aluminum, with exemptions for Canada, Mexico, and possibly other countries (“Trump Tariffs: US President Imposes Levy on Steel and Aluminium.”). Lastly, on September 5th, 2017, Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced that the ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ program was being repealed. Sessions claimed that the DACA eligible individuals were lawbreakers who adversely impacted the wages and employment of native-born Americans (Smith). Sessions also attributed DACA as a leading cause behind the surge in unaccompanied minors coming to the United States from Central America. Regardless of whether the Trump administration’s decisions were correct, it’s legislative actions are negations of Obama’s implementation of the law.
The implementation of Barack Obama’s policies served as a thesis for this dialectical conflict. Donald Trump’s complete removal and replacement of Barack Obama’s policies will serve as an antithesis for this dialectic. Just like Socrates’ refutation and Caesar’s murder, Donald Trump’s complete removal and replacement of Barack Obama’s policies would be impossible if Barack Obama had initially failed to even implement the policies. Currently, the reality one is concerned with is still implicit because it has not been fully exteriorized yet. For reality to be exteriorized, the thesis needs to be fully negated by the antithesis. For example, currently, the Trump administration is having legal issues with the rescission of DACA as it is being challenged in court by fifteen different states. Once the Trump administration is able to completely repeal the actions of the Obama administration, the antithesis will have formed, and reality will become explicit and able to be actualized. If President Trump is able to fully repeal Obama’s policies, the general public should be able to realize that electing a president from the far Right directly after a president from the far Left will make no progress. The general public should understand, in order to make progress, they must elect a president that is able to serve as the synthesis for the dialectic. The general public must elect a president that is moderate, not democratic or republican. The reality one is concerned with here is of a presidency that is a synthesis of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump is successful in completely removing Barack Obama’s policies, according to Hegel’s dialectical method, what should result with the next presidency is a synthesis that removes the flaws from Obama’s policies while preserving the superior ideas. The process of ‘aufhebeng’ would sublate Obama’s superior ideas with the policies of Trump in order to form what should be a more sophisticated president. If Trump’s modifications to the Environmental Protection Agency results in an overall worsening of the United States’ environmental quality, then the original restrictions placed by Obama would be captured in the synthesis of the next president. Contrarily, if Trump’s repealing of DACA resulted in a lowering of unaccompanied minors coming to the United States from Central America, then Trump’s repeal of DACA would be captured in the synthesis of the next president. This careful analysis would be done for each legislative action taken by either president. Additionally, according to Hegel’s spiral evolution of higher thinking, the next president would serve as the thesis for another dialectical conflict. Through Hegel’s spiral evolution, one is able to eliminate less critical thinking, but must depend on an antithesis to exteriorize reality and actualize higher thinking. One is unable to conclude whether the action taken by the thesis is best serving the country until an antithesis is able to negate that action and exteriorize the implicit reality. The next presidency will be a synthesis of the past two only if President Trump is able to fully negate President Obama’s policies.
Works Cited
Baker, Peter. “A President Who Fans, Rather Than Douses, the Nation's Racial Fires.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/us/politics/trump-racism.html.
Bishop, Paul A. “Rome: Transition from Republic to Empire.” www.hccfl.edu/media/160883/ee1rome.pdf.
Davenport, Coral. “Obama's Strategy on Climate Change, Part of Global Deal, Is Revealed.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/obama-to-offer-major-blueprint-on-climate-change.html.
Davis, Julie Hirschfeld, et al. “Obama on Climate Change: The Trends Are 'Terrifying'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Sept. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us/politics/obama-climate-change.html.
Dennis, Brady. “Trump Budget Seeks 23 Percent Cut at EPA, Eliminating Dozens of Programs.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 Feb. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/02/12/trump-budget-seeks-23-percent-cut-at-epa-would-eliminate-dozens-of-programs/.
“Donald J. Trump.” The White House, The United States Government, www.whitehouse.gov/people/donald-j-trump/.
Gardner, Sebastian. “Hegel: Glossary.” Philosophy Faculty, philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/ewatkins/Phil107S13/Hegel-Glossary.pdf.
Hegel, Georg W. F. Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford Paperbacks.
Maybee, Julie E. “Hegel's Dialectics.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 3 June 2016, plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel-dialectics/.
Napolitano, Janet. Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children. Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children.
“Obama Administration Accomplishments.” United States Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, ustr.gov/50/accomps.
“Obama Halts All Regulations Pending Review.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 20 Jan. 2009, www.nbcnews.com/.
“Obama in Egypt Reaches out to Muslim World.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 June 2009, www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/04/egypt.obama.speech/index.html.
“Paris Agreement.” European Commission, European Union, 16 Feb. 2017, ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en.
“President Barack Obama.” President Barack Obama, The White House, 26 Oct. 2009, web.archive.org/web/20091026043047/http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama.
Redding, Paul. “Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 4 Aug. 2015, plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/.
Reuters Staff. “Exclusive: Trump's EPA Aims to Replace Obama-Era Climate, Water...” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 11 Jan. 2018, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-pruitt-exclusive/exclusive-trumps-epa-aims-to-replace-obama-era-climate-water-regulations-in-2018-idUSKBN1EZ079.
Sanger, David E. “Even With a 'Light Footprint,' It's Hard to Sidestep the Middle East.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/middle-east-challenges-obamas-light-footprint.html.
Smith, Allan. “Reaction to Trump's Withdrawal from TPP Doesn't Fit Cleanly along Party Lines.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 23 Jan. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/sanders-mccain-trump-trans-pacific-partnership-2017-1.
Somander, Tayna. “The United States Formally Enters the Paris Agreement.” President Obama, The White House, 3 Sept. 2016, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2016/09/03/president-obama-united-states-formally-enters-paris-agreement.
“TPP Chapter Summary.” Trans-Pacific Partnership, https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Chapter-Summary-National-Treatment-and-Market-Access-for-Goods.pdf.
Trump, Donald. “Presidential Announcement Speech.” 16 June 2015, Trump Tower, New York, NY.
“Trump Says US to Quit TPP on First Day in Office.” BBC News, BBC, 22 Nov. 2016, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38059623.
“Trump Tariffs: US President Imposes Levy on Steel and Aluminium.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43337951.
Watkins, Thayer. “A Timeline of the Life of Julius Caesar.” A Timeline of the Life of Julius Caesar, www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/caesarjulius.htm.
Werner, David. “Fee Exemptions and Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals .” University of Miami Law Review, 16 Oct. 2013, lawreview.law.miami.edu/fee-exemptions-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-prime.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trump-files-many-times-donald-sang-praises-hillary-clinton/ [this article is the last entry of the series. At the bottom of the page, it lists all the links to previous articles, totaling 108, not including this one.]
Here's the list if you're curious:
Trump Files #1: The Time Andrew Dice Clay Thanked Donald for the Hookers
Trump Files #2: When Donald Tried to Stop Charlie Sheen’s Marriage to Brooke Mueller
Trump Files #3: The Brief Life of the “Trump Chateau for the Indigent”
Trump Files #4: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy (Asbestos just “got a bad rap,” Trump insists.)
