1. I have contemplated Marie Y. (all day yesterday) IMO she did very well. This lady reminds me of women I have known who were basically secular nuns. Conservative everything; hair do, clothes (tasteful), carefully limited comments, no sniveling , a willingness to smile at them after the Republicans decided that the best thing would be to praise her. She is a winsome creature of obviously high intellect. I have looked around the internet and see no one who claims she is gay. She seems to live alone, alone with her work. She tried living with her 88 year old mother three years ago but that did not last. What would the old girl have done with herself in Kiev with her daughter working all the time? So, the maman went home to the States. Marie is still employed as a Career Ambassador (a high rank) in the Foreign Service of of the United States She is currently assigned at Georgetown U. It is too bad for the Dems that she is ineligible to be president because of her foreign birth. What is her gripe? She lost the love of her life, diplomatic work. A word about the Foreign Service in general might be needed. To hear these stuck up creatures praised for their resolute service in "dangerous hardship posts" is funny. Whatever can be shipped in for their comfort is sent. Ask Ambassador William Taylor, a once upon a time infantry company commander, or Ambassador Ron Neumann (rifle platoon leader in VN) if he believes the Foreign Service suffers much except from thwarted ambition.
2. Adam Schiff. The GOP should work on weaponizing his nasty little personality against the Democrats. The spectacle on TeeVee yesterday of Schiff repeatedly gavelling GOP members into silence was most instructive. He is from Burbank? Land of Johnny Carson? How does that happen? Tell me.
3. IMO the Dems have an entertaining but ineffective set of candidates for president; Joe Biden – senile, corrupt and nasty, Bernie – a hypocritical member of the rentier class, a man who reminds me of the early American communists who flocked to the USSR to fight for the revolution (John Reed, etc.), We are all just waiting for Bernie's physical collapse, Warren, while waiting for Bernie to go, is burdened by her history of obvious falsehoods and a lack of understanding of basic economics. If she gets the nomination, she will lose because there are just not enough dummies who can't do arithmetic, Bloomberg – Nah! Deval Patrick, the man who is an enemy of capitalism and is now employed by a hedge fund? Nah! Buttigiege is their best bet. His gayness, cuteness, smartness, veteranness, "family" manness, moderateness, all point to He bein' da man. If he were smart enough to pick the lovely Tulsi for VP, he might well win
4. Trump. A NY City junk yard business dog incapable of real feelings for other people. He sees them all as tools to advance his agenda, namely himself. His pretensions to patriotism or nationalism are unconvincing for me. Policy positions are just public relations for him, but he knows he must perform on these implied promises or fatally lose support. He said recently that his major failing in his first three years was "personnel." I would agree with that. He is really an empty suit. People do not give their all for empty suits. Trump can be beaten but not by running dotards, communists or obvious phonies against him pl
Sir,
“Let self interest do the job of virtue” has been a corner stone of the American since day 1. I’ll take the man who understands that his personal success depends on delivering on his promises. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Therefore, Trump.
All of the rest is hopeless romanticism.
Tulsi is a one trick pony; foreign policy – and it’s already boring. What makes anyone think she’d be any more successful with her FP than Trump? Basically, her FP is Trump’s. I do not think she can do math or economics any better than Liz Warren. Should she make it onto a ticket, that will become painfully obvious.
You don’t like the current economy? You don’t like Trump’s thwarting of borgist ambitions?
“Bloomberg” Nah!”
Bloomberg’s only purpose is use his candidacy to attack Trump.
As a candidate, he is allowed to the exceed the campaign finance laws.
He has to many investments in China and Trump is threat to his terminals..lol
Human rights, concentration camps, and American decline to not matter to him, just profits.
Colonel,
Whichever bone-head becomes the next POTUS, one thing that is staring us between the cross-hairs — China.
Henry Kissinger has been watching and is not really happy. He see that if we don’t get our sH*t together [my euphemism] with China, we’re going to be in deep 김치 kimchi, the entire planet will.
Henry Kissinger warns of ‘catastrophic’ conflicts unless China and US settle their differences
‘It will be worse than the world wars that ruined European civilisation,’ says former secretary of state and adviser to Richard Nixon
One side cannot dominate the other – and they have to get used to that, veteran diplomat says
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3037870/kissinger-warns-us-and-china-their-conflicts-will-be
Colonel: I must object to your characterisation of Bernie Sanders as “Bernie – a hypocritical member of the rentier class”. If that were true, how is it that Senator Sanders gets 20-40% of the Republican vote in Vermont? Vermonters have a keen disdain for fakery and they know from experience that Bernie is honest and hard-working. If he were not he would not have been re-elected mayor of Burlington three times, served as VT Representative for 16 years, and since being elected Senator in 2007 been re-elected twice.
Have you visited Burlington? It’s a fine small city with a waterfront that is accessible to all and not clogged up with condo developments thanks to Bernie. Ask any Vermonter why they vote for Bernie and they answer “Because he works for us”. He’s certainly not in it for the money like the utterly corrupt Democrat party establishment, who cheated him out of the 2016 nomination. IMHO he’s the only declared Dem nominee who can beat Trump – he’s the real deal. But you can count on the scum in the Dem apparatus and the scum in the lugenpresse to do all they can to make sure that doesn’t happen and Trump will get a second term.
Yes he is very weak on foreign policy – consider his religion. But it is long overdue for someone, anyone in the federal apparatus to actually work for citizens instead of fellating wealthy donors so they can have their privileged positions bought for them.
@ PL: He sees them all as tools to advance his agenda, namely himself. His pretensions to patriotism or nationalism are unconvincing for me.
The other people’s motives problem is distinguishing knowledge from attribution, so usually belongs in the headspace “God Wot” file. His survival instincts may be more important than his personal sentiments. What people do and/or don’t do is the test. When personally conflicted I discovered that it is easier to do right out of vanity. Virtue tends to go all flabby, starts weazeling and putting out rationalizations.
All
I will vote for Trump, but I am not blind to his faults. I am asked if I have no party loyalties. I do not. I am also asked how senile I are. Maybe. Judge for yourself. I continue hosting SST because I am what I always was; an original intent textual constitutionalist A lot of you are laughable in your pretensions to intellect, but I continue to try to educate. Some of you write draft comments that are simply trolling of various kinds. It would be fine with me if readership went to zero tomorrow. I would not mind at all.
Burbank = Hollywood = California brain-dead, anti-Trump and virtue-signaling Democrats.
Key to Trump – pay more attention to what he does; not what or how he says it.
How about a Bernie – Tulsi ticket? She is young and would be there should Bernie shuffle off this mortal coil.
One thing not many folks comment on is Bernie’s base which will get out and pound the pavement for him if nominated. He has a lot of very loyal supporters. His ability to get his people on the street talking to neighbors could prove decisive, particularly if the economy takes a dive.
Missing ingredient- how internally stable is China – 1.3 billion people from stone age to modern era with a relatively very brief recent political history is a tough crowd to manage at home.
Their recent burst of infrastructure modernization is already starting to crumble. All “revolutions” seem to corrupt themselves after three generations as family loyalties take priority over a solid constitutional framework.
China did raise an entire generation of spoiled brats with their one child policies. That is the wild card in their future, just like the generations of fetal alcohol-syndrome babies weakened the USSR.
