American Politics

[MarquisdeSade1]

Jesus loved sinners. So the least I can do is love Democrats. And I do. All of them. Except for Elizabeth Warren and Paulie. Admittedly though I have a love-hate thing going with AOC. I want her to be the mother of my children, but otherwise can't stand her.



True, no one moves based on whether a state is blue or red. They move for reasons like taxes, crime, schools, job opportunities, and as Tooms correctly says, because of cost of living considerations, including the cost of housing.

That's why you see people leaving highly-taxed, high-crime, high-cost blue states and / or blue cities, like Baltimore, Maryland and San Francisco, California. Now yes, many are moving to blue cities within red states, like Austin. And blue cities do have some good schools, although they often miserably fail poor children, in large part because of the Democratic Party's subservience to the teachers' unions. But on the whole, Republicans do better at state and local governance.

I live in a red city in a red state. Trump won by 57 percentage points in the 2020 election. (Aside: I didn't vote for him.) There's no state income tax. We have good schools and good city services. Crime is low. The GDP per capita is the highest in the USA. And lots of people are moving here. Now is that because they want to move to a red city in a red state? No, of course not. But Republican governance is part of the reason this is a desirable place to live and work. Given that the area is more dependent than most on carbon fuels, the Democratic Party platform would decimate the regional economy.

And yes Tooms, you're absolutely correct. When people were allowed to work from home, some must have fled higher-taxed blue states, and now are being called back to the office. In some cases though, the companies they work for have migrated to red states where they're more welcome. Better job opportunities in business-friendly red states may be the #1 reason for the migration out of blue states. And yes, too much regulation and taxation, zoning restrictions, and burdensome taxation have driven up the cost of housing in California. Of course the fact that they're not making any more land close to beaches is a big reason too.

"Admittedly though I have a love-hate thing going with AOC. I want her to be the mother of my children, but otherwise can't stand her".

I love latina pussy more than most, but she's hideous, you almost made me vomit lololol.

Ok Ill admit she's not as bad as K Harris Hillary or Michelle O but cmon.

Keep comments like these to yourself LMAO.

Democrats attract the most vile "females".

True beauty skews RIGHT!

"Of course the fact that they're not making any more land close to beaches is a big reason too".

BTW ever drive north of LOS Angeles you can go all the way to Vancouver BC.

And there is a shitload of undeveloped ocean front property, sure the better beaches are south but I'm sure many wouldn't mind building there.

[MarquisdeSade1]

You're right. California does not appear in your list of Top Ten Worst States To Live And Work In.

With Indiana coming in at #7, here is the list in your link for The Top Ten Worst States To Live And Work In:

Notice a pattern there? I sure do. LOL.

I haven't heard Ron DeSantis crowing about his State making the Top Ten on your list yet. Maybe he is waiting for his horrific governance of that State to boost it to #1 before that first GOP Primary so-called potus Nomination debate so he can really impress the GOP base with the goal he hopes to achieve for the rest of America.

I was being sarcastic seeing how great you say it was lololol before all the white flight including you lolol.

What I was not too subtlety pointing out is, I don't even see that shithole in the top 10 let alone #1 LMAO.

[SubCmdr]

I still have to work "my fucking ass off," as you put it. I can't sit on a Caribbean beach all day and drink pina coladas.

I take it that you are still a wage slave. Emancipate yourself and become a capitalist like myself. The image that you project of life on a Caribbean Island are fantasies in your own mind. I wrote this from Colombia where I am here doing business. Working on my own business not working for someone else. I have to pay my taxes so that individuals living in the (Dis) United States of America can live on them. While I receive zero benefit other than consulate services on the occasional basis.

Good luck with the crypto. Cryptocurrencies are Ponzi schemes. Most people will end up losers. The big winners will be those who created the cryptocurrencies. I'd say the crypto exchanges too, but their owners, like Sam Bankman Fried and Changpeng Zhao, appear to be destined for jail cells.

I do not need luck!

The Ponzi schemes have been created by the Central Bankers around the world with the fiat currency system. It is going to come down around everyone heads. And unless they own hard currency of some type they are going be in bad shape when it happens. I actually am surprised to read something like that from someone I would consider fairly educated. If you understood the "Proof of work" system and that Bitcoin (BTC) was created and given away with no group of founders the profit from the creation of BTC then you would understand that there is BTC and everything else. LTC is strong a strong contender also.

