Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

What's the definition of a failed system? All of Europe, Japan, South Korea, etc etc. are failed states, in your opinion? All practice socialism to some degree.

[froot loops]

Canada is a failed state in Geezers eyes.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Every industrialized country in the world is because they ALL have state-managed healthcare except for us

Only good countries left are Uganda, Kyrgyzstan, and maybe Tuvalu (requires more research)

[Dr. Strangelove]

Just saw there's a documentary on Jim Traficant on Amazon...need to watch this. Sounds like it partly argues Trump borrowed a lot of his spiel from him.

[The Oracle]

What's the definition of a failed system? All of Europe, Japan, South Korea, etc etc. are failed states, in your opinion? All practice socialism to some degree.

lol

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's getting virtually no attention in the States but google "Surkov emails". Russia's dealing with its own batch of embarrassing hacked emails right now involving one of Putin's top aides. Lots of evidence in them to 'prove' that the Donbas rebels would've collapsed without direct Russian support. Which has been patently obvious but this has been the most significant paper trail that's appeared.

[Wild Hoss]

Hate to bust up all this levity, but I wanted to drop this here:



I'm not a Cubs fan, but my grandmother was a maniacal one and so much of my family back home is. She missed this moment by just a few years, so its kind of bittersweet.

[iam416]

Just saw there's a documentary on Jim Traficant on Amazon...need to watch this. Sounds like it partly argues Trump borrowed a lot of his spiel from him.

Yeah, he reminds me a lot of Traficant, at least on trade. It's no wonder Trump is killing it in the Mahoning Valley -- Tim Ryan's district.

As a side note, I still have my Traficant For President button for 1988. It was a small, grassroots campaign. If the Ds hide wised up and not pranked us with Dukakis we would have avoided 4 years of GHWB and, instead, enjoyed 8 years of Jimbo...well, at least 5 to 6 years...he could have stayed out of jail that long.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This morning's ABC poll shows Clinton back with a 2 point lead. So the Trump camp will have to find a different favorite poll of the day. Can always fall back on the LA Times poll when no one else tells you what to want.

Trump +1 in New Hampshire according to some local tv station poll. I'm skeptical.

[hack]

You can believe it or not, but I was in the process of walking it back and my cursor just froze. Couldn't restart the computer.

Anyway, I don't know what exactly which parts you find objectionable, hack, but probably the part about liberals not willing to actually debate their beliefs. I'm hopeful of converting you because you at least know that socialism has never worked anywhere. You had a great line something on the order of "maybe socialism will finally work this time". You understand that power tends to corrupt.

That said, what other method would you use to distinguish between good reporting and bad reporting if you don't want to use profit? If folks see value in your writing, they will buy it. I buy the Economist.

And why do you think the Germans wanted to open the gates to the migrants? I asked you this once in relation to the large number of young Germans not working. I hear so often that it is a demographic matter, but then why not give the jobs to their own youth.
I'd just like an opinion.

Heh. I might believe it. And I might allow you to convert me, but only after I'm finished converting you. Since I know you read what I say and recall it, and a genuine thank you for that because sadly it isn't always that way, you know that I'm for a level playing field, and that I think we should aim for free markets but not necessarily for capitalism because it leads to rent-seeking. You'll have to define socialism for me before we go on there. I've always defined it as government owning the assets and being the employer. That's the formal definition. Happy to discuss on that basis, but so many define it as ``Obama wants to restore us to where we were under Reagan''. Which is of course shrill bullshit and fails to understand what socialism really is.

Notice, on that note, that you didn't see me calling for using state power to shut down Breitbart. If ever there were a case for censorship in today's day and age, that's it. But I don't believe you can give the state a tool and ask it to use it wisely and skillfully. Especially since you no longer need a licence to access controlled airwaves. There's no case for that.

That said, my method to distinguish good from bad wouldn't be profit. I think the basic distinction is not profitable or non, but factual or non. And, I think, ultimately we're going to have a tough choice to make. We can see the extreme amount of damage a smart demagogue can do when they want to dress up propaganda as news. At some point, if politics is to seek the greatest good for the greatest number, there is actually a case for censorship. Or something.

Re Germany, youth unemployment isn't high there. Lowest in the Eurozone apart from Malta, which is a tax haven with few residents. https://www.statista.com/statistics/...-eu-countries/. Germany is actually a very interesting thought experiment for Americans on the right/left economics debate. Interesting discussions about union vs non, individual vs group, etc.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Today's update on Nevada early voting. Suggests things are looking very good for Democrats

http://www.ktnv.com/news/ralston/the-nevada-early-voting-blog

[Dr. Strangelove]

Obama won Florida in 2012 by about 74,000 votes. According to the Tampa Bay Times in early voting at this point R's have gone from -39,000 in 2012 to +17,000 in 2016. A 56,000 vote swing

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/304056-reports-republicans-outpacing-dems-in-florida-early-voting

[Dr. Strangelove]

But that said, all early voting analysis is at least somewhat flawed by the assumption that that you always vote for the party you're registered with

[Da Geezer]

Just got in from a hard day of sitting around Best Buy while they worked on my computer. In the end, it was, as usual, the government's fault. But I digress.

I've always defined it as government owning the assets and being the employer

Yup. That works. Maybe we can use Lenin's formulation that the government owns the "commanding heights" of the economy. That leaves room for small farms and the like. "Greatest good for the greatest number" is Marx's exact phrase fro the Manifesto. And the difference between communism and socialism is "power comes from the barrel of a gun" as Mao said in communism. Violence is not a necessary predicate to the socialist.

I've always defined capitalism as an economic system where the "commanding heights" are privately owned and in which operates a mostly free market. You have pointed out to me that there is just no such thing as a totally free market, and a proper function of government is to facilitate behavior as close as possible to that of a free market (anti-trust etc.). The inherent problem with capitalism is summarized in the phrase "...rich man's cat, poor man's baby..."

Fair enough?

[Dr. Strangelove]

100 Pro-Trump websites being run from a single town in Macedonia

https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.urG8Ax5jb#.lopNG5YL2