Justhinkin’ What kind of odds could you give me on Bernie flying away soon?
Factotum
That is why I will vote for him.
Very nervous we choose a President on symbolic grounds and overlook the need to be a large business operations manager. Which is why the deep state was able to move into the Executive Branch power vacuum.
Please someone with a lick of big business operations at a CEO level – even small town mayor Pete has more business sense than the rest of the clown pack.
Bloomberg is obviously up there in business skills, but so is Trump. Trump’s biggest weakness is that his business experience was with a small, closely held family corporation – he could hire, fire, and operate at will and whim and be accountable only to family shareholders.
Personally prefer former governors, but look at the early rejection when some pretty valid ones showed up in the Democrat pack and disappeared almost overnight.
Reagan was a good President – former governor. Cliton (with personal flaws) was a good President – former governor.
There are political skills that can only come from practie; not just posing. Hence the debris and lethal power vacuums left behind the Obama administration.
Will key Sanders cabinet officer Sandy Cortez allow Bernie to select someone who will outshine her?
That’s the first time I’ve seen “winsome” used with an edge.
I watched her for some time and didn’t know what on earth to make of her. She looked to be a most convincing and dignified victim but it was difficult to work out quite what she’d been a victim of.
I think our closest equivalent over here would be Lady Ashton, who headed up the pre-coup European negotiations with the Ukraine. It was Lady Ashton who gave the most famous diplomatic response in modern history, when she was told that the snipers might be provocateurs. “Gosh.”
A very safe pair of hands, is what would be said of both and almost certainly often is.
I did know what to make of the histrionics just before the recess. They looked false. That man wasn’t really crying. And Chairman Schiff looked as scary as usual. If I could open my eyes that wide I’d make a fortune in horror movies. Which I suppose is more or less what he does.
Eric Newhill
To repeat myself (sign of dementia) I will vote for Trump in spite of his total absence of manners and culture because the economy is booming and I am richer every day.
English Outsider
Marie IMO was always the second best looking girl in the class but maybe teacher’s pet, and has never had anyone take anything away from her before. “Gosh.” She doesn’t look like someone you could safely make a pass at unless you had an awful lot of rank.
Sir
To get it out of the way, I don’t vote the duopoly for President. I always vote against the incumbent for every other position. I’m in the minority in my views. I believe the symbiotic relationship between Big Business and Big Government is detrimental to our constitutional republic and we can see the consequences over the last several decades.
Elections in contemporary America it seems is all about voting for the lesser evil. Very few, IMO, vote their conscience.
Having said that I agree with your characterization of the various candidates. I believe that Trump also has no follow through and he’s also a bit of a coward. While I agree with his foreign policy instincts in ending American interventionism overseas, he’s not really delivered in the area where he has full authority. Take the Syrian withdrawal order as an example. Where’s the follow through? US forces are still deeply entrenched there. Now to “protect” the Syrian oil fields.
I say he’s a bit of a coward in light of the fact that he’s continually passed the buck on declassification of Spygate and has allowed the usurpation of powers by the intelligence and law enforcement apparatus to be shielded from the American people. The argument that he was concerned that he would be charged with obstruction is hollow. That’s exactly what the Democrats are gonna do as Nancy seems committed and has the votes to impeach on a purely party line vote.
The Democrats too don’t have the candidates who IMO are going to address the systemic issues that created the zeitgeist that Trump was able to exploit in 2016. The two party system of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum has passed its sell date. So what we have are the same stale items on the shelf but the majority of the electorate are consumed by partisan warfare on the side of either Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum. Sad!
factotum
Government is NOT like business! Its balance sheet has only one side, the expenses side. Trump can’t seem to get that through his head.
“- 1.3 billion people from stone age to modern era with a relatively very brief recent political history is a tough crowd to manage at home. ”
You obviously know nothing about Chinese history and culture which was WAY more developed than any European ones before its was smashed by British imperialism which, for a short period of time, had the better weapons.
divadab
Vermonters have always been an ornery lot. As an example the state never had any sexual censorship laws with regard to movies. All the surrounding states had them. IMO the Ben and Jerry’s horde of refugees from New York City brought their leftist ideas with them and they make a difference in such a small state. He and his wife own several residential properties that they rent out. They are not of the “rentier” class? What kind of socialist revisionists are they to do that?
“Buttigiege is their best bet. His gayness, cuteness, smartness, veteranness, “family” manness, moderateness, all point to He bein’ da man.”
The guy smells strongly of being CIA man under cover of being a McKinsey consultant. What was his real job in Afghanistan and elsewhere?
b
Now you have lost it. CIA does not run candidates in US elections They don’t need to. They will always get their money from Congress no matter what they do. CIA runs candidates in German elections. Abu Dajjaj (Butagiege)had a nothing job in a big tent at the headquarters air base where he was assigned because the Navy accepted his request to be so assigned. He was a direct commission reserve officer. As a politician he knew it would be an important credential. A desk job, a big nothing.
“I am what I always was; an original intent textual constitutionalist…”
Sir
That’s what every American ought to be, IMO. The problem however is not just the intent and principles of the founding of our republic but also the character of the people. That IMO has changed profoundly. You have noted “honor” in my years reading your writing. Where’s honor in our contemporary leadership? It seems that most are focused on personal gain and celebrity over any responsibility to the country and the vast majority of its citizens. This is not just restricted to government but also big business and even many charities.
i largely agree with you about trump and for the same reasons.
imo trump is a symptom of a system which so mercilesly gives any potential presidential candidate a rough prostate exam few truly worthy men and women are willing to submit themselves and their families to such petty cruelties.
we get what we deserve because we allow from citizen passivity such a selection process to continue.
regarding adam schiff, i love and raise jack russells as hobby and have for decades. adam reminds me of that pup one often gets in a new litter that is never able to fully compete with his brothers and sisters on any level.
all grown up now with a bit of power in his hand we all get to witness how he handles those childhood memories.
Damn! Thanks for the optimism. I dislike Trump but find myself defending him mainly due to the illegal coordinated attempts to dislodge him. I would vote for Tulsi in a minute, besides her I don’t know. My reaction to Buttigieg to be honest is partially prejudicial. He will have to convince me. Trump angers me in the way he attacks people who served under him.
“Let self interest do the job of virtue”.
Eric,
I have to disagree.
We are where we are precisely because those entrusted with the responsibility for others had no virtue and only self-interest. The revolving door for personal gain has been the mantra for decades.
It was an article of belief in prior generations that public service was a duty wherein citizens gave of themselves with no expectation of personal gain. Now it has become a profession and even a pathway to great wealth. To quote Thomas Jefferson:
“In a virtuous government… public offices are what they should be: burthens to those appointed to them, which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring with them intense labor and great private loss.” –Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, 1779. Papers 2:298
Sir;
Re. “..flying away soon..” makes me think of the Hale Boggs rule: “Once in office, never fly on small aircraft.”
Well technically anyone who is retired and living on his retirement savings is a member of the rentier class, including I would hazard thee and me and most of those who comment here, having the time and their hostages to fortune long ago living independently.
