Politics

RobertDyck · 2018-09-02 19:03:19

SpaceNut wrote:

but we do have them now and the police almost never return what was taken when you know that it has them. ex automobiles....

What?! Seriously? When I was in my 20s and 30s, I drove a Firebird. Purchased new. It was taken for a joy-ride a couple times; each time I got it back. Vehicle insurance does cover both damage to the vehicle caused by that, and total loss of the vehicle. You pay a deductible for damage, but no deductible for total loss. Perhaps it's the fact the government-owned insurance company is liable ensures stolen vehicles are returned. At least when police can find it.

Not every province in Canada has a government owned insurance company. Ontario doesn't. Alberta doesn't. Don't know about others. But here in Manitoba, provincial legislation requires all private vehicles to be insured by the government owned insurance company. Commercial vehicles have private insurance. The government owned insurance company is arrogant and condescending, but when I was in Toronto I found private insurance cost at least 50% more. And the government owned insurance company in Manitoba has claim centres where you can take your vehicle. An insurance inspector will determine the damage and give you paperwork that you can take to any garage to get your vehicle repaired. The garage will send the bill directly to the insurance company. When I filed a claim in Toronto, the insurance company asked me to take my vehicle to a garage, an inspector would look at it there. I asked for a time, they didn't want to give me one. I told them I can't wait all day, and wouldn't leave my vehicle there unattended. I demanded an appointment time. They reluctantly gave me one, but the inspector did not show up on time. After waiting an hour after the appointment, I drove my vehicle to work. The inspector phoned 6 hours later to ask where I was. I told him he was late. He said he didn't feel he should be held to any appointment time, he would show up when he felt like it. So he came to my place of work, inspected my vehicle in the parking lot there. I didn't even know he was there. He got the odometer reading wrong, but his evaluation of damage was right. So which is worse? Government or private?

Bottom line: here in Manitoba, the insurance company has enough clout that any stolen vehicle identified will either be towed to the owner, or towed to a police impound where it will be photographed for court evidence, then the owner can pick it up. The real reason is the insurance company doesn't want to pay for replacing it.

Last edited by RobertDyck (2018-09-02 20:28:55)

SpaceNut · 2018-09-03 13:19:51

More constitutional rights and there erroding of them such that the Rich would have all the rights and the poor none.
Trump attacks union leader on Labor Day

Which is to lower the pay to the people and to put it back in the business owners....

SpaceNut · 2018-09-05 17:34:42

The turmoil in the Oval office is rising after the funeral eurlogies, the book and now an op ed piece being published. He is lashing out like a child at each of them. Discribed as 5 or 6 grader in knowledge of military decision making.....

Protecting the American republic isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state. Americans should heed Senator John McCain in his farewell letter and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.

5 storylines to watch in the unfolding saga of Donald Trump and Bob Woodward

The battle lines have been drawn. On one side, President Donald Trump and his allies and enablers. On the other, Bob Woodward, hundreds of hours of taped interviews and dozens of sources and a book that reads as a comprehensive indictment of Trump's first 19 months in office.

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration; I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Will all the he said she said in the books its no wonder all of those named are denying the content of the book and op ed article.

Pence denies discussing invoking 25th Amendment

The whispers are growing louder....

SpaceNut · 2018-09-06 20:45:07

Its not the first time that the President has been called unfit for the office but the recent releases of whats been going on has called into question why have they not releaved him via the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fif … nstitution

The question is said to be across the parties for what should be done.

Elizabeth Warren: Time to use 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office
Some will say that this just the democrats or just the tug of war between the fueding....

She states clearly that it's time to use constitutional powers to remove President Donald Trump office if top officials don't think he can do the job. New York Times piece where an anonymous official raises deep concerns about the President and contends there were some initial conversations to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office.

Trump eyes 'four or five' people who may be behind anonymous NYT article

"This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state," the author claimed. "It’s the work of the steady state."

