[QUOTE]Americans have long had a fascination with the extremely wealthy. All too often, a high net worth is seen as a proxy for intelligence, success and even virtue. Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign was built in no small part on his supposed achievements as a real estate magnate and business leader, along with his billionaire status[/QUOTE]
And this is pretty much everything that is wrong with America. Plenty of other countries have tabloid culture and all that, but the American Dream mentality compounds it by convincing people from birth that achieving wealth is more important than anything else, including improving society as a whole. Even the mere act of receiving help is stigmatized as weakness, hence the mass hysteria against anything that remotely resembles "socialism". [/QUOTE]
I don't agree, I think there is NOT ENOUGH hysteria about socialism. It makes me very sad that more and more Americans are saying PROUDLY that they are socialists. There is only one possible result of socialism - millions of dead people. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
But maybe these people SHOULD try to live in a socialist country - and I mean a REAL socialist country, not a capitalist country with a strong social system, maybe living every day in fear that one of your neighbors or even your family members is a secret agent and will report you to the officials, or maybe the freedom to chose if you want to eat once or twice a day, or the freedom to chose if the day in the month that you can eat meat (unless you know the correct people, in that case you could have meat one day each week), or maybe not having not only their iphones and ipads, but things like toilet paper most of the year, maybe this would cure these people from socialist tendencies? But maybe they would be happy that everybody is equally poor (except for the politicians of course).
Jeremy · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b] That's not my point. My point is that this dumbass threatens to basically start a nuclear war, but people care more about some stupid shit he said in a private conversation a decade ago.[/QUOTE]
He's not a dumbass, he's the President of the United States and he's already accomplished so many things that any president would be proud to take credit for, for the rest of their lives.
That said, I agree with you about the libs focusing on "hurt muh fees fees...gotta virtue signal" stuff. What was the deal with Whoopi? "I'm tired of people starting a conversation with 'Mexicans are liars and rapists'". He never said that.
Where are people getting all of these fake quotes? It's fine not to like him for whatever policy he wants that you don't like, that's politics, but don't put words in the man's mouth.
"The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented." - President Trump
I'm glad this thread is still going.
Saint Jiub · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]Haemophilia Love wrote:[/b]
The so-called alternative to soak and tax the rich is not any better.[/QUOTE]
You're right. Because you can't take something away from anyone once they have it.
Once you lower that corporate tax rate, it's there for good. If you raise it again, that money will end up in Swiss bank accounts.
[/QUOTE]
"At the heart of the deal are some of the biggest tax changes in years, including an increase in tax rates for couples with incomes over $450,000, to 39.6%. For those same households, capital-gains and dividend taxes would increase to 20%, from 15%. Estate taxes would increase from 35% to 40%."
Saint Jiub · Member since
I am not so concerned about nuclear war ... I am more concerned with world trade wars. "ANALYSTS SAY THEY’RE BECOMING MORE CONVINCED THAT TRUMP’S MULTI-FRONT TRADE FIGHTS AREN’T MERELY A SHORT-TERM NEGOTIATING PLOY. "
Trump is not a "dumbass". However, his "my way or the highway" twitter crap is very misguided in my opinion. I do not think it is a good idea to alienate the whole world, when China is the primary enemy of "free trade".
Fortunately, some Republicans are finally standing up against Trump. Hopefully Trump can be effectively counteracted before the world falls off a financial cliff.
"Analysts say they’re becoming more convinced that Trump’s multi-front trade fights aren’t merely a short-term negotiating ploy. Rather, he may be prepared to wait as long as he feels it necessary to force other countries to adopt trade rules more favorable to the United States.
“People are underestimating what we’re headed for,” said Rod Hunter, a lawyer who served as a White House economic adviser under President George W. Bush. “He’s been saying since the ’80s that trade deals are bad and we should have more tariffs, and that’s what we’re getting.”
Moody’s Analytics estimates that if the tariffs were imposed on autos and most Chinese imports and other countries retaliate as expected, annual U.S. growth would slow by 0.5 percentage point by mid-2019. It expects that 700,000 jobs would be lost.
Global markets have remained generally calm despite the eruption of a full-blown U.S.-China trade war and the other conflicts Trump has ignited. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial closed down slightly.
