Chump for President

[gwb72tii]

nobody believes you, lyin george

wow another great post

fyi i've never been either a dem or republican

growing up in the bay area i was certainly leaning left for my formative years

now i'm just a conservative that wants less government in my life

[Farbin Kaiber]

wow another great post

fyi i've never been either a dem or republican

growing up in the bay area i was certainly leaning left for my formative years

now i'm just a conservative that wants less government in my life

Interesting. I think people might give those of us a bit more credit if they had data like this.

So, I'll jump in as well.

Long, read it or don't...

I was raised in Southern California, 78 miles from the Mexico border. I went to school starting in the later 80's through to the turn of the century. I pushed my family to adopt the curbside recycling programs in 88-89 from the info my educators taught us. I remember writing letters to Chelsea Clinton in 1992-93 about wanting to help the world like she was. I was very liberally minded through Junior High and into High School. I pissed my father off by walking around quoting Michael Moore and was a big fan of Rodger & Me and The Big One. (Bowling For Columbine was the turning point) I thought the world owed us all a certain standard and expected level of comfort. I held a series of minimum wage jobs in a multitude of fields, mostly related to artistic activities. Needless to say, if you have read this far, I, like gwb above leaned very left.

I made some mistakes, maybe even a series of them, and my family told me it was time for me to figure it out on my own, gave me $40 and dropped me off at the Greyhound station.

Needless to say, I was dropped into the real world.

When I had to figure it out on my own, without a lifeline or a subsidy to make things easier, that lean started moving to the center. I will admit, the pendulum swung to the right and I learned some lessons from that side too.

Today, I consider myself a Liberitarian, a Classical Liberal, pretty much the type that wants everyone to leave me alone to make my own choices and decisions with regard to my actions and finances. I try to tell others "Socially Liberal (modern term) and Fiscally Conservative". I'm for same sex marriage, because it's not my relationship, I'm for gun rights, I'm for ending the drug war, I'm for free market relationships, I'm for not giving money we don't have away. I'm also for a big change in laws and their enforcement, but as it is, the laws do exist and we should follow them until the time when we elect representatives that will vote to bring laws more in line with the population.

We are all people, but we are running around defining one another as some portion of a personal opinion on how things are or they go. I think if we looked at each other through a bit more depth we could work to find some common ground.

Who else is willing to tell their background instead of shooting from the hip at anyone with a differing opinion.

[Wschnitz]

I made that statement before Farbin, that everyone here labels eachother immediately because of single issues. They don't care, they will continue to do it, IMO its the main tool politicians have.

Im just sick of this whole, "hes a Democrat therefor he lies, hes a republican therefor he lies" "But this repbulican/democrat I voted for is telling us the hard real truth".

There is an incredible lack of fact checking by the voting population, But because the media leans left, its being pointed out a lot more lately.

[gwb72tii]

Interesting post Farb. I wasn't dropped off at the bus station, I cut off my parents from paying for anything at age 22 because I felt I'd never grow up. Went to night school, took 12 years to graduate from college working full time/school part time. Met and married the love of my life and followed my dream. After a while you see so much waste, government in your life where it has no business being, you almost have to turn libeterian at some point. I'm tired of watching money go to waste in DC.

[mbonder]

I'm tired of watching money go to waste in DC.

I've heard this a fair bit from people with different political leanings. What wasteful spending are you tired of exactly?

I ask the question not to call anyone out or to put them on the spot, but to point out that this is a common line that doesn't actually have a real explanation or real thought behind it. So what shouldn't the government spend its money on exactly?

I think this would make for an interesting discussion. Because the conservatives might say Planned Parenthood or Food Stamps or other welfare-based programs, and the liberals might say the police force or oil subsidies, but the reality is that these programs only amount to microscopic portions of the budget each year.

So what "wasteful" spending should we be rid of?


For me, I'd say two things:

-Military
-Social Security

Military: We have the most advanced military in the world and outspend the next 10 countries combined every year. Why? Who knows beyond fighting over patches of sand that no one in America will ever go to. Strategic interests...the second some scientist develops cold fusion, all the big players in the world will leave the Middle East instantly.

Problem: Huge number of blue and white-collar jobs wrapped up in the military, hack away at the military budget and your economy goes poo poo.

Social Security: Fuck this bullshit Ponzi scheme. I'm young so the reality is that this shit will be bankrupt by the time I retire. I love my parents, but it irks me to no end that I pay for their retirement when many of them also have pensions and 401k accounts and yada yada. How is it that people are still capable of making $100k+ in retirement because of these benefits? Utter bullshit and the people that wanted a brighter future for their kids are sabotaging that brighter future in retirement.


That sounds somewhat Libertarian I think, so now I'm going to fuck it all up with this viewpoint:

Healthcare: It should either be completely privately funded (ok, this is libertarian) or completely federal funded (gasp, socialism). I'd actually prefer it to be a single payer system through the govt because at least they could tell the insurance and pharma companies to fuck off with their ridiculous pricing on everything. These scam artists are only out there to make a buck, if the govt were the only one dealing with them they'd have to bring pricing down because the govt simply wouldn't pay otherwise.

So take that as you like, label me what you will, but I'd rather talk about something interesting in this thread than name calling.

