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If you were elected President of the United States

In about 2004, might have been 2005, I went to a town hall meeting with my Oklahoma 4th District US Congressman Tom Cole (R). I'll spare all the details. I was very disappointed. When I asked a question about the HALF TRILLION DOLLAR PER YEAR trade deficit, I mentioned that it amounts to a ratio of half trillion dollars of goods being brought into the country vs. ZERO being exported. "Congressman Cole, what exactly are we exporting?" He stumbled around. "Um, corn... uh... wheat". Then somebody assigned who I am convinced was a body tag to keep me from asking more questions. By the way, that big man standing over me was a young T.W. Shannon. Nice guy. But he handed me his card as a kind-of "call me if you have any more questions for the congressman" gesture.

A few weeks later, I was on a flight to Chicago. I sat in back of, and across the aisle from Tom Cole. For two and a half hours, he spent taxpayer money and time reading a gossip sheet about Democrats. Had NOTHING to do with governing a nation. I knew it was time to turn in my Republican card and register as an Independent.
 
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You won't like the solutions.

1. Reduce the size of the standing army. Military is not a product that you can sell. We are now buying airplanes that the services don't want because they are made in someone's district or state. We don't need half of our budget spent on the military. Use economics in today's world. Frankly, I like the use of drones to eliminate terrorist threats.
2. Raise taxes at least back to pre-Reagan levels. You can't maintain services with no income. We've tried this nonsense of balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class. The rich can pay taxes.
One of the biggest problems of TRA86 was that it eliminated interest deductions for the individual (not for the business). The mortgage deduction was left intact. Why is your credit card or car loan interest not deductible, but it is for a business? Your student loan interest?
3. Turn global warming into a profitable enterprise rather than fight it. The entire world will be looking for energy, water, and food solutions. Build an economy on what we know will happen.
4. Get over the stupid idea that business is cheaper than government. Business does the same thing, but it requires a profit. The privatization has fraud has been an absolute disaster. Any ideas how much we spent on guys replacing soldiers in the Middle East? They were going for $150,000 per year. Do you realize that your fines aren't even pad to your city? You get a traffic stop, and the fines are actually collected by a private agency in Texas. They add a surcharge. The local courts don't even understand, and the police can't deal with some of the problems that they create. They stopped me because I had allowed my Hartford Auto Insurance to expire. Fortunately, the officer let me make a call to my insurance company via 800, and they confirmed that I had had my insurance with them for over twenty years. Privatization. They don't even do KP any more. Instead of being efficient, it has become a nightmare.
5. Healthcare=medicare for all. The health insurance situation is a disaster, and something has to exist. Medicare works. Some didn't like it because it didn't allow overcharging. They figured out that it was better than hiring a staff to argue with insurance companies over getting paid. If you think the American health care system wasn't broken, you weren't listening to the AMA.
6. Oil depletion allowance. You kidding me?
7. Put money back into education and job training. We don't need banks charging high fees on loans, or high loans. we need qualified graduates. I understand that Mexico is now producing more engineers than the US. Really? We are using immigrants from Asia to overcome our lack of training in health, education, and computers. We don't need students who owe $100,000 coming out of college. We need graduates. One way to do this would be to reinstate VISTA. Spend two years doing work on the US infrastructure, and we'll pay for your college education.
8. Accept reality. You need government services. You have to be willing to pay for them. I am disgusted by the anti-tax mantra.

You won't like what I just wrote. Sorry. But, that IS the future. There is no choice. You can do it now, or it will be done for you later.
 
In about 2004, might have been 2005, I went to a town hall meeting with my Oklahoma 4th District US Congressman Tom Cole (R). I'll spare all the details. I was very disappointed. When I asked a question about the HALF TRILLION DOLLAR PER YEAR trade deficit, I mentioned that it amounts to a ratio of half trillion dollars of goods being brought into the country vs. ZERO being exported. "Congressman Cole, what exactly are we exporting?" He stumbled around. "Um, corn... uh... wheat". Then somebody assigned who I am convinced was a body tag to keep me from asking more questions. By the way, that big man standing over me was a young T.W. Shannon. Nice guy. But he handed me his card as a kind-of "call me if you have any more questions for the congressman" gesture.

