@hhlurker elaborate. Do you want me to write a book on how they've made the country worse or do you have szomething more specific in mind? the progressive left has been the worst thing to come along since i've started following politics
@jdb just to play devil's advocate it's extremely lucrative for some as they parlay it
@snarlcakes I'm not a "lefty"... Rino, moderate dem, maybe... And the Iran actions... he's helping Israel's interests, obviously... and I believe there's some sort of personal necessity or benefit by doing so. And if you haven't figured it out by now... maybe its not worth discussing... he doesn't give 2 chits about ramifications to other Republicans in future elections, when he says things, posts things, does things...etc... He moves goalposts, and expects everyone else to adjust to them. And when they don't, he tries to cancel them.
Oh, it's the Jews. I've never heard that one. Tell me more about this theory? Is Trump a puppet of Israel? Do tell?
@bar-down I know I’m kind of going off the main topic here, but my basic attitude has always been if I need $1 million then make two. For whatever reason my attitude from infancy has always been Life is a game.
The goal is always to win. The playing of the game is life and is what’s fun. The difference between Elon Musk, us, and a beggar on the street is choice of game. (You switched to owning a business. Smart. More control of your game.)
Yes, in America like everywhere govts exert control and exact taxes. To me the fundamental difference is America provides the most freedom to choose, own and play one’s game.
So I take blaming others as yielding responsibility. (And ofc I get you’re just making observations here and you’re correct.) When any shit happens to me, I always ask myself first, what did I do to cause myself to run into shit. My goal is always to increase my responsibility because decreasing mine is increasing theirs. In short, I pity others but don’t blame them.
On the topic of this thread, politicians win elections. Their game. I get why businessmen run for office—to change the govt rules. Choice of game. Never struck me as fun. Govt never stopped Elon. Nuf said…
@snarlcakes No clue... but him starting this war because he all of a sudden became worried about Iran's nuclear capabilities... well, no, I don't believe that's the reason. Look back at his personal and political history... the likelihood that its for some other reason than what he's saying is quite a lot higher than not. He all of a sudden is honest and above board about everything?? Right... He all of a sudden is worried about another country's ability, to terrorize other countries, in another hemisphere?? Right...
I get it... he scratches some of your itches... And you're willing to look past all the lies, awful human being stuff, awful words and actions... because he's a "bitcoiner" and whatever else policy you think he shares with you... until he doesn't... he'll run out of time, I suspect, but if given the time, he'd find the road too far, even with you.
And I do get the initial push back on the conspiracy type thoughts... for a normal human being, that would be what the reaction should be. It really wouldn't make sense. But when you have a rap sheet like this man does, at some point, you just have to call it what it usually is... self serving.
The ACA mandates that insurers spend at least 80–85% of premiums on clinical services (the MLR rule). Some analyses suggest this creates a perverse incentive: since insurers can only keep 15–20% of premiums for profit and overhead, the only way to increase absolute profit is to allow the total cost of care (and thus the total premium) to rise.
This was one of the many arguments I made in opposition to Obamacare at the time. The supporters claimed it wouldn't happen, but of course it did. It was inevitable.
@bar-down Yes, I get your point. Now you know what it’s like living where such govt controls are the norm. Amazing how our nation adapted and govts self-corrected, some more quickly than others.
Whether “natural” or manmade a pandemic is once a century. A lot of unknowns and our priority to survive is correct. If it happens again we’re prepared and won’t react the same.
Many businesses flourished during covid. That’s where my attention goes.
Edit: The upcoming AI revolution appears likely to be far more disruptive than covid or any govt control. What can we learn from covid to prepare and adapt?
him starting this war because he all of a sudden became worried about Iran's nuclear capabilities... well, no, I don't believe that's the reason. Look back at his personal and political history... the likelihood that its for some other reason than what he's saying is quite a lot higher than not. He all of a sudden is honest and above board about everything?? Right... He all of a sudden is worried about another country's ability, to terrorize other countries, in another hemisphere?? Right...
He's been pretty consistent on Iran going all the way back to when he was just another dem in NYC who had money. It's not surprising he's done the things he's done regarding Iran and even Venezuela.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
@snarlcakes No clue... but him starting this war because he all of a sudden became worried about Iran's nuclear capabilities... well, no, I don't believe that's the reason. Look back at his personal and political history... the likelihood that its for some other reason than what he's saying is quite a lot higher than not. He all of a sudden is honest and above board about everything?? Right... He all of a sudden is worried about another country's ability, to terrorize other countries, in another hemisphere?? Right...
