The All-Purpose Political Thread

[lester1/2jr]

sven - I don't agree with the idea that CUba or the USSR "chose" marxism. whether they liked it or not they had no choice. the walls in east germany weren't there to keep people out

[indianasmith]

Sven, I was born in 1963.  I grew up during the Carter years and saw America sinking into a morass of hopelessness and defeatism, with an economy that was beyond stagnant and a well-meaning but incompetent President whose every action seemed to make things worse.

And I watched Reagan come along and change that.  I know none of this will penetrate the thick fog of political bigotry that fills your skull, but this country was better off after just four years of this man, and better off still when he left office.  He restored our faith in America on a fundamental level, got out economy humming again, and presided over an era of remarkable economic growth which saw incomes go up across the board, at every level (that's according to official IRS records, BTW).  He radiated decency, good humor, and courage.  He was not a perfect man; no politician is.  He made mistakes.

But he is far more than the loathsome boogeyman you make him out to be.  That is one reason why historians consistently rate him in the top 25% of America's presidents.

[Svengoolie 3]

So kindly  explain to me how in the bad old days of carter a working man could support a family and home on a 40 hour a week job while today one to hour a week job can barely keep a man in an cheap apartmernt.

Kindly explain how the american public has nit advanced,  and even backslid,  in terms of their share of the american economy while the 1% has taken most of americans wealth.

Why are people working fast longer hours for no more or even pass lag adjusted for inflation and have less savings, less property,  less economic cesurity and mire debt then they did in carter's days.

[lester1/2jr]

we've had democrat presidents during that decline as well.

I would personally trace it to going off the gold standard. inflation used to be, and is supposed to be, a rare phenomena.

[Svengoolie 3]

we've had democrat presidents during that decline as well.

I would personally trace it to going off the gold standard. inflation used to be, and is supposed to be, a rare phenomena.

It's  not just inflation,  les, it's  the fact that wages for most people have stagnated or declined in the last 30 years while the rich take more and more of americans wealth. The elimination of regulation that SOB Reagan started had let the rich plunder the economy with one carefully engineered economic disaster after another while the public is stuck repaying it,
has  happened in the S&L crisis, traceable directly to reagan's wave of deregulation.

[ER]

Sven, if ever you have the courage to go outside your narrow comfort zone, you might try reading the thoughts of the economist Milton Friedman, who could answer some of your questions.

Also, again, your typing makes it hard to take you seriously since it makes you look lazy, sloppy, dull, but here goes my stab at an answer to some points you raised.

I'll leave out the effects of the late 20th century decline in domestic manufacturing and the allure of cheap overseas goods recessing the American homefront, and I'll not get into the fact that in the distributist model of America before corporate big box stores, people shopped locally amid main streets owned by friends and neighbors, which.....well, I'll skip going there.

Let me talk about this...

In part wages went farther in past generations because people were willing to make due with less in comparison with today.

Houses, if you notice, were smaller then. Children shared bedrooms, siblings handed down clothing, meals were home cooked and often less elaborate than today, eating out was a luxury, not a way of life. Most families had a single TV set, a single car, a small yard, no backyard pool. Few took two week vacations. There were no computers, there was a single family phone used communally. There was no Netflix, no cable or satellite TV, no internet subscriptions. No one paid six bucks for a cup of coffee. Clothes were commonly homemade, there was no keeping up with the latest fashions. The streets were lined with locally-owned businesses, not strip malls. People did not buy on credit to the scale they do now, strangled by interest. In general there were fewer demands on wallets, and expectations were lower.

There are still people today willing to live humbler, less materialistic lives and do make due with a single breadwinner in the family.

To lay the blame for a tsunami of social changes on one man or one party is unbalanced thinking.

[Svengoolie 3]

And if repuvwbocans could get out of their narrow comfort zone they cold see that trickle down economics only works for the rich and hurts everyone else.  I'm not eating for hast to happen either.

And I refuse to spend an hour correcting a  minutes worth of typing  anymore.

[ER]

You complain but you can't refute.

And funny, other people's posts don't look retarded and I doubt they take an hour to correct them.

I do believe it only takes you a minute to come up with what you write though. It shows.

[ER]

I don't know why I got pulled into replying to you, Sven. You're not worth the effort. You're silly.

[Allhallowsday]

Sven, I was born in 1963.  I grew up during the Carter years and saw America sinking into a morass of hopelessness and defeatism, with an economy that was beyond stagnant and a well-meaning but incompetent President whose every action seemed to make things worse.
...