“I’ve been surprised that up until now, markets seem overly sanguine about the risks” of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, said David Dollar, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former official at the World Bank and U.S. Treasury Department.
Investors as a whole appear to accept the argument of Trump economic advisers, notably Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett, that the president’s threats will likely force China, the European Union, Canada, and Mexico to eventually negotiate better trade deals.
But many analysts are skeptical that Trump’s tactics will produce such an outcome. Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and formerly deputy director general of the World Trade Organization, said Trump appears to think that America’s trading partners will yield to pressure without securing any concessions in return.
“That isn’t how trade negotiations work,” Yerxa said.
China will likely retaliate if additional tariffs are imposed, economists note, rather than simply knuckle under. President Xi Jingping “cannot lose face with his own people by giving in to the United States,” Dollar said."
Saint Jiub · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE]Americans have long had a fascination with the extremely wealthy. All too often, a high net worth is seen as a proxy for intelligence, success and even virtue. Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign was built in no small part on his supposed achievements as a real estate magnate and business leader, along with his billionaire status[/QUOTE]
And this is pretty much everything that is wrong with America. Plenty of other countries have tabloid culture and all that, but the American Dream mentality compounds it by convincing people from birth that achieving wealth is more important than anything else, including improving society as a whole. Even the mere act of receiving help is stigmatized as weakness, hence the mass hysteria against anything that remotely resembles "socialism". [/QUOTE]
I don't agree, I think there is NOT ENOUGH hysteria about socialism. It makes me very sad that more and more Americans are saying PROUDLY that they are socialists. There is only one possible result of socialism - millions of dead people. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
But maybe these people SHOULD try to live in a socialist country - and I mean a REAL socialist country, not a capitalist country with a strong social system, maybe living every day in fear that one of your neighbors or even your family members is a secret agent and will report you to the officials, or maybe the freedom to chose if you want to eat once or twice a day, or the freedom to chose if the day in the month that you can eat meat (unless you know the correct people, in that case you could have meat one day each week), or maybe not having not only their iphones and ipads, but things like toilet paper most of the year, maybe this would cure these people from socialist tendencies? But maybe they would be happy that everybody is equally poor (except for the politicians of course).[/QUOTE]
Pittrek -
Thank you for your involvement in this Trump topic. I believe that you have the respect of most users of Queenzone, whereas I am just a lunatic troll that enjoys making fun of ultra-liberals.
pittrek · Member since
I am very sorry I got a bit more heated than usually, but as a person who lived his childhood in a socialistic "paradise" I belong to people who are 100% against communism or socialism. It's so frustrating that young people repeat the same mistakes which were done by the previous generations.
I am also sorry if somebody took my anti-Trump "dumbass" comment personally, no, I wasn't insulting him because he is the president of the USA. I was insulting him, because he is a HORRIBLE diplomat and tactician, which are two of the most important trades every politicians needs to have. OK, he has good economic results, fine, I am seriously happy for you. But every single time he says something, he manages to insult somebody, make fun of somebody, or other people have to explain what he meant with it. He is very impulsive, he seems to believe that he is the only person on the planet who is correct and everybody else is wrong. He seems to see himself as a kind of a saviour. He has a lot to learn but he's not willing to, he doesn't seem to think that he NEEDS to. And the "best" thing is that I have no doubt that he will win the 2020 elections. And the media is helping him.
Saint Jiub · Member since
The comments about toilet paper remind of some lines from the movie "Moscow on the Hudson"
"I have something for you.
You certainly know how to get to a girl's heart.
It's for your soft, rosy bottom, not your heart."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H5MS8vjoqw
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]
No, if you're talking about the Charlottsville attack, he didn't say that. He said that there were good people on both sides and there were bad people on both sides.[/QUOTE]
To say there are "good people" amongst Nazis, and to see them as equal opposites to "bad people" on the side fighting against Nazis - it's just unfathomable. And it essentially begins the process of normalizing Nazi ideology. They were tickled pink to have such approval from a sitting president.
Yes, Trump spoke out against Nazis white supremacists the day after that, only because he was under political pressure to. He followed a script. But literally the next day after that he was off script again, giving the Nazis a free pass again. That's the part the right wing media didn't cover.
