FEDIT POLITICS Thread

Not a fan of Trump, nor of Bible classes in public education but this is still funny, particularly since Trump doesn't give a shit about the Bible or adultery.

... or anything else not named Donald J Trump

 

Not how it works

 

As if "it" works at all

OTOH it is exactly how Trump works, if one could call his vile and tepid efforts "work"

 

Easy to state as most Americans are economic illiterates

 

Curious your take on this fee.org article, whether Ray Dalio's perspective or McCullough's poorly defensed rebuttal

https://fee.org/articles/the-leader...stem-that-made-him-a-billionaire-is-a-threat/

 

Damn well written, Tafnac.

 

Thank you for your perspectives.

• Agreed that capitalism is far from failing in fact it could be stated that it is working quite fine, though in doing so presents it's own long term drawbacks.
• Agreed that economic illiteracy abounds and this is unlikely to change; which permits greater lies to follow
• Not in agreement about "everyone doing better" as the ever increasing income inequality alone belies this assertion. However we do agree that our western society, as a whole, continues to improve our lives daily but the growing division between 'Haves' and Have Nots' demonstrates that 'better' is highly subjective and applies primarily to those of means
• Agreed that universal suffrage always fails for there will forever be a larger body of 'downtrodden masses' than that of those taxpayers capable of feeding them while retaining profit earned from sweat
• If we agree that 'those people are stupid, petty and irrationally jealous' then do we see value in retaining an Electoral College? Clearly it's the unwashed masses clamoring loudest for a straight popular vote

These are complex and interrelated issues that few take an effort to analyse. I knew that your distaste for any position I present would cause you to examine them in support of your own Libertarian views. Thanking you again. When wealth and access to the growth of greater wealth is shared among the populace then societies prosper and happiness is spread more evenly.

When elected leaders are supported in openly lying (Trump), when they plainly conspire to defraud the populace as was the case with the GOP led US Treasury / Goldman $achs 2008 "recession, when the entirety of the US populace is fleeced for 40% of their life savings while the largest crooks/banks are rewarded for being "too big to fail" then they will always seek a vengeance.

As a business owning capitalist I abhor seeing such a system ruined by the theft of it's leaders. I personally found Dalio's reliance upon lying statistics including "unemployment rates" galling and his twisting of those stats to suit his means quite deceitful. Further McCullough's own fanning of the flames of "overwrought rhetoric" that he protests is equally disingenuous obfuscation

 

Reading this @rube , @LAdiablo and wondering what howls of protest would arise if this came from the leader of any different religion.

"So what are we to make of the strange text that Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, unleashed on the world this week, in which he effectively blamed the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church on the freewheeling sexual revolution of 1968?" as if such platitudes could possibly excuse the closeting and protection of decades of widespread pedophilia?

It strikes me that within the US, and indeed the western world in general, we give unique 'space' to corruption within the rich Catholic Church and yet our religious right buhlievers and Bible thumping nut jobs are the first to howl about Muslims. Or Jews. Or others worshiping 'holy' books of fables. False piety sucks more than buhlievers can grasp.

 

Not espousing both mindsets at all. I stand firmly on the church's being out of touch and largely irrelevant. I'm mostly pointing out that their hypocrisy is casually overlooked. Eternally.
Further when I 'was' a Roman Catholic we had popes that were popes until death. No such thing as a former pope unless I saw his crypt under the Vatican. When one is/was a pope then they remain a pope. Period. No time off for bad behavior, of which the Rat is as guilty as nearly all papal leaders. His opining weak ass excuses is VASTLY different than yours or mine. He personally was involved in hushing pedo news within church walls. So we'll agree to disagree about his speaking "ex-cathedra" ...for once a pope always a pope.

Buddy, Thanks for holding my beer. Indeed my central point was that we as a society at large tend to look aside when ever more news of Catholic church pedophilia arise every third week. Yes this strikes too close to home, yes it is personal. No I wasn't molested. Yes an pedo uncle was reassigned repeatedly throughout the midwest, for decades. Yes I hold the corrupt church responsible for every boy molested after they learned of the first one. No the 'church' is not innocent. No pope Rat is not permitted to blame 'society' for the church's or their pedo priests sins. Own your shit or shut your trap. It's shameful that pope Rat even attempts to pawn off blame. He's nothing but a sackless Coward, far from those attempting to live ethical lives with or without religion.

Thanks again for holding my beer, permit me to kill it while I compose the next reply

 

Again, the purpose of my post was to highlight how the Catholic church gets a pass.. always. In America we look the other way. I intend to offer nothing close to false equivalence, except that by the crudest of measures each are Organized Religions and as such collect coin of the realm to assist their praying upon the masses. I defend a stance of being steadfastly against ALL Organized Religions having seen too much too close for too long.

With that out of the way might I agree that the crimes of the Catholic church, at least this century, are far less egregious than the Muslims. For that matter the crimes of Israel and the Jews in Golan or Gaza are also far less egregious than the Muslims. Let us not revisit ancient history for sins of our Catholic church rebuking science and knowledge caused the Dark Ages. Yep the Muslim's back then embraced science & knowledge that 600+ years ago was lost because of Catholic zealots for hundreds of years. Set the planet back we did.