[z31maniac]

Military: We have the most advanced military in the world and outspend the next 10 countries combined every year. Why? Who knows beyond fighting over patches of sand that no one in America will ever go to. Strategic interests...the second some scientist develops cold fusion, all the big players in the world will leave the Middle East instantly.

Problem: Huge number of blue and white-collar jobs wrapped up in the military, hack away at the military budget and your economy goes poo poo.

Military is a huge one for me.

The last I saw, we spend more than the next 20 countries combined, 19 of which are our allies. And now drumpf wants to increase it even more? It's insane.

I also worked for a military contractor for about 3 years, the amount of waste in the administration is just insane.

Quick example:

I had to write a document, explaining to the Navy, that the sailors might hurt their hand if they close a cabinet door on it. Or they might cut themselves on a sharp edge.

And it took 4 revisions for them to accept. Tax payers literally spent thousands and thousands of dollars for me to write a document telling grown men if the close a door on their hand it might injure them.

No bullshit.

[Massive Lee]

Jon Stewart on the Colbert Report last night about the "media". They were hilarious

"...and they do anal" ;-)


"John, you are aware we're on CBS?"
"in my defense, they do anal... Did I get us canceled... "

https://youtu.be/cmdFne7LnuA

[BraveUlysses]

Social Security: Fuck this bullshit Ponzi scheme. I'm young so the reality is that this shit will be bankrupt by the time I retire. I love my parents, but it irks me to no end that I pay for their retirement when many of them also have pensions and 401k accounts and yada yada. How is it that people are still capable of making $100k+ in retirement because of these benefits? Utter bullshit and the people that wanted a brighter future for their kids are sabotaging that brighter future in retirement.

It's only going to be insolvent if we let the politicians make it insolvent.

Right now we're at a unique point where we have high numbers of retirees compared to workers, because of the glut of retired (and soon-to-retire) baby boomers.

If you don't like that people can have a 401k or pension and collect social security, we could change it to be means tested.

Elderly poverty is extremely bad and we don't want to be any higher than it already is.

[Massive Lee]

Canadian humor ;-)

https://www.facebook.com/22Minutes/videos/10154377331158339/

[marshallnoise]

Social Security, if not paid back, is theft. Changing the rules now would just reward a century of miscreant lawmaker behavior. There needs to be a line drawn in the sand where someone says, ok, you don't have to pay anymore and you won't get any benefits. The government will just have to run lean until such a time that all liabilities are off the books.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Jon Stewart on the Colbert Report last night about the "media". They were hilarious

"...and they do anal" ;-)


"John, you are aware we're on CBS?"
"in my defense, they do anal... Did I get us canceled... "


https://youtu.be/cmdFne7LnuA

Canadian humor ;-)

https://www.facebook.com/22Minutes/v...4377331158339/

We shift to actual conversation and all Lee can inject is opinions of comedians.

[gwb72tii]

social security can be fixed. it needs to be continually adjusted for lifespans.

all you utes are going to live longer than expected, so being able to get full benefits at 67 doesn't work.

expect normal retirement age to stretch out to 70 and later

and guess what, you pay into the system to get your money back later in life. it's not robbery.

[Wschnitz]

The fix was not robbing it every time they went broke.

[BraveUlysses]

social security can be fixed. it needs to be continually adjusted for lifespans.

all you utes are going to live longer than expected, so being able to get full benefits at 67 doesn't work.

expect normal retirement age to stretch out to 70 and later

and guess what, you pay into the system to get your money back later in life. it's not robbery.

Delaying the age of retirement is a reduction in benefits and it remains to be determined if life expediencies will continue to grow. The only reason we have a "problem" right now is that there are a lot of boomers--this will not be a problem forever and we will have a more normalized population distribution in the future.

Life expectancy will not continue to increase like it has in the past. We will continue to see diminishing gains as time goes on.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005148.html

The fix was not robbing it every time they went broke.

...what?

[mbonder]

social security can be fixed. it needs to be continually adjusted for lifespans.

all you utes are going to live longer than expected, so being able to get full benefits at 67 doesn't work.

expect normal retirement age to stretch out to 70 and later

and guess what, you pay into the system to get your money back later in life. it's not robbery.

The problem with continuing to push retirement age is that you are forcing younger people (who will ultimately be the ones paying the retirement benefits of those same old people) out of the workforce. So with fewer younger workers in full-time jobs, you have fewer people paying into the system. Making the retirement age older isn't really solving the problem.

I'm a private school teacher and we struggle with this each year because the salary of one veteran teacher can easily pay the salaries of two (if not three depending upon who you are replacing) younger teachers. With the recent economic issues (some poor investors are still recovering from 2008 because they overreacted when the market tanked), these teachers that would have retired already are simply staying in because they are on autopilot at this point and will make some great money doing it. No young people moving into the profession and therefore no new payers into the SS system.

I really don't know that there is a solution to the problem of Social Security. Why can't people be taught how to invest their money rather than relying on the government? There are bankrupt elderly because of the extraordinary cost of healthcare, plain and simple. It's not because these people relied solely on SS for retirement. My grandfather worked in coal mines and factories and my grandmother worked in factories their entire lives and somehow still had money in the bank at age 92. It wasn't until he needed to be in a nursing home because he couldn't walk anymore that the government stripped his last bit of money and he had nothing. How did he figure a way to retire at 65 and not be bankrupt? He certainly wasn't in some high paying job, he was just responsible.