Trump Files #5: Donald’s Nuclear Negotiating Fantasy
Trump Files #6: Donald Wants a Powerball for Spies
Trump Files #7: Donald Gets An Allowance
Trump Files #8: The Time He Went Bananas on a Water Cooler [this one is hilarious]
Trump Files #9: The Great Geico Boycott
Trump Files #10: Donald Trump, Tax-Hike Crusader
Trump Files #11: Watch Donald Trump Say He Would Have Done Better as a Black Man
Trump Files #12: Donald Can’t Multiply 17 and 6
Trump Files #13: Watch Donald Sing the “Green Acres” Theme Song in Overalls
Trump Files #14: The Time Donald Trump Pulled Over His Limo to Stop a Beating [he didn't help out the victim or reported the incidence to the police, he simply left.]
Trump Files #15: When Donald Wanted to Help the Clintons Buy Their House
Trump Files #16: He Once Forced a Small Business to Pay Him Royalties for Using the Word “Trump”
Trump Files #17: He Dumped Wine on an “Unattractive Reporter”
Trump Files #18: Behold the Hideous Statue He Wanted to Erect In Manhattan
Trump Files #19: When Donald Was “Principal for a Day” and Confronted by a Fifth-Grader
Trump Files #20: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil
Trump Files #21: When Donald Couldn’t Tell the Difference Between Gorbachev and an Impersonator
Trump Files #22: His Football Team Treated Its Cheerleaders “Like Hookers”
Trump Files #23: Donald Tried to Shut Down a Bike Race Named “Rump”
Trump Files #24: When Donald Called Out Pat Buchanan for Bigotry
Trump Files #25: Donald’s Most Ridiculous Appearance on Howard Stern’s Show (The mogul got into a nasty 3o-minute fight with a gossip columnist.)
Trump Files #26: How Donald Tricked New York Into Giving Him His First Huge Deal
Trump Files #27: Donald Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
Trump Files #28: When Donald Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
Trump Files #29: Donald Wanted to Build an Insane Castle on Madison Avenue
Trump Files #30: Donald’s Near-Death Experience (That He Invented)
Trump Files #31: When Donald Struck Oil on the Upper West Side
Trump Files #32: When Donald Massacred Trees in the Trump Tower Lobby
Trump Files #33: When Donald Demanded Other People Pay for His Overpriced Quarterback
Trump Files #34: The Time Donald Sued Someone Who Made Fun of Him for $500 Million
Trump Files #35: Donald Tried to Make His Ghostwriter Pay for His Book Party
Trump Files #36: Watch Donald Shave a Man’s Head on Television
Trump Files #37: How Donald Helped Make It Harder to Get Football Tickets
Trump Files #38: Donald Was Curious About His Baby Daughter’s Breasts
Trump Files #39: When Democrats Courted Donald
Trump Files #40: Watch the Trump Vodka Ad Designed for a Russian Audience
Trump Files #41: Donald’s Cologne Smelled of Jamba Juice and Strip Clubs
Trump Files #42: Donald Sued Other People Named Trump for Using Their Own Name
Trump Files #43: Donald Thinks Asbestos Would Have Saved the Twin Towers
Trump Files #44: Why Donald Threw a Fit Over His “Trump Tree” in Central Park
Trump Files #45: Watch Trump Endorse Slim Shady for President
Trump Files #46: The Easiest 13 Cents He Ever Made [by cashing a free 13 cent check that a reporter sent out to find out how cheap some of the city’s richest figures were]
Trump Files #47: The Time Donald Burned a Widow’s Mortgage
Trump Files #48: Donald’s Recurring Sex Dreams
Trump Files #49: Trump’s Epic Insult Fight With Ed Koch
Trump Files #50: Donald Has Some Advice for Citizen Kane
Trump Files #51: Donald Once Turned Down a Million-Dollar Bet on “Trump: The Game”
Trump Files #52: When Donald Tried to Shake Down Mike Tyson for $2 Million
Trump Files #53: Donald and Melania’s Creepy, Sex-Filled Interview With Howard Stern
Trump Files #54: Donald’s Mega-Yacht Wasn’t Big Enough For Him
Trump Files #55: When Donald Got in a Fight With Martha Stewart
Trump Files #56: Donald Reenacts an Iconic Scene From Top Gun
Trump Files #57: How Donald Tried to Hide His Legal Troubles to Get His Casino Approved
Trump Files #58: Donald’s Wall Street Tower Is Filled With Crooks
Trump Files #59: When Donald Took Revenge by Cutting Off Health Coverage for a Sick Infant
Trump Files #60: Donald Couldn’t Name Any of His “Handpicked” Trump U Professors
Trump Files #61: Watch a Clip of the Awful TV Show Trump Wanted to Make About Himself
Trump Files #62: Donald Perfectly Explains Why He Doesn’t Have a Presidential Temperament (“The important thing is the getting…not the having.”) [he gets bored easily]
Trump Files #63: Donald’s Petty Revenge on Connie Chung
Trump Files #64: Why Donald Called His 4-Year-Old Son a “Loser” [because his son trusted him. One of Trump's motto is NEVER trust anyone, ever. A short YouTube video clip is embedded in the article.]
Trump Files #65: The Time Donald Called Some of His Golf Club Members “Spoiled Rich Jewish Guys”
Trump Files #66: “Always Be Around Unsuccessful People,” Donald Recommends, ("because everybody will respect you."
Trump Files #67: Donald Said His Life Was “Shit.” Here’s Why.
Trump Files #68: Donald Filmed a Music Video. It Didn’t Go Well.
Trump Files #69: Donald Claimed “More Indian Blood” Than the Native Americans Competing With His Casinos
Trump Files #70: Donald Has Been Inflating His Net Worth for 40 Years
Trump Files #71: Donald Weighs In on “Ghetto Supastar”
Trump Files #72: The Deadly Powerboat Race Donald Hosted in Atlantic City
Trump Files #73: When Donald Fat-Shamed Miss Universe
Trump Files #74: Yet Another Time Donald Sued Over the Word “Trump”
If there’s one thing Donald Trump is determined to protect, it’s his name. From a brand of business cards to two real estate developers with the same last name, Trump has never held back from suing over the word “trump.”
Trump Files #75: Donald Thinks Exercising Might Kill You
Trump Files #76: Donald’s Big Book of Hitler Speeches
Trump Files #77: When Donald Ran Afoul of Ancient Scottish Heraldry Law
Trump Files #78: Donald Accuses a Whiskey Company of Election Fraud
Trump Files #79: When Donald’s Anti-Japanese Comments Came Back to Haunt Him
Trump Files #80: The Shady Way Fred Trump Tried to Save His Son’s Casino
Trump Files #81: Donald’s Creepy Poolside Parties in Florida
Trump Files #82: Donald Gives a Lesson in How Not to Ski With Your Kids
Trump Files #83: Listen to Donald Brag About His Affairs—While Pretending to Be Someone Else
Trump Files #84: How Donald Made a Fortune by Dumping His Debt on Other People “I wasn’t representing anybody but myself.” [What Trump did was particularly outrageous]
Trump Files #85: The Saga of Donald’s Short-Lived Weight-Loss Program
Trump Files #86: When Donald Bought a Nightclub From an Infamous Mobster
Trump Files #87: Donald Sues Himself—And Wins!
Trump Files #88: Donald’s War on His Scottish Neighbors
Trump Files #89: When Donald Had to Prove He Was Not the Son of an Orangutan
Trump Files #90: Donald Made Charity Pledges In His Dead Brother’s Name, Then Apparently Never Delivered
Trump Files #91: There Once Was a Horse Named DJ Trump [Trump made a deal to a horse from a racehorse owner. Trump did not pay and started to demand more conditions for buying the horse. In the end, one of Trump's executives bought the horse after it contracted a virus which resulted in amputation]
Trump Files #92: How Donald’s Lawyers Dealt With His Constant Lying [always bring someone as a potential witness]
Trump Files #93: Donald Flipped Out When an Analyst (Correctly) Predicted His Casino’s Failure
Trump Files #94: Cosmo Once Asked Donald to Pose Nude for $50,000
Trump Files #95: Donald Attacks a Reporter Who Questioned His Claim to Own the Empire State Building
Trump Files #96: When He Had the Hots for Princess Diana and Then Denied It
Trump Files #97: Famous Tic Tac Gobbler Donald Trump Had This Breath Advice for Larry King [to demonstrate his shock tactic to throw his opponent off balance]
Trump Files #98: How Donald Drove Palm Beach Nuts With an [gargantuan] American Flag [on a very tall flagpole] [this story has a lot of twists and turns -- not in a good way]
Trump Files #99: Trump Finds the Silver Lining in an Ebola Outbreak [how Trump would handle medical emergencies]
Trump Files #100: How Donald Screwed Over New York City on His Tax Bill
Trump Files #101: Donald’s Words to a Grieving Mother (Even the death of a child couldn’t keep Donald Trump from talking about hitting on the boy’s mother.)
Trump Files #102: Trump’s Long History of Getting Sued by His Own Lawyers
Trump Files #103: Watch Donald Get Booed Mercilessly at Wrigley Field
Trump Files #104: Trump Wanted a TV Show of Him Ogling Women
Trump Files #105: Guess Who Gave Donald His Big Awards (Hint: Three of the board members had the last name “Trump.”)
Trump Files #106: When a Sleazy Hot-Tub Salesman Tried to Take Donald Trump’s Name
Trump Files #107: The Time Donald Trump Got Called Out for Failing to Hire Minorities
Trump Files #108: Donald Accuses “Miss Nude Southern USA” of Trademark Infringement
This one is not listed: The Trump Files: When Donald Won an Election…of Sexy Billionaires http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/trump-files-donald-election-sexy-billionaires/