Socialism has its place in a mixed economy – I am not a socialist, rather a private sector bourgeois, but I recognize the value of socialists to the commonweal. Government should regulate the capitalists as left unregulated, as they are largely in our State Monopoly Capital system, and they amass all the wealth and beggar the yeomen. Who are they who elected Trump but those who have lost their place to concentrated wealth?
Anyway I didn’t vote for Trump and won’t next time but I won’t vote for any Dem unless it’s Bernie. I will also caucus for Bernie. We need a major purge of the federal political apparatus and if it doesn’t happen soon through legal means IMHO shit will happen. The corruption is systematic and all it will take is a bad recession to drive a bloody cull.
https://twitter.com/epsilontheory/status/1195743355784839168?s=21
I agree with Ben Hunt’s statement. We have systemic issues that favor the elites at the expense of the rest. The problem is that Bernie and Warren want even bigger government to ameliorate this distortion not enforcement of anti-trust & fostering transparency & competition to prevent concentration of both market and political power. Trump and both the establishment Democrats and Republicans are of course completely MIA. I would recommend Jonathan Tepper’s and Matt Stoller’s books that chronicle the growth in concentration of power in the past few decades.
The response to the GFC is instructive. Wall St bailed out with trillions and none prosecuted for the fraud. And even worse the systemic issues that led to the GFC never addressed. Instead a doubling down on more of the same.
Sir,
Understood.
I agree that he is too often extremely boorish. I wish he were otherwise, but he works for me as he does for you.
Colonel,
In other words, he was a “REMF”? A species much respected and beloved by combat infantry.
Ishmael Zechariah
I have also given up any party loyalty. As I have lived now through many Presidential terms, I realize that those men were just men who each exhibited various human flaws–as we all do. My favorite period of English Literature was the 18th Century–the Age of Reason. That age is the one that raised up our founders. Sadly that age has passed.
Lately I vote Republican mostly because that party seems to honor our fine Constitution more than the Democrats do and which the Democrats under Obama obviously did not do. I have also chosen the Republicans lately because they mention God more than the Democrats do. (When Pelosi does, as she has done often more recently, it just seems so disingenuous. (Perhaps it’s the booze that makes her speech patterns so strange lately–who knows?)
I like the issues Trump promotes. I am not really happy with the way he speaks. But he does seem to appeal to the American middle class–and that is the group that one must appeal to win. And he has the financial means to win.
The Democratic hopefuls, I am sorry to say–and I say it often–remind me of the many student council candidates I had to hear over my many years of teaching–all of whom promised so many things that they had no ability to achieve. And if they did achieve those things, the entire staff of adults in the building would have left the building. The inmates would have been left to run the asylum, as the saying goes.
I agree that Tulsi speaks as adults speak, but it concerns me that she has mostly a one-issue candidacy.
IZ
Utterly Remfy
Exactly. Every president ever has had faults. Trump has tons of warts – petulant, mean, with way too high an opinion of himself. But he’s putting up a good fight against the Borg. Unfortunately, that’s as good as we’ll get in 2020. My fantasy is for him to make Tulsi either VP or Sec of State. Won’t happen, but just imagine all the exploding heads throughout the Borgist Empire.
Colonel,
Your insight is astonishing. I am the one that is having senior moments. Also, you were way up there at the top of bureaucracy. University of Chicago staffers contacted you to join the Borg but you refused.
Yes, the Ambassador’s life was her job. Also, first and second generation Eastern Europeans can’t seem to let go of their old hatreds and religions. Does the Borg even realize that they are playing the Great Game all over again? It did not play out well for Germany before. This time there are nuclear weapons that can annihilate the human species.
Adam Schiff is simply insane. Corporate democrats are in it for the money and to settle old scores. Neither of which are in the best interests of North Americans.
Sen. Warren has my interest. Smart as a whip, bankruptcy expert, reformer (Consumer Protection Agency and bankruptcy laws), born and educated in flyover country (not Ivy League)and from humble means. With all the political power that corporations and Wall Street have in this country, I like anyone who has them worried. Except for foreign policy issues, where I do not know where she stands, she reminds me of TR Roosevelt.
SRW
Can you do arithmetic?
Well said.
Ego, narcissism and other components of the personality may have been factors in deciding Donald Trump to run for President. Granted.
But assumption of the burthen ought not to be discounted as a possible motive. In my opinion.
A lot of originalist in this speech on distortions from Congress/Judiciary tag team from AG Barr to Federalist Society. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/11/15/ag-bill-barr-speaks-about-the-damage-to-our-nation-from-the-resistance/#more-176234
srw,
Ah, like TR she’s a gun owner and avid hunter? Plus she is a native American! Just ask Harvard.
Tulsi’s health care policy sounds good. Note, the media present her as a one policy candidate to the extent they even present her. But in NH, suddenly she is polling in the top 5.
I was one of those Jack Russell’s that couldn’t compete with their litter mates. Born into a family of horse trainers and was never obsessive enough about it to deal with the levels of frustration and found the outside world far crazier, so made my life picking up the pieces. Though the scenery and raising and riding horses for a living had its benefits.
My point would be that not fighting over the same thing as everyone else does opens your eyes to the fact reality has far more to offer than what human culture has distilled from it.
Money has becomes the signal we extract from the noise of society and the economy, not understanding it is the medium, like blood, that needs to circulate, not a store, like fat, that might be accumulated in modest amounts, but not to extremes. Though it seems basic lessons like this are not what our learned elders managed to impart, so we spiral into apparent oblivion.
My personal consolation being I could at least see through the charade.
Meanwhile the government, living on the equivalent of a national home loan for the last 40 years, is tearing itself to shreds, while in total denial about the situation.
My worry is that disaster capitalism/predatory lending will come home to roost and we will be one of those empires spending its final years as oligarchy, when those with the largest piles of bonds trade them for the keys to the kingdom.
Trump offers the “deplorables” hope; the left offers condemnation of their ancestors` achievements and legalized drugs to ease the pain of erasing their and their children’s future.
Breaking more glass – all Russiagate roads leading to Brennan, and virtually Brennan alone: https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/11/15/the_brennan_dossier_all_about_a_prime_mover_of_russiagate_121098.html?dg&fbclid=IwAR2nWs1o2AvYYLEAvwik0U7VVsEmvTOPQOfU4LIHuHa_d61veBnV4yyE_8I
May Brennan’s downfall be swift.
Trump offers swagger; Democrats offer groveling.
Long said if you turned the sound off during the 2016 RNC debates, you knew who was going to ultimately win just by observing the body language. Trump earned the center and held the center, as the RNC wing men slowly dropped away one by one.
Trump supporters also often said “Trump speaks for me” – but I would always counter what the heck is is he saying because he is word salad all over the place. They held firm, so I decided “Trump is gonna kick butt” was what he was really saying.
I came to believe this is what his early and tenacious supporters were immediately hearing. And eventually that is also what his new cheerleaders finally have come to appreciate. Swagger, long discredited as American arrogance, is getting a new lease on life – and we recently learned what the world was like when it was missing too.
With the caveat- you can always have too much of a good thing. The line between confrontational and combative is a very fine line. Don’t abuse it, Trump.
Warren is big government. Not the direction we need to go. End of discussion.
