Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[entropy]

It is so nice in Michigan right now... You can stand outside without sweating.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hack]

Jeff your post is so good it has to be read more than once. This part is my favorite:

Following WWII, the Allies inherited the role you speak of. I don't see it as a negative one nor do I share your view that the only dividend the US has gotten from this is hate and scorn. From a defeated Japan and Germany? From those counties hobbled by the Nazi war machine? From European nations whose boarders have been protected from Russian expansionism? I'd urge you to travel abroad and while governments can often appear to be prickly when they feel their national interests are interfered with by America, their citizens, by-in-large, have tremendous respect for us and our role in the world as Democracy's leader.

[lineygoblue]

Yes, it's been a nice exchange and I hate both the PAH and Herr Trump.

Let me break my rule here a moment (sue me) and make a suggestion that I made on another Michigan site.

Write in your favorite football coach.

If you are a football fan, (NCAA, NFL) and you don't want to vote for either Hillary or Trump, .. write in your favorite football coach. If you're a Michigan fan, write in Harbaugh. If you're an OSU fan, write in Urban Meyer. If you're a fan of the Tide, write in The Nick.

I am 100% serious, and I will definitely be writing in Coach Harbaugh.

I think it would be a perfect way for football fans all over the country to show their disgust with the current slate of candidates, and show what kind of leadership they prefer instead.

Now, back to your regular programming ....

[SeattleLionsFan]

Let me break my rule here a moment (sue me) and make a suggestion that I made on another Michigan site.

Write in your favorite football coach.

If you are a football fan, (NCAA, NFL) and you don't want to vote for either Hillary or Trump, .. write in your favorite football coach. If you're a Michigan fan, write in Harbaugh. If you're an OSU fan, write in Urban Meyer. If you're a fan of the Tide, write in The Nick.

I am 100% serious, and I will definitely be writing in Coach Harbaugh.

I think it would be a perfect way for football fans all over the country to show their disgust with the current slate of candidates, and show what kind of leadership they prefer instead.

Now, back to your regular programming ....

Just to add another option, you could go out, get involved, and help build up political parties and candidates to believe in. If enough people agree with you, it'll change.

[entropy]

And rain today... I had to open my mouth


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Wild Hoss]

Well, in your defense, its your natural reaction to stress.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Da Geezer]

Geezer I think you identified a few interesting areas where we might wonder why Putin would want Trump in, and a few that aren't quite so interesting. But what's out there makes it pretty clear that he does, regardless of how you or I might logic it out.

It is absolutely not clear with any actual evidence that Putin favors Trump. What is factual is that Robby Moot planted the story about Putin in order to take the news cycle off the story of the DNC emails. You know, when Jeff Bezos instructs his newspaper to dedicate 21 reporters to destroying Trump, you might want to take a look at where stories come from. This was a shrewd political move, but would have never happened without the total compliance of the controlled media.

I heard an interesting thought this morning. What if emails are released during the campaign and those emails are forged? I haven't thought this through yet, but I had not even contemplated such a thing because there should be counterparties. Evidently there are no counterparties to the 30,000 destroyed emails.

[Da Geezer]

Amazing.

I make the statement that everyone here would rather have the choice of Pence v. Kaine, and, immediately, the leftist zombies go off on Pence. What I said was that the Pence/Kaine choice is better than the Trump/Hillary choice. Anybody care to debate that?

Sorry, froot, I was trying to be sarcastic.

Now, pay attention. There was another convention almost two weeks ago where there was a lady named Melania. This lady gave a speech, and she said exactly the same words as Michelle Obama said in a speech in 2008. All the newspapers and TV stations found this lady's speech to be plagiarised, because it was. That was my reference.

[Da Geezer]

sorry Hoss. Here is your whole post.

The only means of stopping a wealthy nation of 80 million people from acquiring a nuclear weapon would be to conquer it and establish a permanent puppet government. 50 years of sanctions, military posturing and bluster by Republicans and Democrats alike didn't prevent North Korea from doing it, and their GDP is less than the Big Ten's.

Its time for the conversation to begin dealing with the reality of WHEN more hostile nations join the nuke fraternity. Nobody is going to stop it from happening.

This is exactly the kind of thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq. The presumption that an invasion is the only way to prevent proliferation is, as I said, nonsense.

[Jeff Buchanan]

........This is exactly the kind of thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq. The presumption that an invasion is the only way to prevent proliferation is, as I said, nonsense.

