Hubris and Hillary Clinton

[thedoc]

Such as what?

And who do you think will pay to make him richer? Not you, obviously.

Mandated health care, forcing those who can't afford medical insurance to buy it anyhow, taking money away from the necessities. If the federal government is so keen on everyone having health insurance, let them pay for it. Everyone is paying for it anyway, another bureaucracy would just create more jobs.

In addition to Henry's suggestion for a line on the ballot, on every ballot there should be a selection for pay for elected officials and those they appoint, with 3 choices mandatory. Increase by X%, stay the same, Decrease by X%, but I don't believe it will ever happen, those who pay the salaries will never have a choice in the matter.

[Hobbes' Choice]

Such as what?

And who do you think will pay to make him richer? Not you, obviously.

Mandated health care, forcing those who can't afford medical insurance to buy it anyhow, taking money away from the necessities. If the federal government is so keen on everyone having health insurance, let them pay for it. Everyone is paying for it anyway, another bureaucracy would just create more jobs.

In addition to Henry's suggestion for a line on the ballot, on every ballot there should be a selection for pay for elected officials and those they appoint, with 3 choices mandatory. Increase by X%, stay the same, Decrease by X%, but I don't believe it will ever happen, those who pay the salaries will never have a choice in the matter.

You mean trying to make sure that there are US citizens that do not have to go without medical care? Like this might be a problem.,
What kind of arsehole are you?

[Obvious Leo]

People seem all too keen to participate in their own oppression if they are told they might pay 0.1c less tax.

I'd like to be able to say that my own country was any better, and I probably can in all fairness. But only a little bit.

and we'll drag the rest of the world, shrieking, right into the asylum with us.

Don't you believe it, henry. The rest of the world no longer trusts the USA and are not going to follow it to its own Armageddon. As a nation you have squandered your political, economic and moral capital and it would take at least a generation to restore such trust in the best or circumstances. It isn't going to happen and already most of the nations of the world are looking to make more loyal, honest and honourable friends. Your nation has betrayed a world which trusted it and this will not be lightly forgiven.

Sadly most Americans know nothing of the outside world and are brainwashed so comprehensively by their own media that they have no idea how they are perceived by people outside their own country. They certainly wouldn't like it if they did because essentially America has no friends any more.

[henry quirk]

"You mean trying to make sure that there are US citizens that do not have to go without medical care? Like this might be a problem."

The problem is not the intent (of seeing folks have access to necessary medical care), but execution of that intent (the current plan). The Affordable Care Act was designed poorly.

##

"The rest of the world no longer trusts the USA and are not going to follow it to its own Armageddon."

HA!

As if America is going to 'ask' the world to follow it down the toilet.

#

"Sadly most Americans know nothing of the outside world and are brainwashed so comprehensively by their own media that they have no idea how they are perceived by people outside their own country."

This is true except it's not (only) the media (which is mainly a conduit, not a source). No, blame any one who stands to make a buck offa Americans (and the rest of the world)...call the aggregate of these folks the political/corporate class...better yet, call them parasites (and, yeah, that includes Bernie Sanders... ). And, of course, blame Americans themselves for allowing themselves to be domesticated.

Having said that: as I said elsewhere in this forum, I live in America, I have no plans to go elsewhere, my fortunes are (currently) intertwined with America's, so it's in my best interest it, as nation, does well, even if it's not doing 'good'. I would prefer this to come about by way of a sane, aware, citizenry hiring sane, aware, proxies, but that's not the current scheme. So, barring national sanity, I can only count on zealous insanity (imperialism) to keep the U.S. ahead. Sad to say, but if all of 'you' have to become a ghetto so that 'I' have ready and easy access to ramen, then so be it. It's ain't fair, it ain't nice, but it is what it is. I'm sure I'd feel differently if I were on the other end, but I'm not, so...*shrug*

[thedoc]

What kind of arsehole are you?

The kind that thinks the minimum wage is a particularly stupid idea.

That's Asshole in proper English.

Forced medical care is not all it's cracked up to be, pity you haven't figured that out yet.

[thedoc]

Sadly most Americans know nothing of the outside world and are brainwashed so comprehensively by their own media that they have no idea how they are perceived by people outside their own country. They certainly wouldn't like it if they did because essentially America has no friends any more.

Sadly the outside world knows little about the US, it has been brainwashed by the media, crooked politicians, and corrupt religious leaders. It's probably a good thing to consider that no-one is your friend, friends are more likely to stab you in the back, better to keep everyone at arms length.

[Obvious Leo]

It's probably a good thing to consider that no-one is your friend, friends are more likely to stab you in the back, better to keep everyone at arms length.

It is precisely this isolationist paranoia that I'm referring to. Is this your personal experience, doc, because it certainly isn't mine? There's barely a country in the world that I haven't travelled to several times over and I have NEVER experienced what you describe, either at home or abroad. I haven't seen it at a personal level in the USA either, by the way, and yet it seems to be an attitude hard-wired into your international psyche that the whole world is out to get you because of your natural superiority.

Nothing could be further from the truth. You have a third-world health system which is staggeringly expensive, you have an education system which would be an embarrassment even to the third world, you have an entrenched economic underclass which causes problems of crime and violence unmatched almost anywhere, you have an elite and privileged aristocracy which places itself above the rule of law and economic responsibility, you have legislatures and judiciaries which are corrupt from top to bottom at all levels of government, your national debt is so high that even if your government were to sell all of its assets it would be insufficient to cover its liabilities, which is how bankruptcy is defined. Your economic infrastructure is decades out of date across the entire nation and will cost many trillions to replace. These trillions have been stolen by thieves and shipped off-shore into tax havens. I could go on at length on this theme and you won't be able to deny a word of it so you can get where I'm coming from.