I have never heard her speak of her health-care policy. I will admit that usually I don’t concern myself about health-care issues. That makes me quite selfish, I guess. I learned early in life–when the healthcare I received in college on my full-ride scholarship was better than the one my parents had. I then determined to make sure I always had a good healthcare policy wherever I worked.
But the other thing I learned was to take care of my health all the time, by eating right, exercising, not drinking or taking drugs, and being careful.
And I made sure to check out the health care benefits whenever I decided to leave a place of employment to find another position.
I know there are people throughout this country who do not have the advantage of being employed in companies or organizations that do provide good health care. What I did learn, however, is that in the United States there are many places that provide healthcare to the poor and disadvantaged at little cost.
I have met people from Canada who’ve come to the U.S. specifically for health care because they don’t want to wait in their more socialized system to get the treatments they need. If they have money, they come and pay for it here. They do that especially if they have a problem that can’t wait until their name is at the top of the list for some particular treatment.
I did not take the highest program of healthcare that was offered me when I retired from teaching under my retirment organization. I settled on the medium policy–and sometimes I feel that I should have taken the lowest policy since I hardly use the one I have.
Taking care not to need to see the doctor is the best health care policy one could have. I learned that from my parents, who could not afford much in regard to health insurance.
Fred
“Trump offers the “deplorables” hope”.
We had Hope & Change not too long ago 🙂
I think the Deplorables need more than just hope. They need work that pays more than burger flipping.
Good speech. However….
He could make an attempt at beginning to right the ship by exposing the interference in a presidential election and an attempted coup from within his own department first.
Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words.
“Lately I vote Republican mostly because that party seems to honor our fine Constitution more than the Democrats do…”
I could stand to be corrected, but I believe the Republicans were the prime movers in both warrantless mass surveillance of ALL Americans and the unPatriot Act. Which are both the antithesis of the principles that gird our Constitution. Let’s also not forget the lies behind Iraq WMD and the Mushroom Cloud that they peddled. The propaganda that if you didn’t support the invasion of Iraq you were an Al Qaeda sympathizer was quite reminiscent of what Goebbels would have done.
I’m not saying the Democrats are any better. But let’s not be under any illusion that the Republicans honor the Constitution.
All
Some believe that Tulsi is a one issue candidate. Whatever one’s opinion on that, her signature issue is hugely important from a financial perspective and the cost to the US.
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/
The estimate that the Brown University researchers have come up with for the financial costs of our bipartisan regime change wars during the period FY2001-FY2020 is $6.4 trillion. Think of what those expenditures within the US would have accomplished??
In his 3 years in office, while Trump has thankfully not initiated any new wars, has he actually reduced any? Have DoD expenditures reduced?
Trump may very well be an empty suit.
As a retired SES and military, you must have had plenty of experience with the swamp empty suits.
Prefer them?
Bernie – never picked up a paycheck in the private sector.
Has THREE houses (one a lakefront on Lake Champlain) and is worth a couple of million dollars – years of public “service” pays off.
“Works”for Vermont….really???
What has he done for Vermont except to make it a (deserved) laughing stock?
As for the Vermont voters:
The state has been run for at least 30 years by left wing transplants and their spawn.
As for beating Trump, even America doesn’t have enough stupid voters to elect this America-hating ignoramus.
My apologies, b, I was referring the present Chinese population which does cover from pretty much the stone age to the modern era …as we speak. Ever been to the Kashgar Sunday market? I am well versed in Chinese history. No problems. I was just observing their present internal political challenge with their wide range of population experiences and expectations.
Ben Hunt is spot on.
https://www.epsilontheory.com/the-rake/
This is part and parcel of what you call systemic issues and neither party nor any of the current presidential candidates are willing to stake political capital to end this gravy train. But….as Ben Hunt believes this blatant wealth transfer will loom large and at some point an effective demagogue will show-up. Could be from the left or the right. In any case someone claiming to cut the Gordian Knot will show-up and the Constitutional precepts of the 18th century will be put aside.
What would you prosecute “Wall St.” for?
Trading mortgage backed tranches is still done there.
Trading credit swaps perfectly legal.
Rating agencies (not “Wall St”) guilty of incompetence, not law-breaking.
And, BTW, pretty hard to prosecute a “street.”
Need specific individuals doing specific and provable criminal acts.
Trump does get the expense side and his attempts to reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were greeted by the Democrat’s 2018 howls Trump is going to take away your Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That is why they rode to victory in 2018 and will use those same lines again in 2020.
Reform is exactly what these three budget suckers require, which means “something” will need to be taken away, so the Democrat howls were factually accurate. If disingenuous. Not fair to blame Trump for not paying attention to both sides the balance sheet. That fault lands squarely on the Democrats and the voters who want to give up nothing.
Personal feeling: all three need serious reform and taking away would be the best possible course, but also guaranteed to lose elections for anyone who tries. So then what do you have?
Political third rails destroy anyone who tries to touch them. That describes SS, Medicare and Medicaid – the political third rails. Ironic how unhealthy our perceptions are about our nation’s “health care”. Money means quality; quality does not mean quality.
Voters will have to bring about these “balance sheet” reforms; not just a president. Voters have to finally do the math and reject the Democrats siren call ..they’ll find the money and you can have whatever you want.
divadeb, ever consider the role government employee unions play in our endemic government corruption?
Why does Bernie demand all workers still must become unionized in his soon to unfold socialist paradise. Why should union bosses continue to harvest money off the top of worker paychecks when the New World Order spreads only truth, beauty and light.
When was society not stratified – civilization only came about after creating “elites” and the rest of us who found ourselves as lesser forms of worker bees from professionals, craftsmen, drones and layabouts. Nothing draconian; just the natural order of things since the beginning of time.
America is great because we have more mobility within this inherent structure than most other systems of government. Elites can and do become layabouts, and vice versa. I have no time to either envy or resent the “elites”. Because America still does open doors if/when you push hard enough.
Cortes—
I think that you are right.
The trips to war zones that Pete Buttigieg rarely talks about
2018 Congress election
The Daily 202: Ex-CIA officers running for Congress as Democrats
I agree completely.
Dear sir,
I regard the original-intent Constitution as my political ideal. However, although I have tried to persuade my fellows to take up this stance, almost everyone I talk to regards the Constitution as an outdated relic. I believe that America could be revitalized if some persuasive orator, some latter-day Chrysostom, could persuade ordinary young Americans to return to the old wisdom.
As Jack has written, the culture of America has changed greatly. White men are no longer the center of society. The 14th and 19th Amendments have greatly altered the nature of voting. The Federal Reserve has usurped the power of the Treasury. Society and culture are mired in degeneracy. In these degenerate times, where do we even begin to lead people back to the Constitution?
Colonel,
The economy is not booming. It’s far from it (GDP growth is not that great). Now, if you own stocks or stock mutual funds that mainly hold stocks from the large companies in Dow 30 or SP 500, you would feel that way. In reality, Trump tax cut benefits only large companies, they all used the money to buy back their shares and thus increase the values. No substantial investments were made by those companies. Furthermore, they also borrowed cheap money from the Fed and issued dividents using that leverage.
For small companies, not so much, we can look at the Russell 2000 performance this year for indicators for the smallcap stocks.