SpaceNut · 2018-09-08 16:06:59

Seems like a slow news day when a man positioned behind President Trump during his rally in Montana on Thursday has become a viral sensation for his facial expressions while the president delivered remarks. A man wearing a plaid shirt at the rally at President Trump’s Montana rally Thursday. He was asked to leave by secret service for not being enthusiastic enough. 'Plaid Shirt Guy' Trolled Trump on Live TV By Making Very Animated facial expressions which ranged from bewilderment to skepticism. The man was removed in the middle of Trump’s speech, and another attendee took his place. But he was there long enough to generate a number of screencaps and GIFs.

http://www.time.com/5390792/plaid-shirt … ump-rally/

“Each time I see one of these rallies I see somebody behind Donald Trump clapping and cheering and being super enthusiastic and I’ve always wondered myself, are those people being really genuine?” he told Lemon. “So when I got back there I knew I was going to be really genuine and give my actual reaction to the things he said so when I disagreed with him, you could tell I disagreed but when I did agree with him I clapped as well.”
“All of those reactions were my actual reactions,” he said. “I would of made those faces if anyone were to say that to me. I was not trying to protest, those were just my actual, honest reactions.”

Saw several articles that went out to label this man and that just goes to show how childess the Trump following is, just like there mentor....

kbd512 · 2018-09-11 15:26:32

Josh,

As someone who works on statistical analysis / forecasting software that blends its output, I actually like seeing the results of the variant models before blending. The software uses a Bayesian-Markov model, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a tunable matrix solve. It weights more recent data more heavily than more distantly historical data, but it also has lots of buttons to push and dials to adjust. The software doesn't provide intermediate output and is a black box, making tuning exercises a bit of trial and error, even with some prior knowledge of how it works. That's not entirely true, but then you'd have to load it back into the database yourself or use another program (Excel) to graph it for review and I'm not that motivated unless I have to be. I'd like to know if the exact same data was fed into the various models used, along with any model parameter changes.

elderflower · 2018-09-12 02:55:12

The data is probably the same, based as it is on measurements from a limited array of instruments and alimited set of historical observations. Its the correction factors and weighting that is given to each by the models that lead to the different predictions.
I note that all the models predict that the Hurricane will carefully avoid Washington DC. We wouldn't want to upset the President now, would we?

GW Johnson · 2018-09-12 09:23:56

I'm originally a slide rule guy, and I don't understand all this data analysis stuff, except in the most fuzzy way. But I can see what the sense of multiple hurricane track predictions are, visually. Looks to me like Florence is going to hit somewhere in North Carolina, although it is big enough that multiple states are going to get slammed. Including Virginia and DC. Maybe the weather in DC will be bad enough to ground the Trumpster's helicopter.

All that being said, the sense of the polling here in Texas is that Cruz will more probably win than Beto. But nothing is certain. That's what the numbers say. And, there is the effect of people lying to the pollsters. Unfortunate, but quite the real effect. What the pundits say varies from outlet to outlet. Punditry is opinion-mongering, when you get down to it. That's OK, as long as you recognize it for what it is.

It would not hurt my feelings to see Texas turn purplish with a few blue wins. In sameness, there is no conflict and no refining of new ideas. That takes a diversity of ideas. And we could use some new ideas, refined by debate, to solve our persistent problems. Amplifying the same old ideas sure hasn't generated any real solutions.

Doesn't hurt my feelings who wins, because I do not believe party propaganda, from either side. I don't care what party they come from, if they bring a new idea to refine and try. One "new" idea would be to prioritize doing good for the public over party advantage; we haven't seen that in some decades now, although long ago it was more widespread.

I would like to see this country to get out of the perpetual-war-for-profit mode of running its empire. That kind of thinking has led us to commit war crimes. It (perpetual war for profit) actually dates back to the "gilded age", but started getting completely out of control during WW2. The war crimes started showing up in 1898, in the Philippines. A more recent egregious example was My Lai in Vietnam, and then Abu Graib in Iraq. Now we are killing more civilians than terrorists with armed drone strikes. I don't like my country committing war crimes, especially chronically.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2018-09-12 10:55:17)

kbd512 · 2018-09-12 12:05:09

GW,

What new ideas do you think O'Rourke has? Are they the same ideas that economically destroyed California? I couldn't help but notice that there's no mass exodus from Texas or other states to California, but we have more than a few people from California coming to Texas. Why do you suppose that is?

kbd512 · 2018-09-13 07:36:09

Terraformer,

If America banned propaganda, then virtually everyone in our media would be out of a job. So no, that'll never happen. How's a talking head supposed to make a dishonest living when they can't just make things up or use anonymous sources?

GW Johnson · 2018-09-13 10:26:37

Hi Kbd512:

Paper ballots with something like a Scantron is exactly what I had in mind. That works. We already know it works very well, and is largely tamper-proof.