I get it... he scratches some of your itches... And you're willing to look past all the lies, awful human being stuff, awful words and actions... because he's a "bitcoiner" and whatever else policy you think he shares with you... until he doesn't... he'll run out of time, I suspect, but if given the time, he'd find the road too far, even with you.
And I do get the initial push back on the conspiracy type thoughts... for a normal human being, that would be what the reaction should be. It really wouldn't make sense. But when you have a rap sheet like this man does, at some point, you just have to call it what it usually is... self serving.
If you have no clue, don't say it then because it comes across as anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense.
I voted for Trump because he's better than Biden/Harris and all the other socialists. I don't care what Trump says because mean words aren't as bad as open borders and other poor policies. Bad polices are detrimental to a society. Mean words are not.
@hooky Same with tariffs
Those too, unfortunately. He is and always will be an 80s dem in his policy views and actions, because that's what he is. I'm still wondering how so many people are surprised at some of the things he's done.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Did Trump campaign on getting rid of Iran’s nuclear capabilities? He surely campaigned on no more wars.
Yes, he campaigned on them never being allowed to get nuclear weapons:Did Trump campaign on getting rid of Iran’s nuclear capabilities? He surely campaigned on no more wars.
- “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are the greatest single threat to our country, but to the entire world.” (11/3/24)
- “I would have been very good to Iran. They — I had to have one thing, no nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are the greatest danger to our country going forward, to the world going forward.” (10/29/24)
- “And all I wanted was Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon … That’s all I wanted. Very simple. You can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (10/28/24)
- “We don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” (10/23/24)
- “I didn’t want much. I wanted Iran to be very successful. I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (10/16/24)
- “You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.” (10/14/24)
- “I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple.” (10/10/24)
- “I only wanted one thing. You can’t have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.” (10/7/24)
- “No, they can’t have nukes. No, they can’t have nukes.” (10/7/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon — and now they’re very close to having one and it’s very dangerous for the world, very dangerous for the world … The biggest problem today, in my opinion, the biggest risk is the nuclear weapons.” (10/1/24)
- “All I want them to do is not have a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (9/30/24)
- “The only thing is [Iran] cannot have nuclear weapons.” (9/26/24)
- “I wanted one thing from Iran — no nuclear weapon. I didn’t want much — no nuclear weapon. And now they’re very close to getting it, and you can’t let that happen.” (9/19/24)
- “All we want is we don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. That’s all we want. We don’t want you to have a nuclear weapon.” (9/17/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. We just can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say this. If they do have a nuclear weapon, Israel is gone. It’ll be gone.” (8/27/24)
- “I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (8/23/24)
- “I just wanted to have a deal with Iran, very simple deal — can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s it.” (8/23/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. And we were all set to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. Because once they do, it’s a whole different world, it’s a whole different negotiation.” (8/15/24)
- “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon — it’s very simple.” (8/8/24)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” (8/5/24)
- “Iran should not have a nuclear weapon … Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.” (7/10/24)
- “The main thing is Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. That was my main thing. The deal was a simple deal. Iran can’t have a nuclear. You know, it can’t have a missile, it can’t have a nuclear missile. It cannot have that nuclear capability.” (6/20/24)
- “We have a very hostile country that wants nuclear weapons. You can’t let that happen.” (6/15/24)
- “Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. They would never have had even close to a nuclear weapon. They are very close to getting a nuclear weapon. You cannot let that happen.” (5/15/24)
- “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon — very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (5/1/24)
- “You can’t let Iran have nuclear weapons.” (4/30/24)
- “Iran wanted to make a deal, and what the deal — 90% of the deal that I want to make is no nuclear weapon. That’s 90% — almost 100%. It might be 100%. That’s all I want. No nuclear weapon for Iran” (3/25/24)
- “I want everybody to be happy. They just can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (2/23/24)
- “I just didn’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I said, ‘You know, we’re going to make a great deal. Everybody’s going to be happy. You’re going to be rich as hell again. Everything’s going to be great, but you cannot have a nuclear weapon.’” (1/20/24)
- “They cannot have a nuclear weapon. That was the only thing — the one thing I said, ‘You cannot have.’” (1/5/24)
- “I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (1/5/24)
- “They will have, within a short period of time, nuclear weapons — and that is never something that can be allowed to happen.” (12/30/23)
- “No nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are the single greatest threat to this world.” (11/9/23)
- “They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. They can’t have nuclear weapons. It’s too destructive, too powerful. They can’t have it.” (10/29/23)
- “Don’t let Iran have nuclear weapons. That’s my only thing I have to tell you today. Don’t let them have it.” (10/16/23)
- “No nuclear weapons. You can’t give [Iran] nuclear weapons.” (7/15/23)
- “You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let it happen because bad things will happen if that happens.” (6/24/23)