Low income people are struggling to make end meet. If Walmart ever needs to increase prices as the result of the trade war, that will open their eyes to see how disastrous Trump’s economic policy has been for the country as a whole.
Colonel, your description of Ambassador Yovanovitch as “a secular nun” is spot on. Congratulations !
On the other hand, why is a nun continuing a civil war with 1% predatory oligarchs and Bandera thugs on our side, versus 99% of un-armed local nobodies who want a return to normalcy?
Then again, since when does a Presidential emissary not only criticize him and the President of her host country, but also instruct local law enforcement on which oligarchs he may investigate and which oligarch’s (admittedly ours) he may not.
Lastly, note that Representative Stefanik caught Ambassador Marie in a lie about Hunter Biden and Burisma. Marie claimed under oath that she had never encountered the issue pre-arrival in the Ukraine, while she had admitted earlier that Obama staff coached her about Hunter / Burisma responses for her Senate Confirmation Hearings.
To take your cue, Ambassador Marie is a secular nun with very bad ideas, who wandered to a profession she is not at all suited.
Ah, the old “she claims she is part native American” stuff. Read she had her DNA analysed and said results show her to have native ancestry six or so generations back. I can believe it. I was amazed at joining the military in my teens from SD back in the mid 60’s, the number of people I met who claimed to be part native American. Probably true but so what. Well the people I knew who claimed it were proud of it as she probably is. Reminds me of all those who claim Pilgrim heritage which has to be back at least 12 generations. They are proud of it but again, so what. By the way, genealogists figure that up to 12% of the American population can trace their ancestry back to the Pilgrims (the wonders of exponential growth and time). Harvard by the way says she didn’t claim native American ancestry when she joined there. Another meme to bite the dust?
Perhaps Bloomberg shouldn’t be counted out so quickly. Although I wouldn’t vote for him I was impressed by his take-charge attitude at the presser during the then unfolding 2009 “Sullenberger” emergency landing in the Hudson. His three terms as mayor of NY city have given him a seasoned edge. He and Tulsi seem to be the only adults on the Dems side.
BrotherJoe
He is too old and he is Jewish. There is still a large hidden vote in the US that will not answer polls truthfully on issues like his, Mormonism, gayness, etc.
srw
You must be a lot younger than I. My five Mayflower ancestors are 9 generations back. Want me to name them? Warren claimed Indian ancestry on other papers over the course of her wondrous rise from primary school teacher to US Senator. Remember the false clsims that she was fired for being pregnant? I hope he gets the nomination. She will be easy meat.
confusedponderer
“telling an inconvenient witness that speaking ‘will have consequences’ I do not remember that he tweeted that. Quote us the whole tweet.
Srw,
Ah, the it’s not affirmative action fraud when a woman does it. What was the disparate impact on those denied the job at Harvard because they were considered separate but equal applicants?
Appears the axe dropped on Roger Stone Friday. He was found guilty on all counts in a trial stemming from the Mueller probe. Obstruction, witness tampering, and making false statements to the Congress. Stone was charged with providing false statements in the House Intelligence Committee regarding communications having to do with Wikileaks, obstructing a Congressional Investigation of Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election, and witness tampering.
Stone was released on his own recognizance until sentencing February 6, 2020. The judge imposed a gag order on Stone earlier in the year, and has not been released from it. Trump railed against the verdict minutes after it was announced.
President Trump’s exact words:
“So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come. Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?” he tweeted. “A double standard like never seen before in the history of our Country?”
IZ
“Raven” has been writing to me for ten or twelve years. He was drafted into the Army during the VN War and spent some time there apparently in a logistics job. He writes every couple of days to insult me “war hero” etc. I usually do not publish him but I thought his response to you was interesting.
Oh, one other thing regarding the [D.C.] Jury pool that convicted Stone, seems that 90.9% of them voted for Hillary.
longarch
“where do we even begin to lead people back to the Constitution?” Here. BTW You might want to mention to your interlocutors that without the constitution people like me will do with them whatever we please.
b
A lot of the people in intelligence work are left of center and ARE outraged by Trump. People come and go in the intelligence business. There are a lot of alumni. This is interesting but I don’t think you have made a convincing case for an attempted CIA takeover of the Congress
TonyL
Is it an article of faith that the economy is not booming? The numbers all seem to say that you are wrong.
Jack,
What do you mean? They’re all in it because they care about you and the country. Just ask them.
Trump seems to understand that he has a mandate from the people that he must fulfill if he wants to be a great president and being a great president is what his ego desires. He seems to understand that his supporters only back him as long as he is accomplishing what they want.
Too many other elected reps don’t get it. They screw around and enrich themselves (Like the Bidens and Clintons) and somehow they and their media pals fool the people into voting for them again and again despite the lack
of meaningful and tangible public achievements. That’s not what I’m talking about with “self-interest”. I mean knowing that you do what you say you’re going to do or you get promptly voted out.
The last thing we need is holly roller on a mission from God to guide the deplorable heathens type virtue crusaders in office.
EO,
Zelensky did not like her and suggested that she was involved with corrupt people and undermining the President. I don’t understand how Trump gets all of the blame for her being relieved of her position.
Educate you have and Educate you will till your six feet under.
Colonel, Larry,
Take a look at former DCI Petraeus latest involvement. Makes me wonder if Brennan and crew will be seeking these type passports to avoid prison.
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/money/news/london-ballroom-hosts-showcase-event-for-golden-passports/ar-BBWQzbr?li=BBr5Fap
All
I may have spoken too soon about Marie’s preferences. There is a photo of her participating in a Gay Pride parade in Kiev in 2018. You can find it on my FB page (Pat Lang)
There were many instances of fraud. Create a turd instrument designed to fail. Misrepresent its characteristics and sell to the public while shorting it yourself. Many violations of securities laws. There were also several cases of market manipulation as well as money laundering. To quote Obama AG Holder: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult to prosecute them,” Holder said. He said he was “inhibited” by the fact that a criminal charge could have a negative impact on the U.S. and possibly world economy.
If capitalism is so good, why didn’t that apply to all the Wall St “banks”? Why was socialism required to bail them out? Why did we get privatization of speculative profits and socialization of losses? I’m sure many working class Americans would love the same thing – speculate in financial instruments and keep the gains while passing on the losses to the neighbors.
Well he is a socialist, not a private sector guy. If everyone were a capitalist it would be a pretty ruthless world, doncha think?
Yes he made money in real estate – who hasn’t? And he wrote a book that garnered him a couple million – good for him , say I. In your mind this is a bad thing?
And if you want to know what he has done for Vermont take a walk around Burlington – it’s a walkable, livable city NOT an over-condoed mess like so many cities run of by and for developers.
And if you think Vermont is run by “left wing transplants and their spawn” you obviously have never been there.
Finally, in just about every poll, Sanders beats Trump, which the execrable Hillary Clinton demonstrably did not even before she lost with her incompetent 2016 campaign.
@factotum – everything you say about SSI, Medicare, and medicaid is more true about the military-industrial complex. Talk about a third rail.
The difference is that SSI, Medicare and medicaid actually benefit ALL citizens, unlike the MIC, which benefits a small well-connected oligarchy.
We can see which side you are on.