A few weeks later, I was on a flight to Chicago. I sat in back of, and across the aisle from Tom Cole. For two and a half hours, he spent taxpayer money and time reading a gossip sheet about Democrats. Had NOTHING to do with governing a nation. I knew it was time to turn in my Republican card and register as an Independent.
I go back a little further. In 1969, two other GIs and I went to D.C. to tell our Congressmen that we thought the Viet Nam War was stupid. The other two didn't get to meet their Congressmen. We did get to meet Senator Fred Harris of Lawton who agreed with us. No surprise there. But, I was quite surprised when my congressman spent about forty-five minutes with us. We told him our position, and he said that he supported the war (I don't remember whether Tom Steed switched from Democrat to Republican as many were doing). He supported the war because his constituents were in favor of the war. He said that within a couple of years, it would become apparent how much the war was costing, and his constituents would be against the war, and so would he. That was a rather cynical way to decide the value of a war, but not surprising.

Then, he told us all about how it was marijuana that was causing the problems. The hippies were smoking it because they couldn't have sex without it because they were so dirty that they smelled. I wasn't sure what that was all about or what prompted his remarks. Was he saying that if they took a bath that they wouldn't smoke marijuana?
 
Then, he told us all about how it was marijuana that was causing the problems. The hippies were smoking it because they couldn't have sex without it because they were so dirty that they smelled. I wasn't sure what that was all about or what prompted his remarks. Was he saying that if they took a bath that they wouldn't smoke marijuana?

This is some funny stuff right here. 1960's personified. Brings to mind the rednecks in the pickup truck in Easy Rider.
 
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You won't like the solutions.

1. Reduce the size of the standing army. Military is not a product that you can sell. We are now buying airplanes that the services don't want because they are made in someone's district or state. We don't need half of our budget spent on the military. Use economics in today's world. Frankly, I like the use of drones to eliminate terrorist threats.
2. Raise taxes at least back to pre-Reagan levels. You can't maintain services with no income. We've tried this nonsense of balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class. The rich can pay taxes.
One of the biggest problems of TRA86 was that it eliminated interest deductions for the individual (not for the business). The mortgage deduction was left intact. Why is your credit card or car loan interest not deductible, but it is for a business? Your student loan interest?
3. Turn global warming into a profitable enterprise rather than fight it. The entire world will be looking for energy, water, and food solutions. Build an economy on what we know will happen.
4. Get over the stupid idea that business is cheaper than government. Business does the same thing, but it requires a profit. The privatization has fraud has been an absolute disaster. Any ideas how much we spent on guys replacing soldiers in the Middle East? They were going for $150,000 per year. Do you realize that your fines aren't even pad to your city? You get a traffic stop, and the fines are actually collected by a private agency in Texas. They add a surcharge. The local courts don't even understand, and the police can't deal with some of the problems that they create. They stopped me because I had allowed my Hartford Auto Insurance to expire. Fortunately, the officer let me make a call to my insurance company via 800, and they confirmed that I had had my insurance with them for over twenty years. Privatization. They don't even do KP any more. Instead of being efficient, it has become a nightmare.
5. Healthcare=medicare for all. The health insurance situation is a disaster, and something has to exist. Medicare works. Some didn't like it because it didn't allow overcharging. They figured out that it was better than hiring a staff to argue with insurance companies over getting paid. If you think the American health care system wasn't broken, you weren't listening to the AMA.
6. Oil depletion allowance. You kidding me?
7. Put money back into education and job training. We don't need banks charging high fees on loans, or high loans. we need qualified graduates. I understand that Mexico is now producing more engineers than the US. Really? We are using immigrants from Asia to overcome our lack of training in health, education, and computers. We don't need students who owe $100,000 coming out of college. We need graduates. One way to do this would be to reinstate VISTA. Spend two years doing work on the US infrastructure, and we'll pay for your college education.
8. Accept reality. You need government services. You have to be willing to pay for them. I am disgusted by the anti-tax mantra.