Period: 363.77 days

	Submissions	Comments
Total	1000	56801
Rate (per day)	2.75	155.54
Unique Redditors	321	5751
Combined Score	150174	331939

Top Submitters' Top Submissions

1. 20994 points, 131 submissions: xrm67
   
   1. Coca-Cola increased its production of single-use plastic bottles by a billion last year: “We calculated it produced over 110bn throwaway plastic bottles every year –an astounding 3,400 a second– while refusing to take responsibility for its role in the plastic pollution crisis facing our oceans." (505 points, 30 comments)
   2. 100,000 newly released pages of Chemical Industry secrets “lay out a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment.” (409 points, 70 comments)
   3. Americans Are Retiring Later, Dying Sooner and Sicker In-Between: U.S. life expectancy is declining, new calculations show. (393 points, 123 comments)
   4. Kurt Vonnegut got it right... (389 points, 31 comments)
   5. In his five months on the job, Trump-appointed EPA chief Scott Pruitt has tried to block, delay or entirely uproot more than 30 environmental regulations. (340 points, 14 comments)
   6. Scientists categorize Earth as a 'toxic planet': "Earth, and all life on it, are being saturated with man-made chemicals in an event unlike anything in the planet's entire history." (339 points, 102 comments)
   7. Thirty countries use 'armies of opinion shapers' to manipulate democracy – report: “Governments are now using social media to suppress dissent and advance an anti-democratic agenda.” (305 points, 33 comments)
   8. Naval Exercises Add Trillions of Pieces of Plastic Debris to Oceans: "When taken together, the amount of environmental damage the US military is causing around the planet on an annual basis is nearly impossible to comprehend." (303 points, 33 comments)
   9. Biologists say half of all species could be extinct by end of century: “The living fabric of the world is slipping through our fingers without our showing much sign of caring.” (291 points, 48 comments)
   10. ‘Shell knew’: oil giant's 1991 film warned of climate change danger. Public information film unseen for years shows Shell had clear grasp of global warming 26 years ago but has not acted accordingly since. (288 points, 64 comments)
2. 10390 points, 86 submissions: endtimesranter
   
   1. "Sadly, the truth is that much of the news that fills the 24-hour cycle simply isn’t newsworthy … and a lot of it really isn’t even news at all. It is mostly a serialized soap opera. It is personality-driven drivel. And it is rarely original reporting based on actual news..." (304 points, 58 comments)
   2. Dallas had never hit 90 degrees in November. It just did so three of the past four days. (276 points, 36 comments)
   3. Biologist: “We’re losing them right now, we’re losing them really quickly, much more quickly than I think any of us ever could have imagined.”- Coral Reefs Rapidly Dying Worldwide (243 points, 50 comments)
   4. The Trump administration's solution to climate change: ban the term - "a list of phrases to be avoided includes “climate change” and “climate change adaptation” “reduce greenhouse gases”, to be replaced by “weather extremes” and “resilience to weather extremes” Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (224 points, 39 comments)
   5. An analysis of 167 years of federal storm data by The Associated Press found that no 30-year period in history has seen this many major hurricanes, this many days of those whoppers spinning in the Atlantic, or this much overall energy generated by those powerful storms. (218 points, 20 comments)
   6. Industrial farming is driving the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, says leading academic (204 points, 52 comments)
   7. Scientist: “Its pretty depressing that it’s only a couple of years since the 400 ppm milestone was toppled” – Global CO2 Emissions Just Breached 410ppm, Level Unseen In Millions Of Years (186 points, 32 comments)
   8. Climatologist: “It’s a scale we haven’t seen in recent history and it’s very concerning.” Forest Fires Worldwide Burning Longer At Greater Frequency & Intensity Across Wider Areas (185 points, 11 comments)
   9. FEMA Is Almost Out of Money and Hurricane Irma Is Approaching - Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund down to its last $1 billion - Fund has burned through half its money since Thursday morning (180 points, 73 comments)
   10. Abandon Florida? Not quite. But it’s time for a retreat from flood zones. --- "When you hear about a house in Houston, assessed at $72,400, that has received more than $1 million in payouts through the federal flood insurance program, it’s only natural to ask, “Why did we ever build there?" " (178 points, 61 comments)
3. 6150 points, 36 submissions: eleitl
   