Well, yes, job preservation and makework are major components of government spending. This is true in all governments. But the corruption of the political side of the US government is systematic and really on a scale that doesn;t exist in other advanced economies. Maybe Brazil or Congo are as corrupt but they just don;t have the same number of dollars to siphon off.
That’s precisely the point. Mobility has declined as concentration has increased. We had great mobility as the share of income and wealth for the bottom 80% kept growing post Depression until the 70s/80s, when it started to reverse. While correlation is not causation, there are two strongly correlated trends. Growth in market concentration and growth in total credit market debt.
Jonathan Tepper’s well researched book shows in much detail industry after industry how we’ve seen incredible concentration in market power over the past 30 years. Take agriculture for example and look at the shrinkage in the number of companies in the market for seeds, fertilizer, other inputs and also the shrinkage in the number of companies in the processing end. Take that across every major industry group from media to hospital systems, you will see rising market power concentration. Competition is the heart of a market based system when that shrinks into cartels & monopoly then you get oligarchy and the growing symbiotic relationship between big business and big government with concentration of both market and political power. Its not that we don’t already have the laws to prevent such concentration. Robinson-Patman and other laws were enacted precisely to have competitive markets. So was the creation of the FTC. But with the revolving door we have the fox in charge of the hen house and that is one parable of our times.
Here is a video title on Real Clear Politics with the truly ironic quote:
Yovanovitch Opening Statement: I Was Victim Of “A Campaign Of Disinformation” Using “Unofficial Back Channels”
Well gosh, to me that sounds just like what’s happening to Trump. Plus, his friends, family and associates are constantly vilified, some even nearly bankrupted and imprisoned for stupid process crimes.
I always disliked Donald Trump. His pugnacity still bothers me at times but as The Resistance persists, so does my sympathy and appreciation grow for him and his pugnacity. Yes, believe it or not some people sympathize with what the POTUS has had to endure. As for Marie, I’m sorry but she can cry me a river.
I apologize to the Committee up front for not having time to read all the comments in this thread,so what i am about to write might have been covered above. I was particular struck by one common theme, or perceived theme, anyway, by me, in all three Foreign service witnesses’ testimony. To wit, the juxtaposition of their professed intimate knowledge of almost all things Ukrainian, v. their, collective, acute, lack of knowledge about the players and alleged actions of possible Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election. The lawyer in me says I would like to create a PPT highlighting the areas of testimony where they could NOT answer questions relating to the Ukraine. I think you would see a pattern. Namely, a lack of interest in certain subjects. It struck me as an odd blind spot.
ISL,
As far as I can see, based on her official page, Tulsi just supports the same Medicare for All that the other math and economics challenged lefties do. So not sure what you’re talking about.
As I keep saying she has Trump’s FP and Bernie’s domestic platform. That’s all there is to her as a politician.
She is alluring – seductive actually – as a woman, though.
Fred
Can you prove that Harvard hired her because of her minor native American ancestry?
Ah yes, “low income people” can barely make ends meet. Recent story about a university student complaining his monthly EBT card was running out after only a few weeks of buying $5 meal replacement drinks at Trader Joe’s. Less money for tattoos and cell phone plans – that is a real bummer too. But nothing like demanding to live in a high cost coastal California area and then complaining the rents are “unaffordable”.
Current taxpayer supported social safety net provides approximately $45,000 worth of goods and services for “low income people”. I recommend they also stay away from nearby Indian casinos so they hold on to more of their own discretionary cash. We provide free community college in this state to “low income people” with the sole purpose to upgrade their own support skills.
“Low income people” barely making ends meet does not automatically generate sympathy in today’s handout world. Careful budgeting and resourceful discipline garner respect- unsupported and continuing demands for even more “free stuff”, are falling on deaf ears.
Colonel,
I can guess. Met many. Tough guys all. Here is a good link. Best one is the last but one.
http://willieandjoe.tripod.com/remf.htm
Ishmael Zechariah
srw,
Sure, the non fake news Boston Globe reported she claimed that heritage three years after getting hired. Certainly no benefits to her or Harvard for a minority employee. So there, gotcha, it was after she was hired. Perhaps the records are actually public, rather than just news reporter verified.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/09/01/did-claiming-native-american-heritage-actually-help-elizabeth-warren-get-ahead-but-complicated/wUZZcrKKEOUv5Spnb7IO0K/story.html
BP,
How’s employment doing? Immigration still keeping wages low?
Factotum,
The establishment Republicans defeated by Trump were essentially dem-light. “They couldn’t even conserve the girls bathroom” as one wag put it. Just lable them racist or antisemitic and they would melt faster than a snowball on a Florida beach. That’s a tactic the left has used for decades now. It’s not working with Trump.
She has some bad habits, for a secular nun.
M-I-C is primarily a wealth transfer system that benefits the Democrat defense industry unions.
Spending money on a strong military presence benefits us all. I’ll pay to be the “world’s policeman” as well, since I can’t think of anyone else who could do the job for us.
Data to support the return value of our current US health care system, for dollars spent, is missing. Hence i do support we start data-mining US health care records, in order to determine best practices and continue to seek evidence-based medical practices.
That should help you see what side I am on too.
Who forces anyone to buy anything in a free market? Caveat emptor.
Woziak and Jobs built a computer on their own in their suburban garage.
Has James Comey applied for his New Zealand resident visa yet?
I am still trying to figure out why no one was asked specifically about the CROWDSTRIKE ‘favor”.
SSI only benefits a few citizens; it’s more-or-less a welfare program. Nothing like OADSI.
My one Pilgrim ancestor was 12 generations back and I’m 72 with my grandfather in that line born in 1864 during the Civil War. With 2010 the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrim’s landing, calculating the average age of new generations at 24 yrs; 400/24 should have 16 or 17 generations from the first Pilgrims to now (for what it’s worth).
A lot depends on male or female lineage. Winston Churchill’s mother was American and both of us trace an ancestry back to Arthur Howland who came on the 2nd ship to Plymouth. What is interesting is that he is my 9th cousin although he was born 74 yrs before me. How is that possible? His line back to Arthur Howland has 7 female and 2 male ancestors while mine is just the opposite, 2 female and 7 males. The fairer sex married a lot younger than the male back in those days and probably still do.
You assume all markets are free. How free is ag seed market or the hospital market? Or even the cable market in many suburbs? Or even the media. How many media companies where there in 1980? How many today?
There’s a difference between theory and reality.
And if all the posts and threads remain archived in an accessible way, the blog itself will continue to be here for people to turn to or return to; to re-read, re-think, re-self-educate.
If Bernie is highly intelligent, he will not allow Cortez or anyone else any sort of veto over who his VP pick would be.
And if he is VERY intelligent, he would make Gabbard his VP running mate IF she seriously WANTED to be his VP running mate. Because she would have to be willing to endure the same weaponised and incoming-from-many-directions hatred that the Clinton Mafia has already been directing against her.
BS/VP would have to make “declintaminating” the DemParty a very important part of what they would be running to do and achieve. They would have to understand that they would be running against the Jonestown Clinties and the Clintobama establishment just as hard as they would be running against President Trump and the Republican Party. And the Jonestown Clintobama leadership would display levels of hatred so far beyond what Mr. Trump could imagine that only a Brennan or a Clinton could even conceive of them.