My orange pill moment was when I need to send money to invest in Colombia and neither my bank nor Pay Pal would allow it. Those mother fuckers in the (Dis) United States of America were going to decide for me where I could invest my hard earned money. And I was not sitting on a beach making this investment decision. It was a Friday night about 7 PM and I was working the problem in my head. I explained what happened to me to my business partner and I was told to use BTC. WTF?

Use BTC for what? Was the question I had in my head. I was told they would accept it and change over to COP in order to make the transactions we needed to start up.

That was my Orange pill moment. All this time I was buying BTC like it was a stock, waiting for it go up. All of a sudden it became a medium of exchange for me. Another person was willing to accept BTC. I could send BTC directly to them. Without asking for permission from some corporate mother fucker in the (DIS) United States of America in order to use my own money. So I bought the BTC I needed for the investment at spot price. Sent it to my business partner. They had the BTC in less than 10 minutes (just 2 actually) and it cost me 97 cents USD. WTF? It was a that moment I realized I was done with the mother fuckers holding my money hostage in the fiat currency system. Deflating my money each year and turning it into nothing.

Anybody up in here got more than 250,000 USD in a bank in the (Dis) United States of America? Better hope the USDGOV makes you whole. You are only projected up to the level FDIC insurance in play. They are coming for your cash people. CBDCs. Grab the lube!

[CheckMate1]

Good luck with the crypto. Cryptocurrencies are Ponzi schemes. Most people will end up losers. The big winners will be those who created the cryptocurrencies. I'd say the crypto exchanges too, but their owners, like Sam Bankman Fried and Changpeng Zhao, appear to be destined for jail cells.

Not all cryptocurrencies are Ponzi schemes. Since it is a relative young technology, there will be a shit ton of bad actors within the industry. Similar to the dot com at the turn of the century. Most of this is driven by greed of "investors". At some point in the future, bad actors will be shaken out, and what's left will be useful technological advancements and innovations that will be beneficial to the masses. Until then, do be careful.

[CenTexCrash]

People talking about either US Dollar cratering or currency in popular monger destinations rallying (Mexican Peso, Philippine Peso, Brazilian Real, Euro).

https://www.fxstreet.com/news/usd-mx...0-202307141641

[Xpartan]

When the free market system isn't working, government should step in and fix it. And it isn't working for prescription drugs, and health care in general. As such I have no problem with price controls on or the government negotiating with the drug companies to assure we're not raped. Looking at the bigger picture, I favor a universal coverage system like Singapore, which allows for competition for most outpatient care while providing a backstop with insurance for major medical costs.

OK, that's good enough for me. I don't know about Singapore, but I'll be happy to read about it. Thank you.

Republicans don't appear inclined to try to fix the problem. Neither does your party.

What party is that? For the umpteenth time, I'm not a Democrat. I'm a left-leaning centrist. If there was a Centrist Party in America, I would be there in a heartbeat, alone with likeminded Democrats and Republicans.

It had its chance in 2009 to 2010 and 2021 to 2022, when Democrats controlled the House, Senate and Presidency. The best they could do was double down on a failed, high cost system with Obamacare, and control the price of insulin.

This is an absolutely unfair assumption, and you know that. In 2009 Obama was too busy fixing the economic catastrophe brought on by his predecessor. In 2021 Biden had no control of his own party.

Democrats never will fix the system, because they will not increase payroll contributions or otherwise fund healthcare with higher payments from the middle class. That would conflict with their fiction that just taxing the rich more will cure all the nation's ills. Well, the rich don't have enough money to pay for everyone's health care.

This is just pure nonsense. It's Republicans who weaponized Healthcare, and not the other way around. Dead panels, socialism, totalitarian tyranny. . . Shish!

Democrats at least tried. What did their opponents do? The went to war.

Infant and under 5 mortality in the USA is higher than Cuba. And life expectancy is comparable to or lower than Algeria, Sri Lanka, Albania and Costa Rica. Yet we spend much more as a % of GDP than any developed country in the world on health care and drugs. The system's not working.