   1. Jesus. The House Science Committee just cited a false Breitbart report that the climate is cooling. Our Orwellian future is here. • /climate (759 points, 125 comments)
   2. [fun] 27 year-old who hasn't woken up before 9:30am in 8 years thinks he could run farm if society crumbles (380 points, 257 comments)
   3. Americans Losing Faith in College Degrees, Poll Finds (284 points, 155 comments)
   4. Coal mining health study is halted by Trump’s Interior Department – “Stopping this study is a ploy to stop science in its tracks and keep the public in the dark about health risks as a favor to the mining industry” (276 points, 62 comments)
   5. Fetal deaths rose 58% and fertility rates fell 12% after Flint switched to lead-poisoned water (265 points, 29 comments)
   6. Welcome to the new dark ages, where only the wealthy can retire (265 points, 120 comments)
   7. Al Gore: 'The rich have subverted all reason' (236 points, 117 comments)
   8. China Announces That It Will Cover Nearly A Quarter Of The Country In Forest By 2020… (235 points, 70 comments)
   9. Across 22 Countries, 57% of people think their country is in decline, 48% think young people will have worse lives than their generation, and 69% think the system is rigged against them. (199 points, 33 comments)
   10. The Invention of Capitalism: How a Self-Sufficient Peasantry was Whipped Into Industrial Wage Slaves (186 points, 153 comments)
4. 6034 points, 38 submissions: cliffhanger1983
   
   1. Nowhere in America can a full-time minimum wage worker afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment (571 points, 217 comments)
   2. Get Rid of Capitalism? Millennials Are Ready to Talk About It - Bloomberg (334 points, 457 comments)
   3. Stanford Study: Poor children remain poor, rich children get even richer - MarketWatch (259 points, 72 comments)
   4. Feds Say It's Too Dangerous To Share Dakota Access Oil Spill Report-DAPL SPILL!! (249 points, 17 comments)
   5. Noam Chomsky: Imagine a World Without Neoliberals Privatizing Everything in Sight - Alternet (246 points, 46 comments)
   6. Grim report shows teen suicide rate at 40-year high (245 points, 95 comments)
   7. U.S. is a 'danger to the world', warns top economist - Reuters (239 points, 68 comments)
   8. Two-thirds say this is the lowest point in U.S. history—and it’s keeping a lot of them up at night (216 points, 113 comments)
   9. Global inequality much worse than previously thought, say economists (204 points, 62 comments)
   10. A whopping 72% of all US businesses are NOT profitable. (174 points, 71 comments)
5. 5286 points, 25 submissions: veraknow
   
   1. Fentanyl is the number one cause of US overdoses. The maker of a fentanyl drug was the largest donor to the campaign opposing marijuana legalisation in Arizona. (927 points, 74 comments)
   2. Oklahoma hits 100°F in the dead of winter (349 points, 127 comments)
   3. Republicans move to sell off 3.3m acres of national land - land that provides corridors for gray wolves and grizzly bears and is the winter pasture for big game species. (335 points, 46 comments)
   4. I went to the NY and Paris climate conferences in an official capacity. I have seen what "climate action" looks like. We need more alarmism. (311 points, 140 comments)
   5. Avoiding Two Degrees of Warming 'Is Now Totally Unrealistic' - UN IPCC author (304 points, 191 comments)
   6. Record 37% of children in the UK forecast to be in poverty by 2022, undoing all progress in the last 20 years (289 points, 85 comments)
   7. Geophysicist writes paper titled: “Is Earth F**ked?” Answers: "more or less." (258 points, 88 comments)
   8. Brazil to open Amazon rainforest national reserve for mining, cancelling its nature reserve status (249 points, 49 comments)
   9. Japan declares Ogasawara Islands coral extinct (the Chinese poached it all for jewellery) (245 points, 34 comments)
   10. New Zealand plans for 3 coal mines would require clear cutting of forests in an area of outstanding biodiversity - with the coal itself shipped to developing countries (188 points, 36 comments)
6. 3515 points, 28 submissions: ReverseEngineer77
   
   1. Detroit's unaffordable water hints at a U.S. crisis to come (264 points, 41 comments)
   2. Over 2000 Veterans To Form Human Shield At Dakota Pipeline Protest (220 points, 67 comments)
   3. Someone deleted some code in a popular cryptocurrency wallet — and as much as $280 million in ethereum is locked up (and...it's GONE!) (201 points, 123 comments)
   4. Army denies Dakota pipeline permit, in victory for Native tribes (174 points, 10 comments)
   5. We Do Not Live in “Post Truth” World, We Live in a World of Lies and We Always Have (170 points, 102 comments)
   6. ‘If anyone can hear us … help.’ Puerto Rico’s mayors describe widespread devastation from Hurricane Maria (164 points, 21 comments)
   7. Three billionaires are wealthier than half the US population (161 points, 40 comments)
   8. So many journalists have been killed in Mexico this year that a newspaper is shutting down (157 points, 28 comments)
   9. Paradise Papers: Tax haven secrets of ultra-rich exposed (145 points, 9 comments)
   10. ...AND SO IT BEGINS: World facing greatest humanitarian crisis since 1945 (136 points, 189 comments)
7. 3460 points, 26 submissions: finiteworld
   
   1. Planet Will Burn Before Corporate Media Covers Climate Change as Existential Threat (220 points, 20 comments)
   2. 'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing dozens of industries — and it's their parents' fault (213 points, 177 comments)
   3. Earth's oceans are warming 13% faster than thought, and accelerating (210 points, 44 comments)
   4. UN experts denounce 'myth' pesticides are necessary to feed the world (199 points, 35 comments)
   5. Somalia: 'People are dying..there's no water' (187 points, 95 comments)
   6. Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend (181 points, 48 comments)
   7. The Paris climate deal won't save us, our future depends on de-growth (166 points, 88 comments)
   8. 'People aren't spending': stores close doors in 'oversaturated' US retail market (157 points, 72 comments)
   9. How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds - It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled. (148 points, 11 comments)
   10. The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it (144 points, 83 comments)
8. 2779 points, 21 submissions: MrVisible
   