I remember the Great Reagan Rescue of 1983. We were told that it would fix all the problems that Social Security was accused of having. It raised our FICA taxes ( including mine) to twice their level at the time. The selling point was that this money would all go into a special surplus which would then be paid back out to all of us Baby Boomers who had caused the problem by getting so many of us born and due to grow old at the same time.
The SocSec program has a big surplus now. It is supposed to be paid down to zero as the last Boomer collects his/her last check and then dies. Then the program is supposed to be back to pay–>go.
The several rounds of Upper Class Tax Cuts were designed on purpose to create such unpayable debt-deficit as to be able to use that debt-deficit to extort the cutting of Social Security as “unaffordable”. When in reality the program has remained internally stable and it is the General Budget Government which has been destabilized around it . . . in a sinister and cynical gambit to manufacture an excuse for cutting the Social Security I have been prep-paying double for ever since 1983.
The Upper Class Tax Cuts ( the BushObama and now the TrumpMnuchin) by future-embezzling my social security money to present-day give-it-away as free goodies ( my future social security money) to the Republicans’ upper class supporters now.
I am not expecting any free goodies from a Sanders-Gabbard Administration in the un!-likely event that there would even be one. I would just hope for a stop being put to the Republicans’ giving away of free goodies at my expense to their supporters which is currently ongoing and which is planned to culminate in the future-embezzlement of my pre-paid-double-for social security benefits.
Eric, Well, she also has taken positions that are not popular with the media because they are right, and that is a lot more backbone than I see elsewhere.
I saw a youtube video with her explaining that her plan will be similar to the Australian model. I guess its not on her website yet.
I also see that if we had not dumped 6 trillion into middle east wars that made us a lot less safe, we could have rebuilt US infrastructure, installed solar panels on every house, and a lot of other things that would make the US more competitive. Instead, we dump the gold (and blood) into the ME sand and threaten sanctions against other countries because we no longer are competitive.
I know where you stand on Health care, but I am just saying that if I didnt pay 6k/mo for my ten employees, I would hire another one or two for the marketing department.
That is why I have said I would like my New Deal back. Re Glass-and-Steagall the banks. Re-regulate the various stock-and-bond-market connected money/investment managers so that the black hat perpetrators are forced to abide by the same standards the the white hat doing-well good-doers would already like to do anyway. Re-PUHCAfy the electric utilities. And so forth.
Why would I vote for a Socialist to get back some New Deal? On the Moon and Green Cheese principal. Ask for the Moon, get some Green Cheese, maybe. Vote for the Socialist, get some New Deal back , maybe.
And no more Free Trade. Never. Ever.
The Obama Administration and especially it’s Department of Justice Prevention under Eric Holder functioned in a target-rich environment full of specific individuals doing specific and provable criminal acts.
The HolderBama Regime had One Job. Just One Job. Take the New Deal moment they were presented and kill it dead so no New Deal could ever return. Their job was to immunize and impunify all the financial perpetrators so they could keep their freedom and their looted money. And they did it very well.
That is why Obama may well end up collecting more gratitude-money than the Clintons did. That is why Eric Holder’s empty Law Firm chair was kept empty and pre-heated for all those years, just awaiting Holder’s return to it.
one example is not statistical. Plenty of studies now suggest US mobility is worse than Europe, and approaching Russia. Meanwhile the Fed printing 26 trilllion dollars (TRILLION) sounds pretty Soviet to me.
Why isnt Jamie Djmon in jail?
Pension-contributors and 401K holders had and have zero say in what their funds’s managers spend the incoming money on. They are not in any position to practice caveat emptor on what their funds’s mamagers buy with the money.
That’s why fraudulent instruments should be pre-prevented. The Clintobamas’ singular achievement was to make fraud legal again. Restoring the New Deal would involve making fraud illegal again, in practice as well as in law.
The fact that she could be TrumpTrolled so easily into taking that test indicates a psychological and emotional weakness and brittleness on her part.
As I recall, public education in the early part of U.S. history was handled by local citizens. The economy was such that an 8th grade education was about as much as a person needed. And if you look back at those 8th grade final tests, most of our current eighth grade students would not pass.
The slow rise of the education establishment and the education associations (teachers’ associations–unions really) have turned our public schools into indoctrination centers for whatever current political or social theory the people in “education” come up with–usually untested and stupid theories.
Parents no longer really have the time they need to keep track of what is going on in schools as far as “thought control” is concerned. (Hats of to
Pink Floyd).
And if teachers aren’t trying to do “thought control,” they certainly aren’t teaching logic.
What most large public schools in the burbs produce nowadays that they want to brag about are large numbers of athletic scholarship winners.
You are right about the Bushes, especially GW. I meant “lately” as the Obama administration really gave the finger, as they say, to the idea of following laws and the constitution.
Fred: to quote the Globe article
“In the most exhaustive review undertaken of Elizabeth Warren’s professional history, the Globe found clear evidence, in documents and interviews, that her claim to Native American ethnicity was never considered by the Harvard Law faculty, which voted resoundingly to hire her, or by those who hired her to four prior positions at other law schools. At every step of her remarkable rise in the legal profession, the people responsible for hiring her saw her as a white woman.”
That boy isn’t too smart. Someone needs to tell him that Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself weren’t convicted in a court of law. A minor matter of course.
I didn’t know they posted voting history along with jurors names. Learn something new every day!
“And if you think Vermont is run by “left wing transplants and their spawn” you obviously have never been there.”
I live there.
Pretty hard to rebut someone who derives “facts” from headlines in the woefully ignorant media.
SRW
It would appear that my ancesters lived longer than yours.
Colonel,
On the contrary, I would love to see our economy doing well. I monitor my retirement saving investments closely so that what I’ve been seeing. I own both largecap and smallcap mutual funds.
Here is an interesting analysis (last month) from David P Goldman (I strongly dislike his politics, but found his finance analysis superb).
“Earlier this week, ISM reported a plunge in its manufacturing index to the lowest level since 2009. With manufacturing in recession and services barely growing, the US economy is tipping towards recession”
“The combination of fiscal and monetary stimulus has supported growth in consumer spending. It also has buoyed stock prices, as large US companies borrow at low rates and pass the proceeds on to their shareholders in the form of equity buybacks and dividends. This is a fragile state of affairs.”
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/10/article/us-data-crashes-stock-market-threatens-trump/
srw,
The Globe presents statements, not evidence.
LOL!
yeah, but one scrape and the bacteria hides in some organ from the antibiotics, and then years later moves into the blood, and eating well and exercising, dont count for squat when bacteria decide you are better worm food. Modern antibiotics and the coffin stays empty, and thanks to insurance, the $30,000 for the hospital are water under the bridge.
Someone with a crappy Obamacare policy with 30% co pay and a 15k family deductible will postpone a few days hoping it gets better, and when the bacteria win there is a funeral. I have friends in the Bayou. Its a 4-5 hour drive to that free hospital and they aint got money for the hotel. Maybe America should evacuate to the cities and import food from Canada with money we print like seawater until y’all cant afford your own food?
