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08-15-2015, 07:31 PM | #67 | |
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08-15-2015, 07:58 PM | #68 | |
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There is a fourth course of action: consider objectively whether one's enemy might at least to some extent be correct and/ or alter one's behavior. That may seem like "agreeing," but it's not. I don't think everything the terrorists say is "on point," but I am saying that any objective examination of their statements and their actions show clearly that they do have a point. And I'm saying that U.S. policy fails to recognize that; moreover, it treats their actions as though they were the first terrorists when history shows they absolutely were not, but even if they were, what U.S. did to Middle Eastern citizens must surely have looked not one bit different from terrorism -- apart from there being a nation state behind the bombings and assassinations -- to the people and families who suffered our mililtant actions in the 20th century. I offer that idea because it's not at all clear to me that U.S.' policy towards the citizens and nations of Middle Eastern countries has been fair to or good for anyone there except Israel's citizens. Even the U.S. DoD recognized as much in 1997 when it wrote that its own "historical data show a strong correlation between US involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States." A former U.S. President also stated "you only have to go to Lebanon, to Syria or to Jordan to witness first-hand the intense hatred among many people for the United States because we bombed and shelled and unmercifully killed totally innocent villagers -- women and children and farmers and housewives -- in those villages around Beirut. ... As a result of that ... we became kind of a Satan in the minds of those who are deeply resentful." It's nice to think that U.S. foreign policy re: Middle Eastern nations is righteous and right, but I don't think it is. U.S., as a government, has never attempted to consider foreign policy in that region, the region from which most anti-U.S. terrorists hail, from any perspective except the one that most favors Israel. And why? Quite frankly, I don't know of any reason other than the American political process has huge sums of Jewish money fueling it and specific, power politician's desire to get reelected more than anything else. That and the prevailing prejudice during most of the 20th century view of Arabs and Muslims as "sand n*ggers." The Cato Institute's director of defense policy studies wrote in his1998 essay "Protecting the Homeland: The Best Defense Is to Give No Offense:" U.S. global intervention has increased the threat of terrorism to levels that are unacceptable according to any reasonable calculus of American interests....To avoid catastrophic terrorist attacks on the American homeland in this new and dangerous strategic environment, the United States must abandon its policy of being a military nanny in every area of the world....If the United States adopted a less interventionist foreign policy, it would be much less of a target for acts of both minor and mass terror. Using similar logic, the nation's Founders, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, fashioned a foreign policy that kept us out of Europe's conflicts so that the European powers would have little cause to intervene in America.And really, one has to ask, what exactly is it that we have to gain by meddling in Middle Eastern politics? It's not as though Middle Eastern nations don't want to sell us the two things they have lots of -- oil and sand -- and it's not as though we can get by without their oil. I have often wondered why my country is stuck in the middle of their mess when all we really need to be with those nations is trading partners? It's certainly not about maintaining stable nations. Middle Eastern oil nations want stability in the region, stable nations and governments, as much as anybody. They just don't believe that "stability" means that what's best for Israel is what's best for everyone else there. All the best.
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08-15-2015, 08:12 PM | #69 | |
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Congress is not there to be the whipping boy when one's favored President is thwarted. The fact is that the debt and budget belong to the President because it's the President's administration that asks for the money from Congress and it's the President's administration that spends it. Congress cannot unilaterally submit and approve a budget. Of course, Congress has a role in all executive branch appropriations, and Congress members absolutely stick into the budget all sorts of spending that benefits their districts. I'm not saying they aren't in part to blame, but the fact is that in no recent President's administration has Congress simply said, "No, you can't have all that money. Here's what you get and you'll have to make do with it." That is something they could have said at any time, but they didn't, not Republican Congresses and not Democratic ones. Also, your comments address the "why" of the data presented. The "why" is what it is, but the fact remains that the spending is exactly what was shown in the chart. In this case, the spending that happened is the point, not why it was spent. All the best.
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08-15-2015, 08:17 PM | #70 | |
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2001 $5,770 $10,640 54% 9/11 attacks worsened the 2011 recession. Bush tax cuts further reduced revenue. 2000 $5,629 $10,357 54% 1999 $5,605 $9,712 58% 1998 $5,478 $9,147 60% 1997 $5,369 $8,692 62% 1996 $5,181 $8,159 64% So in the last 6 years of Clinton's run the debt went up less than 5 hundred billion. I never said he had a surplus but compare that to GWB's last 6 years where debt went up 4.5 trillion. So maybe it wasn't absolutely zero'd out each year but we are talking about very small amounts as compared to the last two potus'. For this country only going over budget 20 billion is remarkable.
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08-15-2015, 08:26 PM | #71 |
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08-15-2015, 08:28 PM | #72 | |
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08-15-2015, 09:04 PM | #73 | |
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08-15-2015, 09:18 PM | #74 |
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08-15-2015, 09:19 PM | #75 | |
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08-15-2015, 09:26 PM | #76 | |
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08-15-2015, 09:49 PM | #77 | |
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“When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans.”2) Yes. I can't actually recall ever voting for a President rather than against someone else's becoming President. All the best.
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Tony ![]() ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ '07, e92 335i, Sparkling Graphite, Coral Leather, Aluminum, 6-speed Last edited by tony20009; 08-15-2015 at 10:18 PM.. |
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08-15-2015, 11:15 PM | #78 |
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You can actually block a persons posts in a thread? So, when you read a thread the stuff people are talking about relating to that's person post would not make sense right? Or are you joking?