You won't like what I just wrote. Sorry. But, that IS the future. There is no choice. You can do it now, or it will be done for you later.

Sounds like the typical liberal solutions.

Fraud in private industry? Sure there is. But let's not talk about government waste. Government waste is out of control.

Healthcare costs are an issue because of the unlimited ability to sue anybody for anything. Medicine isn't black and white, but the attorneys have sure convinced the legal system that it is. Cut bullshit lawsuits, cut healthcare costs.

Turn global warming into a profitable enterprise? Despite science, profits are what are driving the narrative. Toxic.

The rest? Well, it's no less bullshit than what I addressed. The answer is not more government. Government is THE problem, not the solution.
 
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We should have mandatory 2 years of service to the country from 18-20 year olds before college from all kids. Then they qualify for student loans or officer training. If not this then fine, start learning Russian, Chinese and/or Arabic NOW!

Privatize education,eliminate the NEA. Have strict performance based tax structure for the Education factories.
They cannot compete with foreign education; must go to 5.5 day weeks, 12 months a year to bridge the performance gap.

Abortion for all, anytime anywhere but no Fed assistance except for Dems. ("Free" contraception prevention for all from Uncle Sam)

Fixed just for you syb
 
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Sounds like the typical liberal solutions.

Fraud in private industry? Sure there is. But let's not talk about government waste. Government waste is out of control.

Healthcare costs are an issue because of the unlimited ability to sue anybody for anything. Medicine isn't black and white, but the attorneys have sure convinced the legal system that it is. Cut bullshit lawsuits, cut healthcare costs.

Turn global warming into a profitable enterprise? Despite science, profits are what are driving the narrative. Toxic.

The rest? Well, it's no less bullshit than what I addressed. The answer is not more government. Government is THE problem, not the solution.
And, they spent billions convincing you of that. Progress is only accomplished by liberal positions. You can't change for the better by doing nothing.

THE problem is and always has been those who have the power (money) to influence government---not government. Stop that, and you stop the problems. Waste? Nearly everything that is wasteful in government involves some deal with private industry.

Fortunately, the young have figured this out, and the mantra isn't working on them. They will move further left, socially and economically.
 
We should have mandatory 2 years of service to the country from 18-20 year olds before college from all kids. Then they qualify for student loans or officer training. If not this then fine, start learning Russian, Chinese and/or Arabic NOW!

Privatize education,eliminate the NEA. Have strict performance based tax structure for the Education factories.
They cannot compete with foreign education; must go to 5.5 day weeks, 12 months a year to bridge the performance gap.

Abortion in first trimester in case of baby's or Mom's health risk or rape, ok but not for expediency.
Abortion in second trimester in case of baby's or Mom's health risk or rape, ok but not for expediency.
Abortion in third trimester in case of baby's or Mom's health risk or rape, ok (If no other solution) but NO partial birth abortions.
Your first paragraph is fine. Agreed. Privatization has been a disaster in education, just as it is with everything else.

Abortion. I'll make only this concession. If you are willing to accept the embryo into your own body and rear it to maturity, it won't be aborted. If you can't or won't do that, it's none of your business what she does with her body. She has the right to her body, not to be defined by your religious principles. When the baby is old enough to survive in an incubator, fine. Until then, it is her business unless you can find a way to carry her baby.
 
Golly gee willacres fellows...think it's time for term limits?

I'm effing sick and tired of these shitheads on both sides getting obscenely rich on the backs of us.

Damn it all!

"You say you want a revolution..."

We don't need term limits. We just need to succeed and have a country from just the middle states whose governments live within their means, and whose highest court only interprets. They don't make it up to suit their left wing politics. The issues with the legislature started when the court quit just interpreting and imposed their will on the rest of us, starting in the early 60s.
 