But everyone heard the "both sides" story. And the fact that half of America has no problem with this is terrifying. They are absolutely fine with the fact that their president characterizes the people fighting Nazis as "the left". Once upon a time people who fought against Nazis were called "Americans". Now it's only half of them.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]
But maybe these people SHOULD try to live in a socialist country - and I mean a REAL socialist country, not a capitalist country with a strong social system[/QUOTE]
You're right in pointing out the difference. But the problem is - at least half of Americans don't know the difference. There is a substantial portion of Americans who do not agree with the idea of universal health care, many of whom even believe poor people deserve to die if they can't afford health insurance (politicians have even been on the record saying that).
In (especially rural) America, the idea of having a social safety net to help make society a better place for everyone is rejected because they think it's "socialism". Fox news has equated it with the worst socialist dictatorships of times past, and the people drink the kool aid. They don't know the difference between "socialism" and "social democracy". One is Venezuela, and the other is Denmark. It's a matter of basic education, and it isn't there. Most Americans can't even point out Denmark on a map.
The US absolutely is not a "capitalist country with a strong social system". There is virtually no public sector, and there is little interest in helping it grow. Most Americans see their money as their own business and the well-being of society as irrelevant, even if it will help them, because they don't even recognize the very idea of society - they just see everyone as individuals responsible for themselves and nobody else.
Bernie Sanders was branded as a socialist in the last election campaign for wanting to improve the social safety net to catch up to the rest of the civilized world. But from a European standpoint, his ideas were not revolutionary or radical - they were centre-right. But in American politics, the idea of government helping the average working person is so far left wing from what they're used to. And since the US is mostly poorly educated on world affairs, they ate up all the propaganda (largely thanks to Cambridge Analytica who were funded by the Republican party), and Democrats chose Hillary Clinton over him.
The US is just so fucked, and there isn't enough time in a day to illustrate how and why.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Saint Jiub wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]Haemophilia Love wrote:[/b]
The so-called alternative to soak and tax the rich is not any better.[/QUOTE]
You're right. Because you can't take something away from anyone once they have it.
Once you lower that corporate tax rate, it's there for good. If you raise it again, that money will end up in Swiss bank accounts.
[/QUOTE]
"At the heart of the deal are some of the biggest tax changes in years, including an increase in tax rates for couples with incomes over $450,000, to 39.6%. For those same households, capital-gains and dividend taxes would increase to 20%, from 15%. Estate taxes would increase from 35% to 40%."[/QUOTE]
And just wait and see how many people take off with their money. There's a reason why the Panama Papers were a thing.
Saint Jiub · Member since
I see Trump has links to the Panama Papers, but I am surprised that the Clintons were not named. Hillary did vote for the Panama Free Trade Agreement, and the Clintons have received three billion dollars of political donations (graft) over the years that might need laundering ...
Trump will not be impeached because of "collusion", He will be impeached after the midterms by a landslide with Republican support because of a Playboy bunny ... after Trump destroys the economy with his stupid world trade tariff fiasco.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwGhnDRkRoA
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE]
Trump doesn't need the media to look like a misogynist or a white supremacist. He's doing just fine all on his own.
[/QUOTE]
That's not my point. My point is that this dumbass threatens to basically start a nuclear war, but people care more about some stupid shit he said in a private conversation a decade ago.[/QUOTE]
I'd say people can be upset about both of those things, not just one or the other.
But you're right - if people just focused on the bigger things, the dialog (especially on the left) would be much more coherent and to the point.
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE] [b]Saint Jiub wrote:[/b]
Trump will not be impeached because of "collusion", He will be impeached after the midterms by a landslide with Republican support because of a Playboy bunny ... after Trump destroys the economy with his stupid world trade tariff fiasco.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwGhnDRkRoA
[/QUOTE]
Yep. And it's crazy that it had to go that far. That threatening nuclear war and committing treason by cozying up to third world dictators wasn't enough.
And then we're left with Pence, who is terrifying in a whole other way. But if the Democrats clean up at midterms, there may be a whole lot of nothing happening in US politics until 2020.