Agreed. The question is whether Republicans will ever try to do anything about it. And the answer is nope. As long as their favorite donors are happy, they have no interest in changing the status quo.

[EihTooms]

Yes, I figured that.

I didn't read my link. I just looked at the table showing net migration in and out of various states. The National Association of Realtors isn't going to point out that higher taxes are one of the main reasons some people leave California. Or crime is the reason some black families leave Baltimore. They don't want to piss off Democrats.

The Fed's interest rate policy, which caused the 1981/1982 recession and high unemployment, was a response to high inflation which kicked off in the Carter administration. It's not reasonable to blame Reagan or Carter. OPEC, which increased oil prices several fold, was responsible.

So you were just guessing about taxes and the crime rate being among the top reasons people move from one state to another.

Ok.

Oh, and the Fed Funds Rates began trending downward fairly steadily as the inflation rate began trending downward fairly steadily month over month beginning in early 1980, almost a full year before Reagan took office.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-.../interest-rate

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/fed...al-funds-rate/

The fed funds rate began the decade at a target level of 14 percent in January 1980. By the time officials concluded a conference call on Dec. 5, 1980, they hiked the target range by 2 percentage points to 19-20 percent, its highest ever.

Rates began drifting downward sharply, falling first to a target range of 13-14 percent on Nov. 2, 1982, then down to 11.5-12 percent on July 20, 1982.

If inflation and / or rising Fed Funds Rates caused unemployment to skyrocket, surely that would have happened under Carter and especially all through 1980.

But it didn't.

Instead, the Unemployment Rate also steadily trended downward after a single month spike up to 7. 8% in July 1980 and then it steadily trended downward for the remainder of 1980 and on through most of 1981, Reagan's first year in office.

Reagan's whopping ten consecutive months of a 10%+ Unemployment Rate didn't even begin until late 1982, Reagan's third year in office. And BTW it happened in the midst of one announcement after another of a reduction in the rate of inflation along with a reduction in the Fed Funds Rate, generally regarded as good news for the economy and jobs creation, no?

Obviously, this was another wild coincidence of a mystical magical economic cycle that only punishes Repub economies along with one of those dreadful witch's curses on Repub economic policies.

[Tiny 12]

Don't get it twisted Mr. Tiny. I don't go for that red state, blue state bullshit. And I never did. It is just an attempt to refight the war over economics that the South lost. But now it is being done by means other than guns and bullets.

Although some members of the red party have a lot of hate in their hearts for certain people. You got guys quoting individuals saying: "It is your right as an American to hate anyone you want". Talk about appealing to base desires. Neither the donkey or the elephant has my interests in mind. Both parties are interested in keeping their cushy jobs. That's it!

I'm countin' down to the day deservin', fittin' for a king; I'm waitin' for the time when I can get to Arizona; Cause my money is spent for the goddamn rent; Neither party is mine, not the donkey or the elephant - Public Enemy, By the time I get to Arizona.

https://rockthebells.com/articles/pu...et-to-arizona/

All of this political bullshit is designed to distract the people from living in the country with the greatest wealth inequality on earth.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/imperia...h=1c8be7f42154

And by the way, I have made some good money on Cramer picks. You do your own due diligence, pays your money and takes your chances. This is one of the reasons I love the stock market and crypto markets. No one is able to tell me I am only 3/5 of a person and therefore I only get 3/5 of my profits. I'm getting mine now. And I worked my fucking ass off for the money I earned and then did without and saved to develop to capital to enter the markets. I was not born into privilege! My people built the wealth that others are sitting on in the (Dis) United States of America, and they are continuing to build on it today.

There is only one color. And that is the color of money.

I still have to work "my fucking ass off," as you put it. I can't sit on a Caribbean beach all day and drink pina coladas.

Good luck with the crypto. Cryptocurrencies are Ponzi schemes. Most people will end up losers. The big winners will be those who created the cryptocurrencies. I'd say the crypto exchanges too, but their owners, like Sam Bankman Fried and Changpeng Zhao, appear to be destined for jail cells.

[Tiny 12]

Didn't you miss another thing Congress could do something about? Something you, as a libertarian, might not like? Why drug prices are not out of control in Europe? Japan? Australia? And pretty much the rest of the world?

When the free market system isn't working, government should step in and fix it. And it isn't working for prescription drugs, and health care in general. As such I have no problem with price controls on or the government negotiating with the drug companies to assure we're not raped. Looking at the bigger picture, I favor a universal coverage system like Singapore, which allows for competition for most outpatient care while providing a backstop with insurance for major medical costs.

Republicans don't appear inclined to try to fix the problem. Neither does your party. It had its chance in 2009 to 2010 and 2021 to 2022, when Democrats controlled the House, Senate and Presidency. The best they could do was double down on a failed, high cost system with Obamacare, and control the price of insulin. Democrats never will fix the system, because they will not increase payroll contributions or otherwise fund healthcare with higher payments from the middle class. That would conflict with their fiction that just taxing the rich more will cure all the nation's ills. Well, the rich don't have enough money to pay for everyone's health care.

Infant and under 5 mortality in the USA is higher than Cuba. And life expectancy is comparable to or lower than Algeria, Sri Lanka, Albania and Costa Rica. Yet we spend much more as a % of GDP than any developed country in the world on health care and drugs. The system's not working.

[Tiny 12]

The JPY measure matters to me because it also matters to the Thai baht.

Yes, I figured that.

I have re-read your link for where people moved from and to. Several reasons are given for the moves. Repeatedly, cheaper and more affordable housing costs is cited.

But I did not read one word or mention about it being due to taxes or crime rates. Not one. Not even a passing mention of them.

I didn't read my link. I just looked at the table showing net migration in and out of various states. The National Association of Realtors isn't going to point out that higher taxes are one of the main reasons some people leave California. Or crime is the reason some black families leave Baltimore. They don't want to piss off Democrats.

I wasn't retired and living overseas during the Reagan years. I was too busy scrounging around for a decent job with decent pay during the Great Repub / Reagan Recession along with millions upon millions of other American while his 10%+ Unemployment Rate extended into a whopping ten consecutive months over his second and third year in office, ultimately resulting in his Jobs Creation record being dwarfed by that of the Dem POTUS immediately before his presidency by average gains per year as well as the Dem POTUS after his and his VP's presidency, 12 full years for those Repubs to try but fail to get it right, by every measure that matters.

The Fed's interest rate policy, which caused the 1981/1982 recession and high unemployment, was a response to high inflation which kicked off in the Carter administration. It's not reasonable to blame Reagan or Carter. OPEC, which increased oil prices several fold, was responsible.

[EihTooms]

If you're going to measure the strength of the dollar just against the JPY, the dollar was weakest in 2011 and 2012 during the Obama administration. The broader US Dollar index reached a record high during the Reagan administration. But that's coincidence. Like GDP growth, recessions, and the number of deaths of young Americans in foreign wars, the party of the President has little to do with forex rates.

Oh, then since you vaguely appear to be correcting me on my reply to Elvis' comment about the Dollar "tanking", please list all the important currencies of the world against which the Dollar IS currently tanking.

The JPY measure matters to me because it also matters to the Thai baht.

I wasn't retired and living overseas during the Reagan years. I was too busy scrounging around for a decent job with decent pay during the Great Repub / Reagan Recession along with millions upon millions of other American while his 10%+ Unemployment Rate extended into a whopping ten consecutive months over his second and third year in office, ultimately resulting in his Jobs Creation record being dwarfed by that of the Dem POTUS immediately before his presidency by average gains per year as well as the Dem POTUS after his and his VP's presidency, 12 full years for those Repubs to try but fail to get it right, by every measure that matters.

But I am delighted to hear expats and tourists in France might have gotten a better deal on French Fries and French Toast during the Reagan years.

[Xpartan]

As to the drug companies, I put the blame on the politicians more than the FDA. The big problem is that drug prices are out of control because of an absence of competition and too much patent protection. Congress should do something about that. And yes, the FDA and doctors, who prescribe more expensive drugs pushed by the drug companies, are at fault too.

Didn't you miss another thing Congress could do something about? Something you, as a libertarian, might not like? Why drug prices are not out of control in Europe? Japan? Australia? And pretty much the rest of the world?