   1. Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals (367 points, 78 comments)
   2. Global Ocean Circulation Appears To Be Collapsing Due To A Warming Planet (198 points, 55 comments)
   3. People who don't have children benefit our environment more than any campaign – it's time to celebrate them (191 points, 164 comments)
   4. Rigged. Forced into debt. Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing. (182 points, 81 comments)
   5. How A Warm Winter Destroyed 85 Percent Of Georgia's Peaches (146 points, 21 comments)
   6. Harvey destroyed hundreds of thousands of cars in a city that relies heavily on them (132 points, 98 comments)
   7. Spring is more than two weeks early in the American southeast (128 points, 53 comments)
   8. Climate change might be worse than thought after scientists find major mistake in water temperature readings (124 points, 20 comments)
   9. Rising CO2 Levels Are Sapping Staple Crops Of Their Protein & Iron Content (122 points, 11 comments)
   10. 102 million dead California trees unprecedented in our modern history, officials say (121 points, 32 comments)
9. 2594 points, 15 submissions: hillsfar
   
   1. Children of Men predicted a future of mass poverty, extreme class divide, a worsening refugee crisis, environmental ruin, and worldwide infertility. It becomes more real every day. (Seen in /lost generation) (454 points, 150 comments)
   2. Dollar General Hits a Gold Mine in Rural America. In the poorest towns, where even Wal-Mart doesn't want to go, Dollar General is moving in and turning a profit. "Essentially what the dollar stores are betting on in a large way is that we are going to have a permanent underclass in America". (408 points, 159 comments)
   3. Bluefin Tuna at the Brink: "Bluefins caught today are mostly juveniles, up to 98% of total catch. They have not reproduced and never will because they’ll never have the opportunity." (303 points, 87 comments)
   4. How We REALLY Deal with Climate Crisis: "Those of us working to avoid the worst of the climate crisis must be honest with ourselves. Humanity does not have the cultural capacities to make the transition and avoid systemic collapse" (221 points, 94 comments)
   5. Slow Crash: Two years before the 2008 crash, Harper's published a dark prophecy of what was to come. Now: "It’s more like a slow crash". "The whole economy at the end of the road is going to look like Greece or Spain or Portugal or Italy." (163 points, 20 comments)
   6. The harsh truth about economic inequality, based on thousands of years of evidence: "only the so-called 'four horsemen' of war, disease, state collapse and revolution have succeeded in leveling income" (155 points, 72 comments)
   7. Battered Puerto Rico hospitals on life support after Hurricane Maria: "If this is not taken care of, people are going to start dying". (143 points, 31 comments)
   8. Arkema Warns It Can't Prevent Potential Chemical Explosion in Texas: "As soon as the chemicals begin to degrade they start to 'self-accelerate' in a type of no-turning-back mode"... (120 points, 33 comments)
   9. Extremely Nasty Climate Wake-Up: "...sudden changes in the ecosystem are causing climate scientists to stop and ponder what’s happening to our planet, like never before." "...A team of UK scientists discovered 8,000 blue lakes formed in East Antarctica" (111 points, 11 comments)
   10. Our Planet Is So Fucked That Some Women Are Choosing to Not Have Kids: "There's this number, 9,441. That's the amount of additional metric tons of carbon you add to the atmosphere for every child you have." (100 points, 102 comments)
10. 1962 points, 11 submissions: MichaelTen
    
    1. Millennial households are poorer than any other generation: Study (350 points, 156 comments)
    2. Bernie Sanders warns of 'international oligarchy' after Paradise Papers leak (317 points, 122 comments)
    3. TIL that 69% of Americans Have Less Than $1,000 USD in Savings, as of September 2016 (253 points, 140 comments)
    4. It Is Becoming Illegal To Be Homeless In America As Houston, Dallas And Dozens Of Other Cities Pass Draconian Laws (172 points, 44 comments)
    5. Tyson Foods Linked to Largest Toxic Dead Zone in U.S. History (170 points, 16 comments)
    6. Rigorous Study Finds Antidepressants Worsen Long-Term Outcomes (164 points, 62 comments)
    7. Casino Magnate Wants to Kill Bill That Would Make Nevada a Renewable Energy Powerhouse (154 points, 16 comments)
    8. Medical Debt Is the Top Cause of South Florida Homelessness, Survey Says (117 points, 8 comments)
    9. How 90% of American Households Lost an Average of $17,000 in Wealth to the Plutocrats in 2016 (104 points, 16 comments)
    10. Most Americans’ best days are behind them. Median household income peaked at least 15 years ago in 81 percent of U.S. counties. Use this interactive map to see when each county peaked. (83 points, 4 comments)
11. 1893 points, 12 submissions: FF00A7
    
    1. The ozone layer is as thin as it was 30 years ago and not recovering as predicted due to new unregulated chemicals. (367 points, 41 comments)
    2. Oxygen levels ‘falling 2 to 3 times faster than predicted’ in warming oceans (216 points, 32 comments)
    3. Trump wants to pay coal companies $15/ton to burn more coal. (183 points, 48 comments)
    4. Depletion of dissolved oxygen in oceans is occurring much faster than expected, new study. "This scares me more than arctic methane." (174 points, 23 comments)
    5. Even If We Cut All Energy And Transportation Emissions, The Meat And Dairy Will Kill Us (164 points, 139 comments)
    6. Hurricane Irma covered Florida with a film of poop. (142 points, 23 comments)
    7. World must hit zero carbon emissions 'well before 2040', scientists warn - New research suggests it will be an ‘enormous challenge’ to prevent global warming getting out of hand (133 points, 56 comments)
    8. Disaster Capitalism: 2-person 2-year old company in hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lands $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico electric grid. (130 points, 20 comments)
    9. "It would seem that man is destined to exterminate himself after having rendered the globe uninhabitable" (Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, 1820) (114 points, 9 comments)
    10. Putin says expects 'fake' gas attacks by USA, "they are planning to again plant some substance and accuse the Syrian authorities". (103 points, 32 comments)

Top Commenters

1. MrVisible (6341 points, 556 comments)
2. NICK16_06 (4235 points, 445 comments)
3. xrm67 (3028 points, 255 comments)

Top Submissions

1. Fentanyl is the number one cause of US overdoses. The maker of a fentanyl drug was the largest donor to the campaign opposing marijuana legalisation in Arizona. by veraknow (927 points, 74 comments)
2. Jesus. The House Science Committee just cited a false Breitbart report that the climate is cooling. Our Orwellian future is here. • /climate by eleitl (759 points, 125 comments)
3. Carl Sagan in 1996. by boldra (677 points, 116 comments)
4. Environmentalists Are Ignoring the Elephant In the Room: U.S. Military Is the World’s Largest Polluter - The US Department of Defence is one of the world’s worst polluters, its footprint dwarfs that of any corporation. by xleb1 (594 points, 147 comments)
5. Nowhere in America can a full-time minimum wage worker afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment by cliffhanger1983 (571 points, 217 comments)
6. FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States by factczech (522 points, 43 comments)
7. Coca-Cola increased its production of single-use plastic bottles by a billion last year: “We calculated it produced over 110bn throwaway plastic bottles every year –an astounding 3,400 a second– while refusing to take responsibility for its role in the plastic pollution crisis facing our oceans." by xrm67 (505 points, 30 comments)
8. Professor Joseph Stiglitz : Inequality is killing America. Employee income is lower than before, suicides, drugs and alcoholism is rising. Life expectancy is now going down for middle-aged white Americans. I was Chief Economist of the World Bank in the 90s, this looks like the Soviet collapse by alllie (500 points, 103 comments)
9. Children of Men predicted a future of mass poverty, extreme class divide, a worsening refugee crisis, environmental ruin, and worldwide infertility. It becomes more real every day. (Seen in /lost generation) by hillsfar (454 points, 150 comments)
10. The people of South Dakota democratically pass a sweeping anti-corruption bill. Republican legislature calls for "emergency" measures, cancels law, and blocks it from appearing on future ballots. by magnora7 (446 points, 34 comments)