I'd disagree ........ the thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq had noting to do with stopping Saddam from building nucs although that is the story that was sold by the Bush administration to the public.

The reason for that decision to essentially lie to the American public is the elitism that comes from high up in government that argues people won't or can't understand our strategic thinking ......

...... which amounted to an ill-conceived ME strategy put together by the large number of Neocons who occupied important positions in the Bush Administration.

[Da Geezer]

I too want to thank both Jeff and Hannibal. Good stuff.

From 1983 to 1989, all quintiles of the population increased their income. The same happened in 1997-2000. Both periods followed substantial tax reductions. Those are the facts.

Progressives equate equality of condition with equality of opportunity. Jeff says

Capitalism, embraced by conservatives, as an economic model can have rough edges when it comes to wealth equality which, when present, gives rise to social equality

Equality in the condition of wealthy/not wealthy has no relation to social equality. None. That is one presumption that Marx and Engles made, and is a necessary precondition to any statist philosophy (be that socialism, fascism, communism, or progressivism). This is why Jeff begins with it, and it is why statism has never worked, not even once, in the history of the world.

The US has spent 40 trillion dollars since 1964 trying to equalize incomes and has objectively failed. What has been accomplished has been the destruction of the family (both black and white), and the entrenchment of an underclass. 48,000,000 people are on food stamps, 95,000,000 are unemployed (not looking for work). Again. Just facts.

The country's current condition of income inequality is caused by enormous printing of money, currently $10 trillion during the last 7 years. It is also caused by massive transfers to those who "work" for the government. That is why the idea of "net tax payers" is so powerful in delineating those who profit from government from those who pay for government.

I care about the actual condition of the lowest 3 quintiles. That's where I direct my giving and my efforts. Charter schools are a microcosm of what is right with America and what is wrong with America. The facts are now undeniable that charter schools improve inner city education, both within the charter community and in competition with government schools. In Michigan, they accomplish this by spending 63 cents for every dollar spent by government schools. Why, then, do the Democrats vehemently oppose charters? Milton Friedman spent the last 20 years of his life (and so did Rose, a great economist in her own right) trying to change the education system in the US to something resembling a free market.

IMO,The most fundamental problem in the USA today is the unionization of government workers, and the enormous wealth transfer to them from the private sector. Unionized workers elect politicians that transfer money to those workers so they can again elect more politicians to transfer more money. These workers are allied with most other recipients of government largess, but they are they core of the statist agenda.

Again, IMO, the "problem" of income inequality in the US is the tyranny of the majority. Most posters here rightly decry big business' use of big government. But the amount of money involved is minuscule compared to the amount of welfare and excess spending directed to the Democrat constituencies (government workers other than first responders and military, welfare recipients, illegal immigrants, blacks, Hispanics, journalists, big business).

[Da Geezer]

I'd disagree ........ the thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with stopping Saddam from building nucs although that is the story that was sold by the Bush administration to the public.. . .

Really? What rationale did Hillary give when she voted in favor of the military invasion then?

[Wild Hoss]

sorry Hoss. Here is your whole post.



This is exactly the kind of thinking that led to the invasion of Iraq. The presumption that an invasion is the only way to prevent proliferation is, as I said, nonsense.

Well, for starters, I didn't say "invasion"...you did. That's you making assumptions again.

I said "conquer", and I did so deliberately. Whether the end is reached via political destabilization or brute military means, the replacement of the regime is only long-term solution for that particular problem. Sanctions and bombing haven't stopped its progress in NK, Iran, or in Iraq if the Neocons are to be believed. The nonsense is in ignoring the facts and attempting to reach an unsupported conclusion...but that's kinda your thing, so I get it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Israel given largest aid package in history. Israel unhappy. Says Americans should be giving it far more.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/israel-and-us-are-close-to-a-deal-on-the-biggest-military-aid-package-ever/2016/07/29/ed13e1d4-54f7-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html

[hack]

From 1983 to 1989, all quintiles of the population increased their income. The same happened in 1997-2000. Both periods followed substantial tax reductions. Those are the facts.

Also, at the outset of both periods came a Dylan album widely viewed a the best in a while. Also fact, based on critics' reviews. Very possibly a more meaningful fact. Also fact: I don't think an inequality argument is countered successfully by saying everybody got richer. Clearly for that discussion the question is by what amount.