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08-15-2015, 11:15 PM | #79 | |
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08-16-2015, 12:03 AM | #80 | |
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08-16-2015, 01:00 AM | #82 |
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I actually hope he gets in, and puts the lazy entitlement community back to work.
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08-16-2015, 01:05 AM | #83 | ||
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08-16-2015, 01:59 AM | #84 | ||||||
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Now here's thing. For all the conservatives who are so quick to call just about anyone whom they don't like an idiot, the data in one study show that in at least one dimension -- cognitive reflection -- conservative Republicans are less adept than are both Democrats and Libertarians. (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...l.pone.0042366) What is cognitive reflection? Basically it's the ability and willingness to use reason over intuition, even when intuition seems to give a sound answer. Put another way, it's the greater predilection for logos over pathos. (The paper referenced above provides a scholarly and comprehensive explanation of what cognitive reflection entails.) Another researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Dr. Satoshi Kanazaw, studied why liberals are in general smarter than conservatives. His research, documented is here: http://personal.lse.ac.uk/kanazawa/pdfs/SPQ2010.pdf . Now I don't know anything objective about Mr. Trump's intelligence or that of other members here. I do know that disparagingly bandying about empty and unsubstantiated claims doesn't boost one's appearance of intelligence, neither is it a mark of intelligence. I don't mind that folks want to assert someone is stupid, but if one is of a mind to do so, then one must also present a cogent argument supporting that conclusion. Quote:
(Here are some other Rhodes Scholars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rhodes_Scholars . Well known among them are Rachel Maddow, Cory Booker, Susan Rice, George Stephanopoulos, David Vitter (U.S. Senator), Russ Feingold, David Kendall, David Souter, and Bobby Jindal.) For clarification, it was during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, that the U.S. Department of Defense issued a directive in February 1992 affecting the carrying of firearms on bases by military personnel. That directive (http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a272176.pdf) was eventually implemented through a regulation (http://www.apd.army.mil/jw2/xmldemo/r190_14/head.asp), 190-14 issued by the Department of the Army (not via executive order) in March 1993, just two months after President Clinton assumed office. Additionally, that change in regulations (which applied only to the Army, not other branches of the U.S. armed forces) did not ban the carrying of weapons by soldiers on Army bases; rather, it restricted the authorization to carry firearms to personnel engaged in law enforcement and security duties, and to personnel stationed at facilities where there was "a reasonable expectation that life or Army assets would be jeopardized if firearms were not carried." Steven Bucci, a military expert for The Heritage Foundation who served 28 years in the Army and retired in 2005 with the rank of colonel, also [said] that Clinton is not to blame. "I think you are barking up the wrong tree if you are looking to put blame on someone for disarming the military," said Bucci, when asked if Clinton was responsible. "I think that's kind of a bogus story." "We have never had our soldiers walking around with weapons all the time, other than in combat zones," he added, noting only Military Police have had that authority.Yes, it happened during Clinton's presidency, so he get the blame/credit for doing it in exactly the same way and for the same reasons Regan gets credit for freeing the American hostages from Iran. Quote:
All the best.
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08-16-2015, 02:25 AM | #85 | |
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Perhaps folks struggle with answering that question because it's a silly comparison to make because doing so is like trying to equate or compare apples and oranges. That said, any examination of the question must first consider what democracy and socialism are. Democracy is a political ideology whereas socialism is an economic system. Upon understanding what each of the two concepts are that one instantly realizes that the question asking "what is the difference between a socialist and a democrat?" is at at the worst inflammatory and at best a coy approach to entreating for a pointless debate. There is nothing that stops socialism from existing within a democracy. Accordingly, socialist theory and practice can be applied or espoused by members of either American political party, Republican or Democrat. There are socialist democracies and there is democratic socialism. There are also degrees of socialism and degrees of democracy. The flavor of extreme socialism, the authoritarian one that is, as Marx described, the socialism that may be a necessary step toward an ultimate goal of establishing a communist society, has little to nothing in common with democracy. Thus such a socialist also has little to nothing in common with a Democrat. All the best.
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08-16-2015, 10:48 AM | #86 | |
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![]() Her town and family was/is a mess She is corrupt She was only chosen to pander to the females....to try and get some of HC's votes She is mean spirited and stupid. Bad combo. Has to write her 3-4 talking points on her hand. She hunts animals from a helicopter And like most politicians, she's as phony as a $3 bill. I don't agree that BC was stupid. Weak and corrupt maybe, but the country did great during his terms. When he was president I hated him. Voted twice against him because I bought all the negativity the GOP was putting out there. However my business thrived under him and failed 5 years into the GWB term as we imported from Europe and up until 2004-5 the dollar was worth more than the euro. Then very quickly it went to being worth 30% less than the euro, driving my cogs through the roof and putting me out of biz. Haven't voted Republican since. I don't agree with everything BO does for sure, but for the last couple years my family has had good insurance at a great price (haven't had any for 10 years prior) and paid less taxes than I can ever remember, so I won't be complaining.
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08-16-2015, 03:38 PM | #87 |
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08-16-2015, 03:40 PM | #88 |
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He increased the value of his father's name. Built on his father's hard work. Marketed the Trump name pretty well, but not much else.
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