Be that as it may, both of these Organized Religions appear far more moral than the Muslims. Sharia law is straight out racist and gender hatred oddly similar to many views of the current frothing falsely pious GOP 'puritans'. Genital mutilation, encouraging hateful fatwa's against whomever, insisting upon Israel's demise, and demanding subjugation of women all rank high on the list of why these are cruel and evil peoples. And yes, in my travels abroad, I have received and enjoyed hospitality from devout 'moderate' Muslims (should it turn out that there is such a thing) and they too claim 'don't blame us for the actions of a few'. Where have we heard that malarkey before?

I have zero interest in defending the idiotic Muslim buhliefs. They are 3/4 sun baked and too stupid to admit it. They are evil of heart. They espouse hatred of women and defend restricting their rights solely because of their gender. Sounds rather like the GOP once again if one ponders it closely. Those promoting Pro-Life stances are as close as our country gets to Muslim buhliefs. Why old white men spouting 2000 year old fables feel they have the right to ignore the separation of church and state and tell all women what they can or cannot do with their bodies sounds really close to Sharia nonsense, and yet Faux News promotes it tirelessly. And slobbering fools clap hands and support the 'conservative' cause even if it means killing the mothers those same males impregnated. What lunacy gets defended in the name of "conservative buhliefs" spouted by all manner of falsely pious O.R. charlatans. What is 'conservative' about any of this mockery of fairness? What Chistian kindness?

Still I agree with you that greater evil today comes from Islam which is no more a religion of peace than the GOP is a party of 'conservative' people. Oxymorons one and all. If one attempted to rank Organized Religions by most evil I'd place Islam near the top.. perhaps right behind Scientologists. Of course that's a fluid scale for the bat shit crazy Dianetics fools aren't trying to return the globe to the miseries of the 13th century. So yes we agree that Islam is far more evil, though that was not my original point. Can you perceive that only the Catholic church gets a pass repeatedly for moral transgressions that never seem to end?

 

On a lighter note



At least he's supported by the O.R. "moral majority".. a moron supported by fools buhlieving in yet another oxymoron

 

@huh? , THANK YOU for the thought provoking replies. Now I find I'm stuck on parallels.. consider how many of Trumps hate filled lies closely resemble fatwa's.
Painting all Mexican's or Central Americans or any persons of color as being rapists and thieves coming from "shit holes" sounds real similar to how ultra religious war mongering hater Bibi Netanyahu refers to Arabs... and also how Iranian mullah Hassan Rouhani refers to all Westerners.
Too similar are these three.

When Trump excuses and encourages racial hatred, when he tells his buhlievers that he'll "pay their legal bills for attacking his enemies" his intemperate language and orange hairdo rather reminds one of a frothing Muslim in a headscarf the resemblances are so close

 

Racist

 

Tomorrow is Tax Day for Americans.. too bad it will never be Tax Day for these mega corporations that paid not a penny and yet get returns instead on billions in earnings. Figures are in Millions of $. Example Amazon made $10,835,000,000 in earnings and received a tax refund of $129,000,000 so they got back a ~1% refund on $0 moneys paid proving Jack Welch's point that it's far cheaper to purchase a few Congressmen and hire a few current and former IRS employees who write tax code to specifically suit these corporate behemoths.

Like it or don't like it but learn who your enemy is and it isn't some loudmouth Irishman who attempts to show you the data of how you're getting screwed. We knew the @GOP was just doing a giant favor for their corporate donors and friends. We knew it would add to an already unsustainable deficit. And we knew the middle class were an afterthought but seeing it in dollars not being paid brings the pain home.

So if you're voting GOP know that you're either a billionaire or you're stupid. Check your own wallet.

Company U.S. Income Federal Tax Effective Tax Rate
Amazon.com $10,835 –129 –1%
Delta Air Lines $5,073 –187 –4%
Chevron $4,547 –181 –4%
General Motors $4,320 –104 –2%
EOG Resources $4,067 –304 –7%
Occidental Petroleum $3,379 –23 –1%
Honeywell International $2,830 –21 –1%
Deere $2,152 –268 –12%
American Electric Power $1,943 –32 –2%
Principal Financial $1,641 –49 –3%
FirstEnergy $1,495 –16 –1%
Prudential Financial $1,440 –346 –24%
Xcel Energy $1,434 –34 –2%
Devon Energy $1,297 –14 –1%
DTE Energy $1,215 –17 –1%
Halliburton $1,082 –19 –2%
Netflix $856 –22 –3%
Whirlpool $717 –70 –10%
Eli Lilly $598 –54 –9%
IBM $500 –342 –68%
Goodyear Tire & Rubber $440 –15 –3%
Penske Automotive Group $393 –16 –4%
Aramark $315 –48 –15%
AECOM Technology $238 –122 –51%
Tech Data $203 –10 –5%
Performance Food Group $192 –9 –4%
Arrow Electronics $167 –12 –7%
Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy