The Venezuelan Socialist Diet
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Until we have term limits, nobody will be doing what is best for the country. We will continue to have short-sided, small-minded ideas that cost us twice as much money because all we do is repeal and replace every law either side puts in. The pettiness will only increase. As will the waste of tax payer dollars. We need to restructure the government to take away power from individuals. We may not have a tyrant, but we have gotten to a point where we are too top heavy as far as power goes. We allow 546 men and women to make decisions that effect 326 million people. And we pay them handsomely to do so. So they have no incentive to leave. Just an incentive to do whatever they can to stay in office. Its atrocious.
What we need is a truly unselfish leader to rise to the top and introduce term-limits and give states more power to instill laws that matter to each state. We should never decide another social issue at the federal level again. Let states vote and live how they like. Keep the military strong and keep states in check. That’s all we need the feds to do.
.0001% of the population makes decisions for 100% of the population. It just isn’t right.
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I have no problem with 0.0001% of the people making the decisions for the rest of us provided it is not the same group of people. We need to go back to the concept if the citizen legislator as envisioned by the founding fathers where individuals would take a few years off their regular jobs to serve the country and then go back to their original jobs. We do this as follows:
Term limits - 1 6-year term for senators and 3 2-year continuous terms for congressmen. Once an individual has completed his/her terms he/she cannot ever run again.
Congressmen are subject to all the same laws as the rest of the people. No exemptions.
Congressmen contribute to social security just like the rest of the people. No congressional retirement plan.
Congressmen are covered by the same insurance plans as the rest of the people. No congressional health plan…you would see how quickly the current program is fixed.
There you go, problem fixed…and then I woke up…
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So, my original assertion is that the system and process for electing representatives has been perverted to the point that it is a key contributor to dysfunction in our governing system.
I think you believe I have some agenda or political beef.
I don’t.
Since we seem to be on the topic…I will assert that it is possible to be a proponent for change and for fiscal conservatism, and not be a fan of Trump.
I will give you my opinion of Donald Trump – the human being, and the man who is in the most important position on the planet and represents me, as a citizen of this country and as the supposed leader of the free world:
Trump is autocratic, impetuous, infantile, petty, supercilious and narcissistic. His comments are reckless and often inaccurate. He is the antithesis of a leader.
He is a bad man even without considering his qualifications based on his life experience (which includes a broad spectrum of evidence from business management that leads to bankruptcies to imperiously walking into the dressing rooms of Miss Teen USA contestants as they are changing). His bravado and entitlement will inevitably lead to some decision that will either shame or harm this country.
Somehow, the system allowed a flawed individual into the most important position on the planet. It is the same system that allowed Nixon and Clinton into the same position and probably a few others who were also ill-fit for the role.
I do not believe this is about politics. I’m not talking about the Paris accord or any other titillating topic that the White House or Media want to occupy us with. Please don’t paint a political agenda around me.
If you believe the US electoral process is functioning swimmingly, please enlighten me with some evidence. My argument is that it is FUBAR.
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See that is the point. Everybody thinks the system is flawed when the election doesn’t go their way. That is the nature of it. As for Trump it was no different with Obama. Some actually believed the guy could walk on water while others thought he could do nothing right. It is politics.
For the sake of the conversation and the point you were making. How are you going to change the election process? Who gets to decide if this person or that person is worthy to run for president? To be honest that kind of talk scares me. I have no illusions that our election process has flaws. Yet it does give a voice to the people. Also the electoral college helps those people in fly over country have a voice. Take that away and California and New York get to decide who the president is every election. I’m not interested in that. Been to both places. Nice to visit have no desire to live there.
Hey you can hate Trump as much as you want, just don’t be surprised that some think he’s exactly what this country needs. You see what you view as presidential another might see just another politician. This is the problem I have with your views on the election process. Our country is $20 trillion dollars in debt, and a big chunk of this was done under Obama. However Obama is considered the most presidential president we’ve ever had. Just because someone can be presidential doesn’t mean they’ll be a good president.
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This wasn’t about a single election… But I’m not sure I can convince you of that despite my attempts to reference events during the last 60 years.
(BTW, the Senate was designed to give people in smaller, less populated states better representation. The electoral college was actually designed to ensure that a qualified candidate was elected due to the fear that a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power. The smallest states get an advantageous representation of electoral votes to population, but this is based on the number of votes in congress which are given 2 for senators and 1 for representatives. And the fact that most states have decided to use a ‘winner-takes-all’ approach to casting electoral votes is an advantage the most populated states. The Electoral College has one job and that is to take the power out of the hands of the populace. It is a feckless vestige of the founding fathers’ original plan.)
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Either way no matter it’s intentions it does give the American people in less populated areas a chance to hear their voices. Take it a way and Hillary is your president. Even though all she really won was New York and California.
No I hear what your posting. Just don’t see how you can make it work. I just don’t like a select few deciding who is presidential and who isn’t. I mean we have already have been getting that from the two party system we already have.
That’s why I like Trump so much. He pisses everybody off. Yet he does make sense. Take the Paris Accord back lash. Any other two bit Dem or Rep would just sign off. Yet the reality any body with a half a brain and cares for the US would wouldn’t purge the Americans into such a one sided deal.
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@JayHawkFanToo I agree with that. But that doesn’t solve the problem of the entire country being split on major social issues. Which, is a major cause of political tension we see right now.
I’m just saying that if you gave states more power, everyone would get more of a say in how they get to live their lives.
I 100% agree with term limits though.
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The federal government had gotten into too many areas that should be the domain of states. Most federal agencies cand be eliminated and the jobs moved to individual states where they belong.
The primary responsibility of the federal governments is in the Constitution’s Preamble which says the federal government was established (and the Constitution was adopted) to “form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
The job of the federal government as originally envisioned included foreign relations, national defense and security, individual liberty and order and justice to allow a civil society without anarchy; everything else is secondary.
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@DoubleDD Great post. I felt it very unusual that a US president (Obama) would actually have “anti-American” views, as you put it. Or maybe a better term would be anti-American-ism. As a nation, we seem to now like to go counter-grain, until we are way, way off course, and have gotten away from our founding ideals. What is the value in getting away from the very ideals that made America, and that defined Americans for generations? Were not perfect, by any means. But deconstructing is an entirely different notion than fine-tuning away our flaws.
I dont understand why Obama kept wanting to convey a tone of being an apologist for American ideals? What made him think he could speak for us like that?
It took the founding fathers’ building blocks about 170yrs to create a superpower, but all of a sudden some kook like Bernie thinks we need to change it all, making no distinction between good or bad, but of course highlighting only the things that need improving. A multimillionaire with 3 houses who suddenly cares about us, eventhough his “ideals” led him to honeymoon in the USSR back in the cold war era. So which part of him is the facade, and which is real?? Even Hilary said you simply cannot promise free-college and free everything. But of course the minions fell for it.
Wasnt there another generation that was all self-happy, peddling self-love, open love, communal love, drugs, peace, flowers, antiwar…? I’m not sure if their contribution to American grit is net-negative or net-positive. I do like the breaking down barriers and brotherhood aspects, if anything, but thats about it.
Keep putting out “alternative” and “countergrain” cultural ideas (to the basic ‘American’ founding ideals), and see how far you can dilute down the fabric of the country. That’s the peril of putting a thousand “change this too” ideas out there. Stated another way: the founding fathers started a whole nation with their ideas, and I’d hindsight “judge” that they were onto something…since it grew and prospered beyond any of their expectations. Other nations have NOT propered like this, oh, but lets wholesale change it, not fine tune its problems. Lets move the entire 3rd world to the US and Western Europe, since our hearts bleed soooo bad for all those sufferring people everywhere. Erase all the borders, right?
How would all the “change” proponents and progressives do if we let them start their own country? Umm, I’m betting on the founding fathers’ concepts, only because they are proven. And they seem to have beaten all the socialists, bolsheviks, monarchies, communists, fundamentalist states, and fascists that we’ve seen over the last few centuries.
Dare anyone to come up with anything better…“change”? Be very careful what you wish for. Dont know what you got til its gone.
The “decline” of America, by the way, refers to the people currently alive in it (who are responsible for its direction), NOT referring to its founding ideals. How could it.
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Trump? Hope he can make good and simply give us all a better deal. Fix some things, actually. And give our enemies the rawest deal possible. I think he can.
Dems? Current far-Left types simply need to stop being butthurt. Hilary cant throw in the towel. What and awful campaign. Go ahead and attack Trumps extended family, and see if those attempts make such Dems “look” better. Trying to take the low road to get to a higher place? Ha, what logic. And I had little issue with old school Dems of a generation or two ago, like JFK or even Carter.
Republicans? Trump is different than them, so some of them find it hard to venture out of their box. Well, the American public spoke. And note to the Dems: You cannot get any more electoral votes from winning CA even if you got 99% of all Calif votes, duh. What a pointless fact that Hilary won the popular vote–of course, but Calif and NY dont speak for every other state now, DO THEY? Find someone in the DemParty strategy committee who decided to have Hilary not set foot even in some key states. Was that a public “snub” by her, before votes got cast? Wow, talk about accidentally falling on yer own sword…what a lesson. And they spent 4x the $ the Repubs did. And they had all major media, except for 1 network. But lets find some way to blame the Russians. Because Russian Red Army barricades kept Hilary’s motorcade out of those key states all thru the campaign, ya…And the Red AirForce kept her plane from landing in those states, ya…
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Like all totalitarian dictatorships, when money runs out violence is used to keep the people down. A real tragedy what is happening there.
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@JayHawkFanToo This ought to be condemned worldwide, yet you barely hear a peep. The blockade against the truth about socialism continues.
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Venezuela, toilet paper, Bernie Sanders?
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@JayHawkFanToo So, you obviously think the Truth hurts?
backatcha!
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Bizarre choices of articles.
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mayjay said:
@JayHawkFanToo So, you obviously think the Truth hurts?
backatcha!In his hay day the truth would drop 25 points on you and hurt you really bad but now that he is retired he is pretty harmless. We are talking about Paul “the truth” Pierce, right?
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@KUSTEVE You haven’t updated this in a while… Recently introduced a Crypto Currency backed by an Oil Company that is $45B in debt. This supposedly reduces the worth of the Bolivar by 96%.
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I read where inflation is now 1 million percent…unheard of and unprecedented. Also, the government finally and officially admitted that the socialist economic model was a failure, something everybody has known for years.
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This is a 4 part series where a former USSR citizen asks people supporting socialism and communism to explain it: it’s pretty funny…
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The great lie of socialism is that the workers will suddenly have “power”( meet the new boss- same as the old boss). Read how “powerful” they are, as they line up to buy spoiled, rotten meat:
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Step 2: Crash all of the South American economies to create chaos, fear, and massive migration:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/argentina-crisis-peso-crashes-to-record-low-amid-imf-plea.html
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And then crash the entire world’s economy…
http://www.savannahnow.com/news/20180903/global-debt-soars-along-with-fears-of-crisis-ahead
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Nicaragua on the brink of collapse. Ortega has hired criminal gangs to shake people down, especially his opposition. Another socialist paradise on the brink of total anarchy:
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Apparently the U.S. talked about supporting a coup against Maudro. Not surprised. Needs to probably happen soon.