I quite agree that real socialism has a track record of unredeemable failure by every society that has tried it.

I also think that label gets misapplied to things that are not real socialism. The democracies in Europe get tarred by that label, yet they do seem to work. Evidently, not real socialism.

One of the results of the American experiment has been defining the actual function of government. In effect, it exists to provide to people those things that private entities cannot, or will not, provide. It's less about either/or, and more about what works better. And that changes as time marches by, so what works at one time should not be set in stone forever.

I just think it's worth listening to ideas to improve this or that aspect of life. That's different from this or that system of government. I think medical care is one place where our minds should be open to alternative ideas. What works for the aforementioned Europeans might have lessons we can adapt over here. I dunno.

What I do know is that I am on Medicare. I had no choice, at 65 it is mandatory. I didn't like that. But, I must admit it really does work. The care is good, and the price is affordable. Medicare does the basics, I added an affordable supplement to cover what Medicare does not. It's a mix of government-supplied and private entity-supplied stuff. And it works.

From what I hear and read, the Australians use a similar mix of government and private medical care, they just do it for everybody. It seems to work for them. Maybe we ought to look at that idea.

Doing that for some necessary function is not the same as giving the government control of the means of production, the actual definition of socialism. The best way to raise a modern army in the modern world is a government military. Private armies are no longer practical.

But, I don't want the government running material production or farming. Means of production. THAT is what doesn't work.

OK, I'll let you know what we find about Beto. Saw him on Colbert last night, but it was not anywhere near enough to decide anything.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2018-09-13 10:30:54)

SpaceNut · 2018-09-13 16:45:28

The stories of names not on ballots, people not counting all the ballots, the registry list of valid voters not being intact comes to mind with the meandering of where you can vote, and none of these are with out some computer use for counting but the registry is one that could be hacked. The system for real identification as well can be hacked via a number of ways that will cause voting issues.

elderflower · 2018-09-14 04:16:00

Hear, hear, GW!
It has been the universal cry of Socialist extremists that any failures of Socialism that are pointed out are due to "not real Socialism". This is used to excuse more and more extreme versions which increasingly damage the people who are subjected to it, and to justify persecution of opponents. (not that persecution of opponents is confined to Socialism, though).
It has invariably failed and will continue to fail, however extreme its implementation, because we are not ants.

GW Johnson · 2018-09-14 10:57:33

You’ll note that I distinguished between how to address a specific issue or function, and a system of government. Many don’t, and misuse the socialist label when talking about things other than means of production. They lose credibility when they do that. Same thing happens on the other side with the fascist label.

I don’t like one-party rule. Without the two sides talking and hashing out how to really do something, what we get is party agenda foisted on us as public policy. That always leads to bad government, because party ideology is very flawed. ALL OF THEM!!! I didn’t like one-party rule in Texas under the Democrats in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and I don’t like it under the Republicans in recent decades.

Why? Look at other examples of one-party rule and where that led. Germany under the Nazis. Russia under the Bolsheviks, Italy under the Fascisti, China under the Maoists, Mexico under the PRI. Shall I go on? Or is that enough?

Party ideologies are belief systems, not real systems of facts. These extremize too easily to the point of out-prioritizing the actual truth. At that point, the ideology belief system will lead individuals into hurting those who disbelieve, just to further the spread and control of the ideology. Political ideology, religious ideology, makes no difference. The zeal does the harm, either way.

Extremized ideology as I have just described is a good operational definition of terrorism.

Which risk is why I despise ALL ideologies.

We get better government when neither party dominates, and when members of those parties will actually talk seriously with each other. Neither-dominating is one pressure toward talking to each other, although there are other pressures adversely impacting that. We have not had that balanced-power, work-together type of government in much more than 2 decades, and the bad government which results is really starting to show. Party line vote after party line vote is the telling symptom of really bad government.