It is worth mentioning that the America you talk about was post-Watergate, which shamed this country in the eyes of the world.  NIXON was the culmination of everything bad in "the establishment".  The world Sven alludes to was a post-counter-culture world too.  REAGAN was undoubtedly a reach for stability by the American people. 

...
And I watched Reagan come along and change that.  I know none of this will penetrate the thick fog of political bigotry that fills your skull, but this country was better off after just four years of this man, and better off still when he left office.  He restored our faith in America on a fundamental level, got out economy humming again, and presided over an era of remarkable economic growth which saw incomes go up across the board, at every level (that's according to official IRS records, BTW).  He radiated decency, good humor, and courage.  He was not a perfect man; no politician is.  He made mistakes.

But he is far more than the loathsome boogeyman you make him out to be.  That is one reason why historians consistently rate him in the top 25% of America's presidents.

It is interesting how the pocketbook is important to everyone; money of course being a man-made invention.  There were competencies in REAGAN's administration that CARTER's lacked.  I am a huge fan of JIMMY CARTER (it is hard to look at a politician and not see dirt) and I have always disliked REAGAN.  I tend to look askance at so-called "presidential legacies" of my own lifetime.  Plus, being a poor man in America, I am unimpressed by wealth.  Yet, a healthy economy is essential, which I expect had a lot to do with BUSH's election in 1988. 

[Svengoolie 3]

Sven, I was born in 1963.  I grew up during the Carter years and saw America sinking into a morass of hopelessness and defeatism, with an economy that was beyond stagnant and a well-meaning but incompetent President whose every action seemed to make things worse.
...

It is worth mentioning that the America you talk about was post-Watergate, which shamed this country in the eyes of the world.  NIXON was the culmination of everything bad in "the establishment".  The world Sven alludes to was a post-counter-culture world too.  REAGAN was undoubtedly a reach for stability by the American people. 

...
And I watched Reagan come along and change that.  I know none of this will penetrate the thick fog of political bigotry that fills your skull, but this country was better off after just four years of this man, and better off still when he left office.  He restored our faith in America on a fundamental level, got out economy humming again, and presided over an era of remarkable economic growth which saw incomes go up across the board, at every level (that's according to official IRS records, BTW).  He radiated decency, good humor, and courage.  He was not a perfect man; no politician is.  He made mistakes.

But he is far more than the loathsome boogeyman you make him out to be.  That is one reason why historians consistently rate him in the top 25% of America's presidents.

It is interesting how the pocketbook is important to everyone; money of course being a man-made invention.  There were competencies in REAGAN's administration that CARTER's lacked.  I am a huge fan of JIMMY CARTER (it is hard to look at a politician and not see dirt) and I have always disliked REAGAN.  I tend to look askance at so-called "presidential legacies" of my own lifetime.  Plus, being a poor man in America, I am unimpressed by wealth.  Yet, a healthy economy is essential, which I expect had a lot to do with BUSH's election in 1988. 

Well,  AHD, in america the pocketbook equals life. In most civilized countries the people have guaranteed healthcare. If you need medical aid to survive you get it. In 'murca if you get sick you get asked what coverage you have.  No coverage,  me treatment, you die.

I agree were  too materialistic and I'm guilty of it too. But in 'murca you die if you don't have money.  In civilized countries peolel have healthcare guaranteed. They can afford to be less   obsessed with the pocketbook.

[ER]

The wisdom of The Simpsons, on socialized medicine. (From the episode with the Boston hatecation.)

"And because of our state's super-socialized health care, no matter how much your husband abuses his body, someone else will pay for it.
"

Um, yeah, let's review that again. Who will pay for it?

Read more at: https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=431&t=28971

[Leah]

I see your point of "Who is going to pay for it", but my issue is that Big Pharma jacks up their prices for medicine, and people suffer. If paying more in taxes to bring down the medicine prices is a con then I'm for it.

[lester1/2jr]

China is having its Khashoggi moment. for all the talk of opening up and the olympics and so forth... they are showing everyone who they really are with the HK extradition bill / crackdown

[Allhallowsday]

Response to the Amber Guyger verdict offers painful glimpse into white supremacy's widespread impact 

Shock. That's the feeling that so many black Americans felt last September as details emerged about Botham Jean's murder at the hands of Amber Guyger, a Dallas police officer who was eventually fired. Public outrage was widespread, of course, but the sheer audacity of Guyger's claim that her crime was justified created a special kind of horror. Essentially, the ex-cop was claiming that her fear rendered her deadly error irrelevant. After all, tiny white woman vs. big black guy is an all-too-familiar racist trope... 


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/1/1889299/-Response-to-the-Amber-Guyger-verdict-offers-painful-glimpse-into-white-supremacy-s-widespread-impact?detail=emaildkre