I dont know ofs stats on how many the health insurance industry has killed by denying or delaying treatment. Or hospitals who pass them on to die in the ambulance since no insurance. Or who died at home because they couldn’t afford medical bankruptcy (USA # 1 cause) on the family. I do know US lifespan is decreasing.
Still it is not news to me that if you have money anything is possible.
A charming woman, Colonel, and I’m sure worthy of a five star General. But that was a heavy duty job, out in the Ukraine. Lots of bodies to bury and lots of strings to pull. Did someone else do all that, while she sat in the front office and demurely looked away?
And what was the grievous injury she was so clearly suffering from? Trump tweeted against her? That must be a fate shared by half the United States by now. And what was a senior career diplomat doing getting mixed up in the circus I saw?
I couldn’t make her out at all.
@factotum: you say “Spending money on a strong military presence benefits us all”
Oh no not I! Complete and utter codswallop. The liars who invaded Iraq on our dime for the benefit of who knows spent cumulatively $6 trillion on that corrupt and illegal effort. That’s about five years’ worth of personal income tax revenues. That’s the legacy of your kind of “thinking”. Taking our hard-earned treasure and setting it on fire in the desert for the benefit of someone not us.
A complete falsehood. Every working American can retire with a bit more security thanks to Social Security. It benefits ALL citizens who worked during their working careers and paid into it.
I can;t believe how much utter disinformation is believed by you wingers.
@different clue – yes. The amount of lies told about Social Security (It’s bankrupt” The fund is just paper! It’s an entitlement!) are widespread and propagated by people who want to eliminate any and all federal programs that benefit everyone in favor of programs that benefit a privileged few. And the Republicans are the worst tellers of these whoppers, unfortunately.
For the record, the Social Security fund is comprised entirely of Bonds issued by the US government. This is the textbook definition of a risk-free asset. Anyone who says otherwise is either an ignorant dupe or a malignant liar. If the USG were to renounce its obligations that would be the end of the financial system and the end of the USG.
Most likely the parade was organized by USAID funded local NGOs. It would actually make sense for her to be there in that regard.
JMH
Why would USAID fund such an event?
To hear these stuck up creatures praised for their resolute service in “dangerous hardship posts” is funny.
Except in the Benghazi Embassy (or outpost?) attack?
vig
Three out of four were CIA contractors running the export of Libyan arms to Syria. The ambassador was there for a social engagement.
CIA contractors running the export of Libyan arms to Syria
on the back of my mind surely, but too far from my tangible reality other then the (censured?) “red line vs the rat line”.
Re: the economy – I can take any wino off the street and make him look like a financial wizard, as long as he can continue to borrow and refinance.
Now watch the explosion of USG debt under Trump (and Obama). Note how fed rates remain near zero.
There’s your economy.
Because if Trump were to fire Adolf Eichmann, Eichmann would instantly be transmogrified from official Team D Folk Devil to
Resistance Hero.
Witness the apotheosis of John Bolton. Team D are thrilled to embrace the war criminal with open arms, as long as he gives them dirt on Trump.
As far as I am concerned, he was a criminal then, he is a criminal now.
At risk of repeating myself – the booming economy under Trump and Obama is largely the result of ballooning deficit spending combined with a Fed willing to lend at near-zero interest.
Our numerous stupid wars have done nothing to make us safer.
Quite the contrary.
I was off on counting my ancestors going back to the Pilgrim. Not counting myself, there were 10, 6 female and 4 male. Very close to your 9 ancestors.
I don’t think USAID would fund the event itself. I do think they fund NGOs that support LGBT issues under the banner of human rights, equality ect. Then they just join the cheering section when parade season comes along.
The why why is the conceit that our political battles at home need to replicated abroad.
She should stop staining her hair asap, to the risk of ending as bald. …
I deeply dislike this type of argument. Why does it matter?
Beyond possible danger for human health? Ok, I admittedly wondered about that too, concerning one specific case. But: could in-vitro tests on hair color tell us anything about long term danger to health? Some black dyes seemed not so healthy for minor forms of life, once upon a time. Put another way, could that danger have contributed to a significant degree longterm? Considering my specific case? Would be hard to prove. You feel it would be easy to construct a test design? Longterm? How many other factors to recognize?
What is on your mind otherwise? Something must have been in this context, other then the input.
A close friend of mine started to turn gray in his late thirties/early fourties, as his mother. My father started to turn gray in his early to mid 70s, slowly. Seems my brother and me follow that precident vs our sisters.
But yes, considering established beauty patterns, people seem to have a hard time to believe it. Especially the chattering ladies. No harm meant.
By the way. I wished I had been gray from my mid-fourties on when I was first confronted with the suspicion or argument, if you like. Would have saved troubles. Somehow you feel you have to explain. Why should anyone have to? No matter if artifically colored or not?
social engagement.
yes true, triggers a highly vague memory trail. Now that you put it this way.
Will reflect on this statement in connection with the event and its evualutory aftermath.
How does a discussion about reform of federal entitlements, in the interests of budget balancing, conflate immediately into a discussion about eliminating entitlement benefits?
Do all these straw dogs have their shots, because there is a lot of barking up the wrong trees.
Regarding Marie Yovanovitch, John Solomon on the day she appeared before the HPSCI suggested 15 questions that she should be asked:
“The 15 essential questions for Marie Yovanovitch”
By the way, Mr. Solomon has been doing some really excellent work, IMO, at his new website John Solomon Reports digging up facts about the U.S./Ukraine relation the MSM, not to mention the Dems, seem determined to ignore.
See especially:
“Debunking some of the Ukraine scandal myths about Biden and election interference”, 2019-10-31
my no doubt uninteressting impression was that the “offical” heigh horse of gender and humain rights started with the GWOT to go mainstream in the larger we vs them P.R. argument. Western Values vs the ‘unfreed’ tradition of the to-be-brought-up-to-Western-standards.
Thus, or put another way, it may have been part of the larger soft power angle of “national interest” to support at that point in time.
Re:2
That was a bunch of playacting by Reps. Nunes and Stefanik. The rules for the hearing were adopted two weeks ago and provided that the initial 45 minutes was restricted to two people for each party and the chair for Dems and the ranking member for the Republicans. Both Stefanik and Nunes knew this when they attempted to violate that and got gaveled down.
Bhttps://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schiff-refuse-gop-talk/
ISL,
Trump takes positions that are not popular; a lot more of them.
You’re going to pay the $6k/month regardless of the system. How’s paying $6k/month in taxes better than paying it to a private company? Actually, I know it is better to have the private company, but I know you will never believe me. Anyhow, re the $6k, that’s what healthcare costs on average, unless you want to severely ration care (50% of Australian healthcare costs are paid by private insurance). There is no free magic sparkle pony and there’s no Santa Claus to deliver it to you.
Inside Judicial Watch discusses Prim School Teacher Marie Yavonoich’s request the State Dept moniitor conservative journalists and set these out in a discoverable list with references for a “finished product” review.
Linked interview with the One America journalist who found himself on the top of the list: https://www.judicialwatch.org/videos/did-ambassador-to-ukraine-order-state-dept-to-monitor-journalists-trump-allies-inside-jw/?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=action+alert&utm_term=members&utm_content=20191121234941
What does one make of this from inside the system – is this routine or sinister Borg stuff?