You don’t want everybody to have exactly the same set of ideas for how to govern. In sameness, there is no conflict to resolve, and therefore no new ideas and no change. You want diversity of ideas to debate. Only that has proven healthy. Which is exactly why you want balanced party power.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2018-09-14 19:10:07)

SpaceNut · 2018-09-16 16:40:06

Have copied these last 7 or so posts to the south of the border topic as well. So that its in a more pertinent topic...

kbd512 · 2018-09-17 03:38:53

SpaceNut,

That "imaginary line in the sand" has been there for considerably longer than anyone alive today. Whether foreign nationals from Mexico, elsewhere, or even some of our fellow Americans choose to believe that our southern border is merely a suggestive line drawn on a map, it is in point of fact the southern border of the United States. Similarly, the "imaginary line in the sand" between Iraq and Iran may not mean much to you or I, but at least a couple million Iraqis and Iranians died fighting over it. Most of the people who live in Texas do demand that those who keep coming over that line go back and come through a port of entry, else they'd not continue to elect people who make enforcing it a priority. Nations have borders and the US is not so exceptional that one of the core concepts behind a nation-state doesn't apply to the US as well.

In what must come as a shock to you, my wife speaks Vietnamese in our home, she teaches some of it to our children, we eat Vietnamese food, I've attended plenty of Vietnamese weddings and funerals, and we were married in a Buddhist temple. American culture isn't about the food we eat, the language we share, or the various religious and cultural rituals we practice. It's about practicing the principles and ideals embodied in our Constitution. It's plainly obvious that we don't always live up to those lofty ideals, or that some who came before us also failed to live up to them, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. What is unmistakably obvious is that The Founders intended for us to live by some basic principles and laws intended to permeate our unique American culture, and that those laws were to be followed, else we would not be a nation of binding principles. There's a reason why our Constitution is referred to as "the supreme law of the land" and justices rule on the legality of all other laws based upon the principles embodied in our Constitution.

Having everyone speak the same language is about maintaining the ability to communicate with each other. It has nothing to do with any form of discrimination. It's not discriminatory that people in France speak French or that people in China speak Chinese. My ancestors were from Ireland and Germany. After they came here, they didn't demand that other Americans learn to speak Gaelic or German. They didn't identify themselves as hyphenated Americans, either. When I tell people who I am, I don't tell them an Irish-American or a German-American. I'm an American. I don't wave Irish or German flags about, either. All Americans are welcome to be as proud of their ethnicity and heritage as they wish, but they should remember what they are. As such, the only flags you'll see me wave are the American Flag and the Texas Flag.

As far as people who do choose to come here are concerned, they need to learn to accept our shared culture and our unique ways of doing things. When my wife and I first dated and she would see me do something she didn't agree with (like wearing my shoes in the house), she would often start her admonition with "... in my country...", at which point I would stop her and remind her that she's an American living in America and that "our country" is "her country". She doesn't do that anymore. It's finally sunk in. She's an American, not a Vietnamese-American or a Vietnamese woman living in America. She happens to be of Vietnamese descent, which is entirely irrelevant to being an American. That remains true, no matter where it is that you've come from.

I love the fact that we have people from all over the world living here. I wouldn't have it any other way. At the same time, everyone living here in America needs to be an invited guest or an American citizen. There can be no second class citizens in our shining city on a hill. That practice ended before I was born, and thank whatever deity you believe in for that. Our agency extends beyond any particular ethnicity, culture, or religion and that is why the rest of the world looks to us for leadership. The success or failure of our unique experiment with self governance rests with that agency, as that is what binds us together.

SpaceNut · 2018-09-17 19:24:23

Pictures are worth a thousand words but a counting sign says
BBNrDHR.img?h=640&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2851&y=532

‘I support higher taxes’: The billionaire behind the National Debt Clock has had it with Trump

When his father put up the National Debt Clock, total gross U.S. debt was just shy of $3 trillion — or about $12,000 a person. Today it is over $21 trillion, or about $65,000 a person. The result is that by the end of 2018, the nation will hit milestone: The federal government’s total debt owed to outsiders (known as “debt held by the public”) will exceed all debt that U.S. households have for mortgages, credit cards, cars, student loans and other personal loans for the first time in modern history, according to JPMorgan.

BBNrPWR.img?h=413&w=732&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

SpaceNut · 2018-09-17 19:29:09

So rather than slowing down the level of rising agency budgets the answer is to take away the means to survive....Trump adviser eyes entitlement cuts to plug budget gaps

kbd512 · 2018-09-18 04:52:08

SpaceNut,

You're not going to tax any country into prosperity. Former President Obama's administration's economic growth and jobs numbers proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. The entitlement program spending, recently increased by the Democrats with the Unaffordable Health Care Act / Obamacare, is unsustainable. The billionaire who created the national debt clock can give all of his money to our government and he can watch it squandered on these entitlement programs in less than a day. The IRS won't turn their noses up at donations. Promise. All talk is cheap. These billionaires who say they want more taxation can either put up their money or shut up.

