I heard Trump comparing himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt because his proposal to put Muslims in concentration camps is just like what Roosevelt did to Japanese-Americans. Trump is a disgusting racist billionaire, but every so often he’ll spew out some truth like that, which none of the other candidates are willing to touch. He said the War on Terror had been a waste of $5 trillion. None of them will say that, either, not even Bernie the “socialist,” yet who in his or her right mind could deny it?
Bernie Sanders is a member of the Democratic Party, which as you say, is a capitalist party, no less than the Republicans.
But it raises the question of what might the world be like if we had done nothing? Different, yes. Worse? Possibly. Or maybe better. Perhaps a bigger question is, after spending the (at least) $5 trillion, will we have learned anything from it?
My countrymen just want everyone in the world to know we are tough. Spending 5 trillion$ to save at best a theoretical few hundred people from terrorism is mandatory because we are sensitive about being picked on.
Spending 1 trillion dollars for universal comprehensive health care would save
many 10’s of thousands of lives a year, undeniably. But to act compassionately is seen as weak in the USA. Better to buy a new aircraft carrier group.
Cutting the insurance companies out of the picture would also save astronomical amounts of money, but no Republican or Democrat is capable of doing this, not even the two you are thinking of voting for. Both of them do sort of discuss it, though. They have to- they are populists, and their job is to help us let off steam while not straying outside the capitalist box.
A trillion dollars to save tens of thousands of lives? Five trillion dollars to save a few lives from terrorism? Trillions? “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.” Where is Inigo Montoya when you need him?
A trillion is one thousand billion. Figuring the creation of the Dept of homeland
security, the TSA and the cost of extra surveillance in dark projects, 500 billion$/yr since 9/11/01 for increased anti terrorism projects is a reasonable guess. HSA is funding the construction of a 4 million dollar regional office in my town. These people aren’t renting, they expect to be funded generously going forward indefinitely. It’s not like they will just catch Bin Ladin and go home.
So let’s see, 500 billion dollars/yr times 15 years = 7.5 trillion dollars. OK, dahm, I was off by 50 %. To switch to single payer health care might cost a trillionish $/yr. But that cost is misleading. If your employer doesn’t have to pay for your health insurance, they can fund you a higher wage, which will up income tax receipts. Taking away the jobs of a millions of lawyers and insurance workers will save billions in salary$, while forcing people to do actual productive work. There is an office at my local hospital with 6 full time employees. They are well paid specialists in insurance law, they try to get the insurers to pay more. The insurers have an army of legal specialists questioning every medical procedure and how much they have to pay. This is why insurance company buildings are much larger than most hospitals.
At the expense of sounding like a Trump supporter, the Donald could be good for circuses, which, by extension, could be good for unicycling!
That one, hypothetically positive attribute aside, Trump represents really bad public relations for the United States. When he says things like “carpet bomb” and “punish”, he gives the impression that we are into that sort of thing. Whatever happened to all those nice, Bush-era euphemisms?
Cruz loses everything within memory. Then he wins Wisconsin by 13 points. It’s a locked convention ! the anointed cry ! The anti establishment Trump will go down !
Sanders wins another one, 7 of the last 8, by 13 points. Yawn, says the anointed media. The super delegates will hand the crown to Hillary regardless. Why doesn’t that old bastard be a loyal democrat and drop out already?
Please, no. He might be good for writing circus ad copy (hyping the crap out of all details), but if you meant to disparage real clowns by calling him one, it just takes away from the art form.
Scary thing about Trump:
I haven’t heard much of anything new from him for a week or more. I doubt the media are ignoring him, which means he may be following some sensible advice from his team, and keeping his mouth closed.
the Economist (an english newspaper ) pointed to something well …
since the major republicans candidates want to authorize gun carrying everywhere (university, church,…) … why are not guns allowed at the republican convention ? after all the delegates will all be god-fearing “good” people fighting “evil” … they ought to defend themselves if “evil” creeps in …
I think you can scan or frisk people before they are allowed entry on your property. Unless you are selling wedding cakes in which case you must bake them one, even if they are gay or you may be sued, except in some states.
If I was a baker, I would snap some of those Barbie and Ken dolls in half, and glue Barbie to Barbie and Ken to Ken, and put them on my fake window cakes.Hell, I don’t fear Jesus, I’d even have a cake with Paris Hilton holding hands on the cake with Mr. T. Your love=my shop money.
I think current laws have a lot to do with if you are selling something. If you aren’t selling nothing, you can shut people out. Otherwise, you have to let the blacks and Jews in plus make ramps for the wheel chairs or they can sue you.
First of all, they might not all agree on what counts as “evil”. As competing candidates, they kind of have to disagree on everything… except bowing to the all-powerful NRA. Apparently nobody in politics can say no to them and make it stick.
For two, I bet the Secret Service, who are protecting some of the candidates, would surely not be a fan.
Fortunately not everyone in America are total idiots. Based on the kinds of violence that have already happened at Republican candidate rallies, anyone who really, actually thinks open carry at the big convention would be a good idea probably suffers from other forms of mental illness as well.
I don’t necessarily have a problem with the idea of open carry, for responsible gun owners. Maybe some day we can get to where only responsible people are allowed to own guns…