Top Comments

1. 392 points: CrankyDude16bit's comment in Millennials earn 20% less than Boomers did at same stage of life
2. 259 points: MrVisible's comment in Where Did All the Men Go? The rise of the unworking. America has suffered a quiet catastrophe in the collapse of work for men
3. 246 points: entropys_child's comment in 'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing dozens of industries — and it's their parents' fault
4. 187 points: deleted's comment in millennials, regardless of politics, can agree that society is fundamentally and irreparably ‘broken’
5. 183 points: MrVisible's comment in Is anyone sick of the argument that, somehow, gay people and transsexuals are proof that Western civilization is in decline?
6. 178 points: lazlounderhill's comment in In Orange County, California, you need $28 USD per hour to buy a one-room apartment. 70% of area jobs don't pay that much.
7. 170 points: MakeTotalDestr0i's comment in Nowhere in America can a full-time minimum wage worker afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment
8. 163 points: MrVisible's comment in How does one endure this shit show?
9. 159 points: thewisesloth's comment in Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.
10. 157 points: radical_vegan's comment in Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?

Generated with BBoe's Subreddit Stats (Donate)

In the inaugural edition of Pro Basketball Today, on sale Friday, October 15, 1993:

• Unforgetta-Bull: MJ retires with his announcement stunning the city of Chicago and the rest of the basketball world. "He's living the American dream. The American dream is reaching a point in where you do everything you want to do and do not do anything you don't want to do" said Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Las Vegas bookmakers made the previously 2-1 favourite Bulls a 25-1 outside in response. The baton of team leadership will be handed to Scottie Pippen, and much of Jordan's scoring slack will be assumed by Yugoslav Toni Kukoc, who joins the team as a rookie. "I'm not Michael Jordan and I never could be" Pippen told USA Today. Despite the cover of last Wednesday's Chicago Sun Times pleading with Michael to reconsider, Michael Jordan was sick of being Michael Jordan. Appearing in front of a packed media conference at the Bull's training centre in Deerfield, Illinois, Jordan said he had nothing more to prove, hence the decision to turn his back on the game he had dominated for so long. "I am very solid with my decision not to play any more basketball in the NBA. I have always stressed that when I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it's time to leave" Jordan said. The night before Jordan was to make his announcement, the story was seized upon by Mike Munroe, and NBA beat writer for the Denver Post. Monroe was told of the impending announcement by an anonymous source and then confirmed it with Bull's coach Phil Jackson. Jordan denied that the murder of his father , James Jordan, last July was the reason for his decision. While the Bulls pondered life after Jordan, the rest of the league pondered whether, and when, he'd be back. "I wish I could say 'yes', but I don't think he's ever coming back" Pippen said. Jordan's attorney and business agent, David Falk, added "I think it's unlikely it'll ever happen." The party line from NBA Commissioner David Stern is that Michael may be gone, but the NBA will survive. Jordan is the owner of three championship rings, an unbroken seven straight NBA scoring titles, and three MVP awards.
  
• All clear for Barkley - Charles Barkley was cleared of any serious injury and given permission to return, after collapsing during the Sun's practice session last Saturday. Barkley had complained of numbness in his legs and tightness in his lower back. Barkley underwent a series of examinations, including a CAT scan, magnetic resonance imaging and neurological tests. Suns' CEO Jerry Colangelo said after consultation with team physician Richard Emerson that the tests revealed there was nothing seriously wrong with Barkley. "There was evidence that there could be a thickening of a tendon that rubbed against a nerve and created the sensation that Charles experienced" Colangelo said. Barkley was scheduled for further tests Monday and there is a possibility of a cyst on the fifth lumbar of his back. No surgery would be necessary. Colangelo said Barkley's preparation for the 2013-14 season, which opens on November 5, could be affected, but said he should be re-united with his teammates on the court sometime this week.
  
• AC Green signs with the Phoenix Suns after 8 years with the Lakers, despite being offered more by the Lakers to stay in Tinseltown.
  
• Charlotte's Larry Johnson signs the richest contract in team sports - $84m over 12 years, which should see Johnson remain in the Hornets' teal green until 2005. Effectively he has signed with the franchise for life. "That's a flat big plate of grits" Hornets owner George Shinn said. Johnson, the 1991 rookie of the year, signed the new contract which adds 8 years to the remaining 4 from his original, $20m 6 year deal. Bill Strickland, agent for unsigned top draft pick Chris Webber, described the contract as "shocking", as negotiations with the Golden State Warriors continue. Johnson will earn about $3m this season. David Robinson is the league's highest paid player earning $5.72m this season. Johnson averaged 22.1 points and 10.5 rebounds last season, leading the Hornets to their first winning season and playoff berth. Johnson's new salary fits under the $15.175m salary cap because a team can pay one of its own players any amount under the salary cap rules. Restrictions are applicable when a team is at or above the cap and wants to sign a free agent or rookie.
  
• Spurs gamble on Piston Rodman - the stormy relationship between Dennis Rodman and the Detroit Pistons is over, with Rodman and Isaiah Morris being dealt to the San Antonio Spurs for forwards Sean Elliott and David Wood. "We hate to see him go, but it was best for all of us to get a new start" - Bill McKinney, Pistons director of personnel. Pistons captain Isiah Thomas said "The way evolved with Dennis, you know, had he wanted to be here in Detroit, had he wanted to be a Piston, I feel, and I know everybody else feels, we could have been a great team." The Pistons agreed to swap first round picks with the Spurs in 1994 (top 10 protected), 1995 (top 8 protected) or 1996. If the Pistons keep their 1994 first rounder, they'll surrender their second round pick in the draft to the Spurs. Pistons president and GM Tom Wilson said "From our standpoint it's about as good as we could have hoped to have done. You can't find 25 year old All-Stars on the trading block for just anybody." Detroit coach Don Chaney said Elliott's ball handling and scoring would be an asset to the Pistons.
  
