Politics Thread

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Originally Posted by boozehound

Come on. You guys are (presumably) intelligent individuals. Those are all examples of dictatorships that happen to be 'socialist' but are, first and foremost, dictatorships. If you guys really don't see the difference between Maduro, Lenin, Mao, et al. and Canada (for example) I don't know how you get through your daily lives without sticking a fork in an electrical socket or eating a rock.

There are many examples in Western Europe, and elsewhere, of the type of Socialism that is generally being advocated for and it is far less stark of a picture than a socialist dictatorship.

And yes, I know that some of the jackoff candidates on the left are advocating for some pretty crazy shit, but they are probably just going to end up with Biden because Elizabeth Warren and Bernie are nutso and there aren't enough people that actualyl want a socialist government anyways.

People who are concerned about Venezuela should be more worried about Trump attempting to break down many of the checks and balances that have traditionally protected us from authoritarianism - that is the real threat. There are plenty of right wing dictatorships throughout history that generally don't look much different than the left wing ones.

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Like a non-independent FBI investigating an elected president because they don't like his politics? Or presidential candidates who have brought up the idea of adding Supreme Court justices because they don't like the current makeup of the court?

Interesting article about is Sweden a Socialist country. Good stats surprising on much personal income taxes vs corporate.

Disclaimer: article is from a right leaning group that also has libertarian beliefs on social issues.

https://fee.org/articles/is-sweden-socialist-no-but/

Robert Mueller ( a Republican) said William Barr (a Republican) did not accurately describe the context, nature or substance of the Russian probe.
Looks like trump keeps hiring the liars like him.

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Originally Posted by bobbiemcgee

Robert Mueller ( a Republican) said William Barr (a Republican) did not accurately describe the context, nature or substance of the Russian probe.
Looks like trump keeps hiring the liars like him.

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Fake news.

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Key sentence in the report: "When Barr pressed [Mueller] whether [Mueller] thought Barr’s letter was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of the letter was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said."

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Mueller had issues with the media coverage, not Barr.

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Originally Posted by boozehound

People who are concerned about Venezuela should be more worried about Trump attempting to break down many of the checks and balances that have traditionally protected us from authoritarianism - that is the real threat. There are plenty of right wing dictatorships throughout history that generally don't look much different than the left wing ones.

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Where I agree Booze is the authoritarian behaviors from both presidential parties (past and current ) in the US and checks/balance stuff (not sure that was your point but that’s what I read into it). Think checks and balances was one of most important and genius part of our constitution.

Unfortunately, socialism programs have added a huge debt to all countries. What is the biggest part of the 22 million debt in the US? Well over half our spending is on socialist programs. IMO, the government doesn’t have wherewithal to handle more social programs let alone control the ones we have.

"Socialism," this election cycle's "Muslims" or "Mexicans."

Need to keep stoking the fear of the other.

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Originally Posted by paulxu

"Socialism," this election cycle's "Muslims" or "Mexicans."

Need to keep stoking the fear of the other.

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The Russians are coming!!!! Haha.

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Originally Posted by Juice

Fake news.



Mueller had issues with the media coverage, not Barr.

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Your quoting a phone call Barr says he had with Mueller. No transcript. Nobody knows what he said exactly, Fox Fake and Friends oddly said they exact same thing you did this morning.

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Originally Posted by bobbiemcgee

Your quoting a phone call Barr says he had with Mueller. No transcript. Nobody knows what he said exactly, Fox Fake and Friends oddly said they exact same thing you did this morning.

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Don't watch cable news so maybe they were reading similar shit. Well then Mueller can testify and explain what the hell he meant. This is all based on alleged conversations anyways so I don't know why that suddenly doesn't work for you.

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Originally Posted by noteggs

Where I agree Booze is the authoritarian behaviors from both presidential parties (past and current ) in the US and checks/balance stuff (not sure that was your point but that’s what I read into it). Think checks and balances was one of most important and genius part of our constitution.

Unfortunately, socialism programs have added a huge debt to all countries. What is the biggest part of the 22 million debt in the US? Well over half our spending is on socialist programs. IMO, the government doesn’t have wherewithal to handle more social programs let alone control the ones we have.

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I think this is sort of true, but to fairly consider government spending against Medicare, SSI, and Medicaid (the programs you are referencing that account for just over 50% of the federal budget) I do think you need to consider the taxes the government collects that are directly related to those programs.

For example: Of the $3.8T that the federal government spends I believe a little over $1T comes from Social Security and Medicare taxes. We spend about $2.3T per year on the aforementioned programs, so the real 'unfunded' annual burden is $1.3T.

I'm personally against socialism as a governmental system and the 'free stuff' mentality, but I'm also against gross income inequality and I do believe that the purpose of the government is to provide a basic safety net in some instances, as well as to promote behavior that is good for the nation as a whole.

To the end, I'm in favor of steps to significantly reduce tuition costs, but I'm not for 'free college'. College need to be affordable so that we have an educated populous, but people should have 'skin in the game'. We should also offer significant incentives for people to be trained in fields that are likely to benefit the US economy over the long term. This would allow for wages for Americans.

I also think that the lottery we force many people to play with Healthcare costs is a problem that should be addressed. I'll give you an example: My son had a seizure a few months ago and went to the hospital in an ambulance (he has been fine since, but it was terrifying at the time). He was treated and released same day and received very little care outside of the ambulance ride, and I have good insurance. I had to pay $1500 out of pocket for the whole thing. Fortunately that amount of money is non consequential for me, but for the average American wage earner that would be a big deal.