“I feel a little sorry for the sector of America that feels that whatever Trump does must be bad.”
––Blogging ex-law prof Ann Althouse, in a post about how the New York Times criticized Trump’s order to get rid of the penny despite “what we’ve known for 40 years we needed to do but we couldn’t do because some people whine about the nostalgic and symbolic value of the Lincoln-stamped copper-plated disc.”
Why “sorry”? My Facebook friends who are doing this are educated, adults, and behaving like spoiled brats while writing social media posts worthy of sixth graders. MSNBC and its various propagandists are actively working to subvert an elected President. One should only have pity if one honestly believes that there is an excuse for someone being brainwashed and deceived by transparent media propaganda. There isn’t.
These people don’t know history, don’t understand the nation or its culture, ape the opinions of others without critical thought, and advocate anti-democratic policies and attitudes. I’m not sorry for them; I’m sorry that they are so gullible, weak-minded, and unable to process information that proves they were wrong, an essential life skill. I’m sorry that our society and civic discourse has been so poisoned by their biases and cognitive deficiencies. They deserve to be discouraged. They deserve to be humiliated. They deserve to be mocked. They have been incompetent, destructive citizens, and harmed their nation by allowing themselves to be ruled by emotion and manipulated by liars and ideologues.
Ethics Alarms 
There are plenty of pennies in circulation, stop wasting money making more for general circulation. Plus, hardly anyone is actually using cash and coins anymore. Get the F over it snowflakes.
P.S. I have no problem with them continuing to making pennies for collectors if they choose, especially the proof and silver proof ones that I get every year in annual sets for children and grandchildren. Since it’s for collectors they should charge accordingly for that penny and if it increases the cost of the annual sets, so be it.
What amuses me to no end are the people that are absolutely convinced that Trump is doing away with the penny so that retailers can game the system and syphon penny rounding on transactions to make bank. Which fails a whole lot of basic thinking tests…
First off, the vast, vast majority of transactions are electronic. Most people don’t have a penny of legal currency on them at ay given time, the average person hasn’t held cash in years except in specific and unique circumstances.
Second, we already round to the penny. Quick: What’s a 5% sales tax on $1.27? Why yes, it is $0.0635! Have you ever paid $0.0035 on a transaction? This would just round to the nickel.
Third, this exists elsewhere. Like in Canada! Can-Con! We did away with pennies 10 years ago, for exactly the same reason, and at the time, I wondered if because prices of our products end in semi-standardized numbers (like .99) if there could be a general bias for or against the customer in rounding. The answer was no, the law of large numbers takes hold, and my penny rounding GLs total like $20 for the entire year off $150 million in sales.
“I feel a little sorry for the sector of America that feels that whatever Trump does must be bad.”
Yup that’s a really bad thing; but what’s worse (if that’s possible) are the complete cultish imbeciles that are swallowing the anti-Trump propaganda whole and going ballistic about what Trump “might” do, they are literally demonizing Trump for things he hasn’t even done and they talk as if these Magic 8 Ball predictions have already come true. These acute Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) sufferers are nucking futs and need some serious professional help – they’re delusional.
When I read it earlier today, I was kind of glad to see Ann saying this. I think it runs along the lines of “I pity these people,” i.e., these people are pitiable. That is, they are pathetic. I’d like to think Ann is finally coming to her senses. Maybe other people are as well. Kind of refreshing.
Mr. Golden pointed out the other day that he’d read a NYT article in 2024 about the cost of minting the penny. I told him that, after this, the NYT would probably write one that called penny-terminators fascists.
People who hate Trump think everything he touches dies. They don’t even recognize what their hate has done to them.
And that cognitive dissonance scale has transferred that irrational hate over to Elon Musk.
It’s fascinating to see how many elites, but more interestingly, how many common lefties are absolutely foaming at the mouth to see an American company fail spectacularly, and not just any company, but a company dedicated to “clean” electric cars, solar panels, and batteries.
Nobody will really miss the penny. The valuable ones are still floating around and it will make them even more prized. This is a boon for collectors.
But whatever you do, don’t get rid of the nickel. It’s prime currency…isn’t that right, Groucho?
“But whatever you do, don’t get rid of the nickel. It’s prime currency…isn’t that right,”
I’ve been around long enough to have gotten a nickel for allowance…and could buy something with it; coupla pieces of Bazooka Joe and a red cap roll for my cap pistol.
PWS
My favorite nickel trick: asked to make a perfect square using four nickles, you group up so the lines under the buffalo make a square. Can’t do it with Tom’s nickel, though….
That you can/could actually lay your hands on four (4) Buffalo/Indian Head Nickels at once is impressive!
PWS
I’m abashed to say that I saved 8 or them in my magic trick stash.