Nobody envies you,doc, and nobody wants to be like you, and you are quite wrong when you say that the rest of the world knows nothing of your country because your cultural hegemony throughout the world is all-pervasive. Everybody knows the USA for the fallen dragon it has become and many nations are rightly fearful of what might happen next.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

It's probably a good thing to consider that no-one is your friend, friends are more likely to stab you in the back, better to keep everyone at arms length.

It is precisely this isolationist paranoia that I'm referring to. Is this your personal experience, doc, because it certainly isn't mine? There's barely a country in the world that I haven't travelled to several times over and I have NEVER experienced what you describe, either at home or abroad. I haven't seen it at a personal level in the USA either, by the way, and yet it seems to be an attitude hard-wired into your international psyche that the whole world is out to get you because of your natural superiority.

Nothing could be further from the truth. You have a third-world health system which is staggeringly expensive, you have an education system which would be an embarrassment even to the third world, you have an entrenched economic underclass which causes problems of crime and violence unmatched almost anywhere, you have an elite and privileged aristocracy which places itself above the rule of law and economic responsibility, you have legislatures and judiciaries which are corrupt from top to bottom at all levels of government, your national debt is so high that even if your government were to sell all of its assets it would be insufficient to cover its liabilities, which is how bankruptcy is defined. Your economic infrastructure is decades out of date across the entire nation and will cost many trillions to replace. These trillions have been stolen by thieves and shipped off-shore into tax havens. I could go on at length on this theme and you won't be able to deny a word of it so you can get where I'm coming from.

Nobody envies you,doc, and nobody wants to be like you, and you are quite wrong when you say that the rest of the world knows nothing of your country because your cultural hegemony throughout the world is all-pervasive. Everybody knows the USA for the fallen dragon it has become and many nations are rightly fearful of what might happen next.

Well said. And it can only get worse for the countries stupid enough to get into this TPPA with the stinking US. It's THE US that needs to be kept at arm's length. No one wants closer ties with the US, it will be a suicide mission, but we have corrupt politicians who love nothing better than to suck yank dick.
The smaller, and far superior countries are being sacrificed at the alter of the hideous bloated monster that is the US of A.

[Obvious Leo]

it can only get worse for the countries stupid enough to get into this TPPA with the stinking US.

This is a hot topic in my country at the moment VT. Under this proposal if our democratically elected government passes laws which can adversely affect the profitability of US corporations then this democratically elected government will be held liable under international law for such loss of earnings. For example if our parliament decides to increase the taxes levied on cigarettes as a public health measure to safeguard the well-being of our children then the taxpayers of this country will be required to compensate the cigarette companies accordingly if their sales are adversely affected as a consequence. Our authority as a sovereign and democratic state will have been usurped by Wall street.

Is there a US citizen in our midst willing to defend this coup d'etat?

[vegetariantaxidermy]

it can only get worse for the countries stupid enough to get into this TPPA with the stinking US.

This is a hot topic in my country at the moment VT. Under this proposal if our democratically elected government passes laws which can adversely affect the profitability of US corporations then this democratically elected government will be held liable under international law for such loss of earnings. For example if our parliament decides to increase the taxes levied on cigarettes as a public health measure to safeguard the well-being of our children then the taxpayers of this country will be required to compensate the cigarette companies accordingly if their sales are adversely affected as a consequence. Our authority as a sovereign and democratic state will have been usurped by Wall street.

Is there a US citizen in our midst willing to defend this coup d'etat?

I bet hardly any yanks even know about it.

[Obvious Leo]

I bet hardly any yanks even know about it.

They don't even know that almost all of the bailout money stumped up by the US taxpayers to rescue the banks which were "too big to fail" actually finished up in the private off-shore accounts of the pirates who caused the problem in the first place.

Keeping people in the dark and feeding them on bullshit has been elevated to a high art form in the land of the free.

[kriswest]

I am so glad you all do not live here, it would certainly lower any standards we may have.

[Hobbes' Choice]

What kind of arsehole are you?

The kind that thinks the minimum wage is a particularly stupid idea.

That's Asshole in proper English.

Forced medical care is not all it's cracked up to be, pity you haven't figured that out yet.

An ass is a donkey. I don't know what you want holes for donkeys for. But if you want to be called an asshole, then that is your choice.

My life has been saved by what you call "forced medical care". My son was born in a hospital providing it.

As a child I received all the vaccinations i needed, by "forced medical care', and my family in times of plenty and in times of poverty have been nurtured by such a system, so that when we were earning we paid in tax, and when we were out of a job, we did not have the additional worry of finding the cash to pay a doctor.

I think the USA is so corrupt that the system you have chosen is more expensive that it need be. In the UK free medical is not done through the insurance system, and that automatically makes it 20% cheaper. Had Obama started an NHS type system them there might have been less resistance to it.

Sadly arseholes, or assholes (as you like to be called) are so mean and stupid that you'd prefer people to be paid less than it costs to live and, and the moment they get ill they can fucking die for all you care.

[kriswest]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... population
The USA has the third largest population in the world . It is comprises world wide cultures, beliefs and politics. Sure we have problems but, I really do not see any other countries facing such issues or handle such issues as peacefully. So with all due respect , you all ain't good enough to kiss our collective butts, the least of us is worth far more than any of you.

[Obvious Leo]

Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against easily preventable disease should be charged under law for child abuse and endangering public safety. This is almost as dangerous a practice as sending children to religious schools and should be stamped out root and branch. The children should be forcibly removed from them and be given into the care of those who know what CARE means.