"James Monroe, our fifth President, once said, “To impose taxes when the public exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people.” The founders did realize that taxes were necessary.

Iasooner, nobody has been providing a transfer of an embryo unless someone contracts for that, which is often illegal by state law. They just insist that the mother carry the child to term. I insist that this is nobody's business.

The privatization agenda is, in itself, fascinating. JP Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller would have been proud of such an accomplishment. I don't think they thought that they could get away with making government the enemy and stating that it was wasteful and incompetent. They just wanted it under their control. It took almost a hundred years for a rather deliberate campaign to label government as the enemy to take effect. We had seen what happened when industry got too powerful.

I can't imagine what JP Morgan would have done if he had been able to convince the people that he was the good guy, and government was incompetent. He would have had an economic dictatorship. I think he was convinced that the public wasn't that stupid, or , at least, would listen to intelligent people who would call his nonsense what it was. He didn't know the power of controlling a media message.

Let's say that we are the city of Springfield. We have a trash pickup. We hire workers and buy trucks. We collect trash and put it in our city dump. Nobody makes a profit. The job gets done for a hundred years.

Now, some clown introduces the idea that business can do it better and cheaper. They won't be as incompetent as the city trash collectors who have done it for a hundred years. Exactly how can they do it cheaper? They have the same expenses: trucks, dump, employees. They have even added an expense that government doesn't have---profit. They are going to do it better, cheaper, and more efficiently, and they are going to make a profit? If they know a secret to do this, why not just contract with them to buy their secret?

This is the most absurd idea that could be imagined. JP Morgan wouldn't have dared propose this nonsense. But, we are constantly doing this. The results have been fantastic. One section of highway is torn up and sits there for a year before anyone completes the job. Private contractors. Walter Reed announces that it will close due to its rundown condition because the maintenance contractors hadn't kept it up. Our nation's best eastern hospital for the military, government, etc., is to be shut down after how long? We see VA Hospitals, always maintained by their own employees, being downgraded due to the bad state of repair and cleanliness of them maintenance contractors. Have you noticed how much the cost of everything has gone down and how much better everything is being done? Even military food was better than the stuff that the private contractors make. Start looking for all of those savings that privatization has generated and how much better it is now than it used to be.

Yes, we will eventually get rid of the cronyism that generated this idea.
 
Yeah well, I fear that the cronyism you so loathe will be replaced with socialism...if not communism.

Come on dude, if that's the panacea you get all erect about, just say so.
Then, and only then we can have a dialog based on your core beliefs.

We antiquated hayseed conservatives have revealed our colors.
What, pray tell...are yours?
 
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You might be shocked. I lean to capitalism, but with regulation assuring that it is, indeed, capitalism. There are some things that require a degree of group behavior that the purist might call socialism. Is the raising of a army socialistic? Is the building of a school or church in a pioneer area socialism? There are things on which sane capitalists work together.

The failure of Ayn Rand was that she made a very incorrect assumption, one that our founders would have warned her against. She hated government and assumed that it was evil, and that business was good. Curiously, what she was really good with was the definition of her villains who were seen as government agents who sought control for the sake of control. She described their techniques quite well. But, she would have been more correct if she had used contractors who were bribing government officials or lobbyists. They fit her villain descriptions perfectly.

Compare the sentence of a guy who steals a loaf of bread vs the guy who steals millions from a pension fund. Which is more likely to get shot while being arrested? I remember EF Hutton being involved in an $80 million dollar theft of interest made by bank transfers. They profited $80 million. They were fined $10 million.
Capitalism---but with regulations.

But, I do believe much more in working as a nation to solve problems than conservatives do. The big rancher never wanted the sodbusters to build fences either.
 
OK, point taken...until you come clean I'll assume you have Marxist, socialist leanings.

That's as generous as I'm going to be.
I don't mind at all. The stigma is gone. The right win has shouted commie too many times, and nobody cares any more.
 
And, they spent billions convincing you of that. Progress is only accomplished by liberal positions. You can't change for the better by doing nothing.