[EihTooms]

Jesus loved sinners. So the least I can do is love Democrats. And I do. All of them. Except for Elizabeth Warren and Paulie. Admittedly though I have a love-hate thing going with AOC. I want her to be the mother of my children, but otherwise can't stand her.

I have re-read your link for where people moved from and to. Several reasons are given for the moves. Repeatedly, cheaper and more affordable housing costs is cited.

But I did not read one word or mention about it being due to taxes or crime rates. Not one. Not even a passing mention of them.

Unless you want to infer into the one mention of a "better neighborhood" along with repeated mentions of more affordable living spaces as code for "lower taxes and fewer per capita murders" or something.

Yes, I know, someday a Dem POTUS will trip up or get side tracked from his or her Economic and National Security Stewardship duties by some unpredictable event and a Great Recession, perhaps even along with Massive Job Losses will occur. And when it does, Repubs and stealth Pro Repub Bothsiders / Neithersiders will rejoice in their 100 years long prediction finally and at long last coming true rather than the exact polar opposite coming true over and over and over again.

But, ya' know, I submit such an occurrence would then fit the very definition of a "once in a hundred years disaster. " Hell, it might come down to a "once in a hundred and fifty years disaster" by the time such a thing comes around.

Which is a damn sight less often than what typically Pro Repub Mainstream Media has had to pawn off as one "once in a hundred years disaster" after another and another and another on virtually every Repub so-called potus' watch since the Repub Party began in order to maintain their desperate mission to convince a distracted and less data-oriented American electorate that Repubs handle the economy better than Dems. LOL.

The poor dears are simply victims of wild coincidences and a witch's curse. If not for that, MSM seems to be intent on convincing us, Repubs really really really would have produced and presided over better than a minimal net gain in jobs creation since the late 1920's instead of either a mathematically certain net loss or very, very close to one. Really.

[SubCmdr]

Don't get it twisted Mr. Tiny. I don't go for that red state, blue state bullshit. And I never did. It is just an attempt to refight the war over economics that the South lost. But now it is being done by means other than guns and bullets.

Although some members of the red party have a lot of hate in their hearts for certain people. You got guys quoting individuals saying: "It is your right as an American to hate anyone you want". Talk about appealing to base desires. Neither the donkey or the elephant has my interests in mind. Both parties are interested in keeping their cushy jobs. That's it!

I'm countin' down to the day deservin', fittin' for a king; I'm waitin' for the time when I can get to Arizona; Cause my money is spent for the goddamn rent; Neither party is mine, not the donkey or the elephant - Public Enemy, By the time I get to Arizona.

https://rockthebells.com/articles/pu...et-to-arizona/

All of this political bullshit is designed to distract the people from living in the country with the greatest wealth inequality on earth.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/imperia...h=1c8be7f42154

And by the way, I have made some good money on Cramer picks. You do your own due diligence, pays your money and takes your chances. This is one of the reasons I love the stock market and crypto markets. No one is able to tell me I am only 3/5 of a person and therefore I only get 3/5 of my profits. I'm getting mine now. And I worked my fucking ass off for the money I earned and then did without and saved to develop to capital to enter the markets. I was not born into privilege! My people built the wealth that others are sitting on in the (Dis) United States of America, and they are continuing to build on it today.

There is only one color. And that is the color of money.

Jesus loved sinners. So the least I can do is love Democrats. And I do. All of them. Except for Elizabeth Warren and Paulie. Admittedly though I have a love-hate thing going with AOC. I want her to be the mother of my children, but otherwise can't stand her.

[Tiny 12]

And on the USA Dollar tanking, well, no I have not seen it tanking in the sense that it has fallen significantly below the general 110 JPY to the Dollar that it has hovered around since the mid 1990's. Down from the earlier Bidenomics recovery level of 145 or so? Sure. But it has not been tanking as it did so steadily and deeply on GW Bush's watch and in the wake of his Great Repub Recession. Or even the slow but steady decline we saw under Trump:

If you're going to measure the strength of the dollar just against the JPY, the dollar was weakest in 2011 and 2012 during the Obama administration. The broader US Dollar index reached a record high during the Reagan administration. But that's coincidence. Like GDP growth, recessions, and the number of deaths of young Americans in foreign wars, the party of the President has little to do with forex rates.