SpaceNut · 2018-09-18 21:40:43

Here is one group of donators...
IRS to end amnesty for offshore tax cheats

Next will be those to afraid and hide there tax returns....

louis · 2018-09-22 16:37:02

It's an interesting question, to what extent you can base your "organised entity" (state, nation, government, whatever) on (a) a myth (b) a narrative (c) a factual basis.

Latin American nations in the past certainly have been only too happy to indulge in "liberty" myths, ignoring the important role of secessionary landowners.

Really, we need to look to ourselves as individuals...we tell stories to ourselves to motivate ourselves as individuals and to "keep it all together". We might not be confident about something, but we tell ourselves to be confident...We have a personal narrative about how we are basically a good, interesting and productive person...do others share our perception of ourselves? We tell ourselves we're a great parent, a great driver, a great worker... Often we find we have quite severe internal conflicts within ourselves...

You can't eliminate myth from a nation's founding and history. The Japanese like to think they came from some initial mating with the Sun God. The Chinese like to think they are the centre of activity on planet Earth. The Romans used to think they came from Troy...Israelis like to think they have some connection to Israel and Judah of 2500 years ago. Russians like to think they are the inheritors of the Byzantium Empire. Brits like to think they are loved all around the world! lol

Narrative, not money, is what makes the world go round in my view. Too much narrative like too much money is not a good thing but you need the story board if you are going to function as a nation. The USA basically has one of the best stories going...land of liberty...wide open spaces...where the poor and oppressed become rich and free...etc etc.

GW Johnson wrote:

Why is Spanish important in the US? Because about 40% of the territory now part of the lower 48 was formerly Mexico, until 1848, not so very long ago. Local culture and ways of doing things came from Mexico, not Anglo sources. They got mistreated while being absorbed, but they really are still there, propaganda from the white supremacists notwithstanding. Which means cross-border ties with related culture in modern Mexico is still quite strong.
I see the Texas State Board of Education is one issue or offender being discussed here. White supremacists and similar have been appointed to that board under one-party rule by right wingers for a long time now. Among other things, they have attempted time and again to rewrite the story of the Alamo and the Texas war for independence.
The main thing they want to suppress is the knowledge that many Texas heroes fighting for independence were of Hispanic origin, not Anglo. The war started initially to resist Santa Anna the recent dictator, not to secede from Mexico. It morphed into independence later. The flag that flew over the Alamo was a modified Mexican flag with the Eagle and Cactus replaced by the date 1824, referring to the Mexican constitution of that date, which Santa Anna overthrew.
In my time, we were actually taught some of these things in the public schools, because the far right had not yet risen to power and packed the state board with its minions. Again, I really DESPISE one-party rule!!! The first thing to fail is unbiased education, leading to a dumbing-down of the population (because stupid people are easier to subjugate). Same path Germany followed becoming Nazi. And the others I mentioned.
GW

SpaceNut · 2018-09-28 16:50:51

Have moved the comments to this new topic Kavanaugh Supreme court nomination

Created new topic from moved posts Emolument Clause

Have create the topic The state of US Education

More topics from this very large topic Status of DACA under Trump

Russian interference Mueller's Russian Election Investigation

Elections Election Meddling

Someday I will get around to the sexual assault

SpaceNut · 2018-10-08 18:57:33

We have not talked much about this but when it comes to where we are engage in combat or its cleanup of its hard not to wonder why we have rid the area of the issues.

Taliban vow to attack Afghan security forces during elections

The Taliban have kind of been a pain in the butt with regards to getting out of that nation....

Belter · 2018-10-11 20:23:30

Open borders is not a socialist policy. It is an American policy.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-12 21:48:25

State Department revokes, Hillary Clinton's security clearance at her request

Clinton's clearance was withdrawn on Aug. 30, according to a letter from the State Department to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which he released.
Five others associated with Clinton, including longtime aide Cheryl Mills, also had their clearances revoked on Sept. 20, according to the letter. The aides were known as "research assistants," which allowed them to keep their clearances after their time at the department concluded.
The move comes almost a year after Grassley asked the department to investigate and review whether Clinton's aides still had security clearance.

No more email security markings missing.....

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