THE problem is and always has been those who have the power (money) to influence government---not government. Stop that, and you stop the problems. Waste? Nearly everything that is wasteful in government involves some deal with private industry.

Fortunately, the young have figured this out, and the mantra isn't working on them. They will move further left, socially and economically.

I'll give this post a hearty hahahahahahaha! Spent billions convincing me of that? Sure thing. That's the problem with you liberals. You can't think for yourselves so you assume everyone is like you. It won't matter to you that you're wrong because you have it all figured out. Just like you have throughout history...

The results of the last two elections are interesting aren't they. Republicans in control of both houses. I wonder why that happened. I'm sure you have the canned liberal answer I've heard before at the ready so I'll be waiting to read it.
 
No. I'm not interested in the right wing "you're a liberal" crap. We know that we have that war won.

I will give you an interesting statistic toward the future. People under thirty are not particularly interested in capitalism. Hispanics under thirty actually prefer communism---in theory. That is what the right wing brand of capitalism has generated, a future that will definitely not be what they want.

I am willing to explain history to those who have experienced only the unique history of the right wing, but I am not willing to shout over ignorance.
 
No. I'm not interested in the right wing "you're a liberal" crap. We know that we have that war won.
We don't smoke, we don't chew, we don't go with boys that do...

I will give you an interesting statistic toward the future. People under thirty are not particularly interested in capitalism. Hispanics under thirty actually prefer communism---in theory. That is what the right wing brand of capitalism has generated, a future that will definitely not be what they want.
In Havana

I am willing to explain history to those who have experienced only the unique history of the right wing, but I am not willing to shout over ignorance.
OK we're listening, other than the insect world where has Marxism succeeded?
 
You are carrying it too far, which is the usual tack of extremism. We have had a hard swing to the right that overcame sixty years of regulations put in place after the last debacle of "unfettered capitalism." It has, once again, created a very unbalanced and unsound situation, which is why we had installed the regulations in the first place. The reaction will be to swing the pendulum just as hard to the left as it was to the right. The motor generating the drive will be those who were not a part of the wealth generated by the "capitalistic" trend.

It won't swing to socialism, although the Limbaughs of the world would call it that. It will swing considerably to the left until single women and minorities have at least some semblance of equality with white males. It may be 85% as much salary instead of 70%, but it will swing. I suspect that they will also make it more difficult for "unfettered capitalism" to get a strong foothold again.

You simply cannot have all of the power and resources in the hands of one group, white males, when the other groups are demanding equal treatment. For some reason, this white male power is thought of as capitalism. It isn't. It is about as capitalistic as hanging witches is Christian.
 
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Using Marxist economic policies have never been made conducive to a robust economy.
70 percent of all the lawyers in the world live and work in the U. S. Let me guess why.
Most recent worldwide IQ classroom testing shows the U. S. with a paltry 98. Any relevance to the mess we currently find ourselves?
 
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You are carrying it too far, which is the usual tack of extremism. We have had a hard swing to the right that overcame sixty years of regulations put in place after the last debacle of "unfettered capitalism." It has, once again, created a very unbalanced and unsound situation, which is why we had installed the regulations in the first place. The reaction will be to swing the pendulum just as hard to the left as it was to the right. The motor generating the drive will be those who were not a part of the wealth generated by the "capitalistic" trend.

It won't swing to socialism, although the Limbaughs of the world would call it that. It will swing considerably to the left until single women and minorities have at least some semblance of equality with white males. It may be 85% as much salary instead of 70%, but it will swing. I suspect that they will also make it more difficult for "unfettered capitalism" to get a strong foothold again.

You simply cannot have all of the power and resources in the hands of one group, white males, when the other groups are demanding equal treatment. For some reason, this white male power is thought of as capitalism. It isn't. It is about as capitalistic as hanging witches is Christian.