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Here’s a brilliant idea: when monetary inflation has hit a million percent, raise the minimum wage 60 times higher, and don’t allow businesses to raise prices. Socialist math = 40% of businesses closing down…
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@KUSTEVE I just read that the accused plotters of the drone attack on Maduro mysteriously fell out of an upper level window. Geez, conditions must be really getting bad there if the thugs in the secret police can’t afford helicopters like they used to in Latin America.
Edit: Oops, it was just one guy who threw himself out of the 10th floor bathroom window.
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@KUSTEVE The newly elected right-wing President of Brazil is showing that the dangers we face have nothing to do with political ideology. The danger, as it was with the near simultaneous growth of Communism and Naziism in the 20’s, is TOTALITARIANISM. Extremists, regardless of left or right, seek to destroy the rights of any opponents. This is a section from an article in The Nation:
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president-elect, who won Sunday’s second-round vote with a staggering 55 percent of the ballet, is an open fascist, a violent phobe of every decent thing. A misogynist who said he would rather see his son dead than accept him as gay, Bolsonaro is an agent of the world’s most reactionary tendencies, someone who joins fake-news-style social-media manipulation to old-fashioned death-squad repression. The makeup of Brazil’s congress looks grim as well, and the military will have his back—there’s little foreseeable break on what he can do. Markets are soaring. Global proud boys are dancing.
The mega-dozers are revving their engines, and the earth will be pushed to the limits, as Bolsonaro peeled off some of the landless vote by promising he’d remove prohibitions on colonizing the vast Amazon, even as his soy, lumber, mining, and cattle backers will lay waste to far larger swaths than any peasant ax could. “For Canadian business, a Bolsonaro presidency could open new investment opportunities,” the CBC reported last night shortly after the results were announced, “as he has pledged to slash environmental regulations in the Amazon rain forest and privatize some government-owned companies.” “Our Amazon is like a child with chickenpox, every dot you see is an indigenous reservation,” Bolsonaro has said, promising to do away with land set-asides for native peoples.
Brazil is one of the world’s largest economies, so it’s not hyperbole to say the election is a geopolitical Pittsburgh massacre. During the campaign, Bolsonaro’s supporters targeted his opponents for violent hate crimes, including carving a swastika into the skin of a 19-year-old woman carrying an LGBT flag. The crackdown on universities began even before his final victory. [EDIT by Mayjay: Over 20 universities were raided by military police, seeking teachers’ materials about fascism.] Just a week ago, Brazil’s new president-elect pledged that upon winning he would carry out “a cleansing never before seen in the history of Brazil.” Last year, he said he’d “give carte blanche for the police to kill.” Election day wasn’t even over when São Paulo’s new governor said he’d pay for the “best lawyers” to defend police who execute criminals. The targets will be, overwhelmingly, poor urban black boys and men, along with rural land and environmental activists.
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This was a truly awful result. Humanity as a whole was worse for it. I know people in Brazil and I am genuinely concerned for them. It was already hard enough for LGBT there…
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Also worth noting that Lula da Silva was going to win, and was thrown in jail on bullshit charges, put in solitary confinement and no one has access to even talk to him.
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@mayjay You’re falling for the rhetoric. They are trying to justify the onslaught of violence they will wreak across Brazil to battle such a “monster”. They need cover to justify all the terrible acts they plan on committing against the “tyrant”. Once they begin the terror, the “tyrant” will strike back with some pretty crummy solutions. This is all planned, all choreographed, and the same actors running Brazil are running the same game in the US. This is all a scam…Trump and Bolo are in on it, too. Their job is to piss off the left, which causes them to react, which causes the right to react. Trump will be president when they crash the stock market. When that happens, it will be easy to start the civil war. I have no doubt civil war is the goal. And there will be civil war all across the world, as the formula is repeated again and again. This is " Death Of A Nation State" 101.
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This post is deleted!
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Nazis in training:
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FWIW. here’s the KC gov site’s explanation of the events http://kcmo.gov/health/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/11/FreeHotSoupandSafeFoodHandlingFAQs.pdf