• Four of the NBA's top 10 draft picks, including 3 of the top 5, remain unsigned as teams entered pre-season camps last Friday. Chris Webber, the number one pick, is reportedly close to a deal with the Golden State Warriors. Number four pick Jamal Mashburn is yet to come to terms with the Dallas Mavericks, the fifth choice J.R. Rider is still to sign with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Detroit is yet to secure Lindsey Hunter's signature. Shawn Bradley signed an 8 year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers for a reported $44.2m, and the third pick Anfernee Hardaway last week signed a $65m multi-year deal. Other top ten picks to sign deals were Calbert Cheaney (8 years, $18m with Washington), Bobby Hurley (8 years, $16.5m with Sacramento), Vin Baker (10 years, $15m with Milwaukee) and Rodney Rodgers (with Denver, terms undisclosed). Hardaway's contract us the second highest in pro sports after Larry Johnson's $84m contract, and Chris Webber's agent is expected to chase a similar figure from the Warriors, who are well in excess of the salary cap but must find room for Webber. By adding Hardaway, the Orlando Magic appear to have put together a team capable of challenging the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Hardaway's brief will be to get the ball to man-child centre Shaquille O'Neal, last season's rookie of the year. The Magic failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing 41-41, the fourth best record in the Atlantic Division.
  
• Will Perdue signed a new 5 year contract with the world champion Chicago Bulls for a cool $10m, for doing little more than riding the pine. Purdue suited up for 72 regular season games, averaging 4.7ppg.
  
• Luc Longley has been working with Kevin McHale during the summer, refining his game. McHale has returned to his native Minneapolis and will work as an analyst during the broadcasts of T-Wolves games. The Timberwolves waived centre Felton Spencer, ensuring Longley a future with the franchise.
  

Quotes of the week:
"If coach (Don) Nelson asks me to call a time-out, I'm going to pass the ball to Chris (Mullin) and let him call it" - Chris Webber, whose infamous time-out cost the University of Michigan a national championship.
"I don't think they have a chance without him" - Jimmy Vacarro, sportsbook director of the Mirage Casino, Las Vegas, on the impact of Michael Jordan's retirement.
"I would like to stop at age 25 and just chill for the rest of my life" - Shaquille O'Neal speaking about his career plans. We think he was joking.
"As soon as you start trying to control the competition, you're going to have confusion. I mentioned to (NBA Commissioner) David Stern that we're working on it and getting under control ourselves" - New York Knicks coach Pat Riley on a proposed rule change that would suspend a player, and eventually a coach, for accumulating too many flagrant fouls. The Knicks led the NBA in flagrants.
"Basketball without Michael Jordan is like ballet without Maya Plisetskaya" - Romanian television on Jordan's exit. We couldn't agree more.
Pro Basketball Today was a weekly newspaper sold in Australia from 1993 until about 2003, and was the definitive source of news, rumours, boxscores and opinions for Australian NBA fans in the pre-Internet era.

This is an automatic summary, original reduced by 66%.

MANILA More than $30 million of the money hackers stole from the Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Fed was handed over in cash to an ethnic Chinese man in Manila, a Philippines senator looking into the suspected laundering scheme said.
The cash deliveries over several days from a foreign exchange broker were made up of 600 million pesos and around $18 million, which altogether would have meant a haul of at least 780,000 banknotes.
The details he gave shine a partial light on the money trail after last month's cyber-heist of Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which netted hackers more than $80 million.
The Philippines' Rizal Commercial Banking Corp said last week it was investigating an $81 million deposit at one of its branches.
The senator said $29 million ended up in an account of Solaire, a casino resort owned and operated by Bloombery Resorts Corp. Bloombery is controlled by Enrique Razon, the Philippines' fifth-richest man in 2015, according to Forbes.
Senator Guingona said a further $21 million went to an account of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co., a gaming firm in northern Philippines.

Summary Source | FAQ | Theory | Feedback | Top five keywords: million^#1 account^#2 Bank^#3 Philippine^#4 money^#5
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic only. Do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

1. H.R.2306 - Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 Sponsor: Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] - Cosponsors (20) ^{thomas.loc.gov comments politics}
   
2. Lawrence Lessig wants to get 30,000,000 pledges to fight the corruption of money in politics, here is the pledge site ^{theanticorruptionpledge.org comments politics}
   
3. Walker recall: “Young people didn't turn out. Only 16 percent of the electorate was 18-29, compared to 22 percent in 2008. That's the difference between 646,212 and 400,599 young voters, or about 246,000. Walker won by 172,739 votes.” ^{prorevnews.blogspot.com comments politics}
   
4. McCain says foreign money influencing US elections, sneaking in through super PACs - The Washington Post ^{washingtonpost.com comments politics}
   
5. Reporter Who Heckled Obama for ‘Favoring Foreigners’ Is Himself Not American. Lives in D. C. on green card. "We're pretty sure that if you asked Munro how he got his current job, he wouldn't say that the Daily Caller had favored a foreign reporter (him) over an equivalent American one." ^{nymag.com comments politics}
   
6. Power Is Not Only An Aphrodisiac, It Does Weird Things To Some Of Us: "'Nearly all men can stand adversity,' said Abraham Lincoln, 'but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.'" ^{sfgate.com comments politics}
   
7. 123 Republicans and counting want to be 'unbound' from voting for Romney.(They want to vote for Paul instead) ^{wnd.com comments politics}
   
8. Study Finds Media Overwhelmingly Repeat GOP “ Job Killer“ Allegations With No Verification ^{mediamatters.org comments politics}
   
9. Jon Stewart: It's Almost as if GOP Senators Are on JPMorgan's Payroll ^{rollingstone.com comments politics}
   
10. For 20-somethings, Health Care Act Makes A Difference ^{money.cnn.com comments politics}
    
11. Anderson Cooper Explains to Romney Adviser That CBO Doesn't Work for the Obama Administration | Video Cafe ^{videocafe.crooksandliars.com comments politics}
    
12. Racist Arizona GOP radio host calls Obama "First Monkey President" ^{dailykos.com comments politics}
    
13. So a friend of mine was no knock raided by police who then lied in their reports. Thought Reddit would want to know about this. ^{self.politics comments politics}
    
14. Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden ^{newson6.com comments politics}
    
15. Tea Party leader forced to resign after she makes 'racist' joke about black people claiming welfare ^{huffingtonpost.com comments politics}
    
16. Michigan women lawmakers to perform ‘Vagina Monologues’ at state capitol ^{rawstory.com comments politics}
    
17. The Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel has put up 23 billboards across Los Angeles. ^{mycatbirdseat.com comments politics}
    
18. Remember, that when you complain about "frivolous lawsuits" and limiting civil lawsuits, that you are purely harming consumers and supporting large corporations that spew this propaganda. Here is a site that will educate you a little more about what exactly you are supporting. ^{tortdeform.com comments politics}
    
19. Why Does Mitt Romney Like Firing People? Because He Made $20,000 On Every Laid-Off Worker ^{nationalmemo.com comments politics}
    
20. Michigan women lawmakers to perform "Vagina Monologues" at state capitol as a public response to Republican legislators who indefinitely banned 2 Democratic women legislators from speaking in the Capitol for using the word “vagina” ^{rawstory.com comments politics}
    
21. Moyers: How the 1% Is Buying Our Democracy ^{alternet.org comments politics}
    
22. It is vile immorality to suggest that in the middle of a depression for the working class we should take from the general welfare of 99 percent of all Americans to transfer billions to the richest one percent. ^{eclectablog.com comments politics}
    
23. Americans Are In Denial As Wealth Falls To '92 Levels ^{businessinsider.com comments politics}
    
24. Romney says he'll do 'opposite' on Israel... I guess this means we'll be going to war with them? ^{google.com comments politics}
    
25. ["The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision,... created a new political system that will make the politics of the Gilded Age look like a clean government paradise.
    