It's remarkable to me that the socialists of the country, and this board, don't want themselves called socialists. To him, to them, those who stand for the principles for 300 years of this nation, which are being eroded by his brothers call those with traditional values extreme. It is the way of the left wing liberal. They cannot win any logical argument. So they find anyone not on their extreme position to be out of touch. They name call. And they blame white males. Non left wing white males.

Those who pay the taxes and ask the country to do what all of us do, live within our means, are extreme. Those who would take that tax money and even more that we don't have, and give it to those who don't work, but should and could, to buy their votes, in the left wing view, those are the sensible people. It's through the looking glass thinking.

The constitutional role of the federal government is limited, and was purposely. But liberal judges in tyranny have usurped authority not legally theirs and made their views, the law, claiming the constitution doesn't have to say what it really says. It can say what they want it to say. Mostly, it's because their leftwing view is not the view of the people. They cannot accomplish this through the constitutional means, which is legislative.

And because liberals dominate the news media, the educational system, and the legal profession, the overrule the view of the people. It is tyranny.

And those who point it out, they attempt to marginalize.
 
It's remarkable to me that the socialists of the country, and this board, don't want themselves called socialists. To him, to them, those who stand for the principles for 300 years of this nation, which are being eroded by his brothers call those with traditional values extreme. It is the way of the left wing liberal. They cannot win any logical argument. So they find anyone not on their extreme position to be out of touch. They name call. And they blame white males. Non left wing white males.

Those who pay the taxes and ask the country to do what all of us do, live within our means, are extreme. Those who would take that tax money and even more that we don't have, and give it to those who don't work, but should and could, to buy their votes, in the left wing view, those are the sensible people. It's through the looking glass thinking.

The constitutional role of the federal government is limited, and was purposely. But liberal judges in tyranny have usurped authority not legally theirs and made their views, the law, claiming the constitution doesn't have to say what it really says. It can say what they want it to say. Mostly, it's because their leftwing view is not the view of the people. They cannot accomplish this through the constitutional means, which is legislative.

And because liberals dominate the news media, the educational system, and the legal profession, the overrule the view of the people. It is tyranny.

And those who point it out, they attempt to marginalize.
Nice rant. Do you actually think this stuff up yourself? You know, there were a few of us who were having a good discussion. Then, there were those that just went back to the old labels: liberal, socialist, communist. Hate to tell you, plaino. But, those don't work any more. McCarthy is dead, and should be. You do realize that it was liberal to raise an army to defeat the British? You do realize that in every war that is successful, our effort has been successful because we work together as a nation, right down to rationing and controlling distribution.
What you seem to want is financial anarchy. But, you can call me whatever you wish. The future will be something that you probably won't like, out of necessity.
 
Nope, a rich limousine liberal will never complain about obscene taxes, porous borders, activist judges, sanctuary cities and the occasional domestic terrorists acts.

Why would they...that's paradise to them.
That is actually so off the charts that it is funny. I can't even comment.
 
You do realize that it was liberal to raise an army to defeat the British?

The future will be something that you probably won't like, out of necessity.

Nice revision of history. Liberals would have continued rejoicing in British rule had liberals actually existed in the colonial USA.

As to your other asinine comment, you wonder why people peg you as a socialist? It's not a mystery to those of us that have read your posts.
 
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Nice revision of history. Liberals would have continued rejoicing in British rule had liberals actually existed in the colonial USA.

As to your other asinine comment, you wonder why people peg you as a socialist? It's not a mystery to those of us that have read your posts.
I do find it revealing. Generally, I don't disregard the opinions of those who can discuss something without trying to use the liberal, socialist, communist label. Once that is introduced, I know that there is nothing of merit to be communicated.

Incidentally, I did state that I don't care if someone labels me as a socialist, communist, or whatever. That only works among fringe groups. The rest of the world and about two-thirds of this country are past that nonsense.
 
democrat-kool-aid-socialism-liberal-50602121159.jpeg
There is a reason that people develop statistics.

Yep. To distort reality. Do you realize "developing statistics" is actually frowned upon in the scientific community? You probably don't but now you know.

Got any real data to support your assertion or should I just take your word as fact?
 
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