Americans won’t even fully know what’s happening to them because so much can be donated in secrecy to opaque organizations."](http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/billionaires_against_billionaires_20120613/?ln) ^{truthdig.com comments politics}

1. Lawrence Lessig succinctly explains (10min) how money dominates our legislature. Last time this was posted it got one upvote, and the video on Youtube has 1,148 views. ^{self.politics comments politics}
   
2. "...this system is in for tough times, that will be catastrophic for the world financial system since the 9 largest banks shown below hold a total of $228.72 trillion in Derivatives - Approximately 3 times the entire world economy. No government in world has money for this bailout." ^{demonocracy.info comments politics}
   
3. Don't like Lamar Smith but can't remove him from his ultraconservative district? Here's how you can remove him without defeating him. ^{self.politics comments politics}
   
4. TIL: "After Watergate, 20 corporations were criminally convicted for illegal campaign-finance activities. The hotel break-in itself was financed with secret campaign contributions." ^{dyn.politico.com comments politics}
   
5. Senator John McCain accused a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC of accepting “foreign money” from Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. ^{capitolcolumn.com comments politics}
   

1. H.R.2306 - Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 Sponsor: Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] - Cosponsors (20) ^{thomas.loc.gov comments politics}
   
2. Lawrence Lessig wants to get 30,000,000 pledges to fight the corruption of money in politics, here is the pledge site ^{theanticorruptionpledge.org comments politics}
   
3. Walker recall: “Young people didn't turn out. Only 16 percent of the electorate was 18-29, compared to 22 percent in 2008. That's the difference between 646,212 and 400,599 young voters, or about 246,000. Walker won by 172,739 votes.” ^{prorevnews.blogspot.com comments politics}
   
4. McCain says foreign money influencing US elections, sneaking in through super PACs - The Washington Post ^{washingtonpost.com comments politics}
   
5. Reporter Who Heckled Obama for ‘Favoring Foreigners’ Is Himself Not American. Lives in D. C. on green card. "We're pretty sure that if you asked Munro how he got his current job, he wouldn't say that the Daily Caller had favored a foreign reporter (him) over an equivalent American one." ^{nymag.com comments politics}
   
6. Power Is Not Only An Aphrodisiac, It Does Weird Things To Some Of Us: "'Nearly all men can stand adversity,' said Abraham Lincoln, 'but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.'" ^{sfgate.com comments politics}
   
7. Study Finds Media Overwhelmingly Repeat GOP “ Job Killer“ Allegations With No Verification ^{mediamatters.org comments politics}
   
8. 123 Republicans and counting want to be 'unbound' from voting for Romney.(They want to vote for Paul instead) ^{wnd.com comments politics}
   
9. For 20-somethings, Health Care Act Makes A Difference ^{money.cnn.com comments politics}
   
10. Anderson Cooper Explains to Romney Adviser That CBO Doesn't Work for the Obama Administration | Video Cafe ^{videocafe.crooksandliars.com comments politics}
    
11. So a friend of mine was no knock raided by police who then lied in their reports. Thought Reddit would want to know about this. ^{self.politics comments politics}
    
12. Racist Arizona GOP radio host calls Obama "First Monkey President" ^{dailykos.com comments politics}
    
13. Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden ^{newson6.com comments politics}
    
14. Tea Party leader forced to resign after she makes 'racist' joke about black people claiming welfare ^{huffingtonpost.com comments politics}
    
15. Michigan women lawmakers to perform ‘Vagina Monologues’ at state capitol ^{rawstory.com comments politics}
    
16. Jon Stewart: It's Almost as if GOP Senators Are on JPMorgan's Payroll ^{rollingstone.com comments politics}
    
17. Remember, that when you complain about "frivolous lawsuits" and limiting civil lawsuits, that you are purely harming consumers and supporting large corporations that spew this propaganda. Here is a site that will educate you a little more about what exactly you are supporting. ^{tortdeform.com comments politics}
    
18. Why Does Mitt Romney Like Firing People? Because He Made $20,000 On Every Laid-Off Worker ^{nationalmemo.com comments politics}
    
19. The Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel has put up 23 billboards across Los Angeles. ^{mycatbirdseat.com comments politics}
    
20. Michigan women lawmakers to perform "Vagina Monologues" at state capitol as a public response to Republican legislators who indefinitely banned 2 Democratic women legislators from speaking in the Capitol for using the word “vagina” ^{rawstory.com comments politics}
    
21. Moyers: How the 1% Is Buying Our Democracy ^{alternet.org comments politics}
    
22. It is vile immorality to suggest that in the middle of a depression for the working class we should take from the general welfare of 99 percent of all Americans to transfer billions to the richest one percent. ^{eclectablog.com comments politics}
    
23. Americans Are In Denial As Wealth Falls To '92 Levels ^{businessinsider.com comments politics}
    
24. ["The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision,... created a new political system that will make the politics of the Gilded Age look like a clean government paradise.
    

Americans won’t even fully know what’s happening to them because so much can be donated in secrecy to opaque organizations."](http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/billionaires_against_billionaires_20120613/?ln) ^{truthdig.com comments politics}

1. Romney says he'll do 'opposite' on Israel... I guess this means we'll be going to war with them? ^{google.com comments politics}
   
2. Lawrence Lessig succinctly explains (10min) how money dominates our legislature. Last time this was posted it got one upvote, and the video on Youtube has 1,148 views. ^{self.politics comments politics}
   
3. "...this system is in for tough times, that will be catastrophic for the world financial system since the 9 largest banks shown below hold a total of $228.72 trillion in Derivatives - Approximately 3 times the entire world economy. No government in world has money for this bailout." ^{demonocracy.info comments politics}
   
4. Senator John McCain accused a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC of accepting “foreign money” from Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. ^{capitolcolumn.com comments politics}
   
5. TIL: "After Watergate, 20 corporations were criminally convicted for illegal campaign-finance activities. The hotel break-in itself was financed with secret campaign contributions." ^{dyn.politico.com comments politics}
   
6. McCain: Romney Receving Foreign Money ^{americablog.com comments politics}