The Political Discussion Thread

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

We will only export to you and refuse to import because imports take American jobs away, unless you have something that we totally can not make ourselves. Because that's how economics work.

Annoyed is that you? Take off that mask! *pulls at Tood's face*

[aretood2]

Annoyed is that you? Take off that mask! *pulls at Tood's face*

*makes giant sucking sounds*

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

What are you doing to that Giant?

!! *covers eyes*

I didn't see anything!!

*runs away and trips over the coffee table*

[Gatefan1976]

Colour me shocked...............
http://www.smh.com.au/world/donald-t...02-grtbqv.html

[Gatefan1976]

More fun:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...urns-published

[Gatefan1976]

Well, you can thank BOTH parties for getting these people so riled up that they will take any deal, even a bad one instead continuing.

Ummm, no.
Prove your charge, you pressed me to do it, prove yours.

I've gone over the Republican party, but the Dems are just as bad. One after another, the Dems put in pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams, saying that they are trying to help the lower classes,

So, you want to hold "dreamers" to the same standard as people intentionally trying to screw people?
Really?

but in reality, the majority of the folks they really help are the parasites; they don't work, don't want to work or support themselves

Tood was more direct about this, but look up who causes the vast majority of the "giant sucking sound".

and continually make stupid decisions such as having children when they have no business doing so,

That's not stupid, that's smart.
Isn't that what Trump said?
People would be stupid not to take advantage of the tax laws, wouldn't they?

refusing to take advantage of what the are offered, such as free basic education as well as other things which doom them to their current status endlessly.

What "basic education"?

But this is fine for Democrats; if a person is dependent upon them for their continued govt. benefits and such, that person will vote for Democrats.

So, they have a vested excuse to vote for them, good or bad.
What is your excuse for voting against your own interests?

But who pays for this? Of course, lip service is always paid to "Taxing the rich", and making sure "everyone pays their fair share", but at the end of the day, the well off can often find ways to avoid taxation (the tax writers always include loopholes for their own class, the well-off) the poor pay little or no taxes. So in the end it's the lower middle class working stiff who pays for all this.

True, but that is a non partisan issue.

And he is sick and damned tired of it.

So voting for the person who made their entire career on bilking the system will change things......
Delusional.

Still sounds like Brexit to me.

Smells like BS to me.

[SoulReaver]

Hardly anybody I know is suffering from Brexit regret, don't believe everything written by the people Brexit will affect the most, after all shouldn't we be in WW3 and a third world country by now?

bah of all those in the EU the far-right extremists won't miss the UK (for the wrong reasons though) and the rest - at least the democrats - won't miss it either so no biggie

[Womble]

Russia's Putin orders plutonium cleanup program with US to be suspended

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday to suspend an agreement with the United States on disposing of weapons-grade plutonium, a further sign of worsening ties between the former Cold War foes.

The deal, which was signed in 2000 and went into force under a 2010 agreement, was being suspended due to "the emergence of a threat to strategic stability and as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States of America towards the Russian Federation", the preamble to the decree said.

[Ian-S]

The housing market should have completely collapsed. War in the EU, eternal darkness, Christmas is cancelled. No one will ever trade with us again. Etc...

It's been so quiet since the vote because the government are taking their time to put the plan together. To make sure it's done properly. Cameron rushed into the vote. Told ridiculous lies after lies.. and look how that turned out..

If you mean Cameron rushed into the vote because his "inner circle" (i.e. the 1%'ers) had assured him he would win and he was so confident of that (because he never asked anybody else until it was too late) that he didn't even consider binding the referendum to the same requirements that he himself had for bringing in new laws (i.e. 2/3rds majority), then yes he was an idiot so blinded by his own bull**** he never even considered an insurance policy in case he lost the gamble.

I voted out but even I'll admit the vote was far too close for it to actually mean anything, there was no majority at all (more people didn't vote than the winning margin), and there needs to be a second one after negotiations are completed to decide if we the public are happy with them, but the EU want rid of us and there was no "back door" written in to provide for this, so our Prime Minister now sits safe in the knowledge that not only is she pushing forward with voting boundary changes that will ensure nobody else ever gets in, but that also if things do ever go to crap, she can just blame Dave and say "this is what you wanted, don't blame me", she is pushing ahead regardless and totally ignoring the obvious ways for her to get out of it, falling to the same trap as Dave, making snap decisions because or peer pressure or she thinks it's "what mates do", for a closet pro-EU MP, she is as clueless as Dave.

Brexit will never affect me, unless we as a Country are reduced to a lawless society with warlords running each County, so I don't care, but from an outsiders perspective it was the equivilant of playing pin the tail on the donkey in the middle of the road.

[thekillman]

The housing market should have completely collapsed. War in the EU, eternal darkness, Christmas is cancelled. No one will ever trade with us again. Etc...

Those statements were largely made on the promise of Cameron to enact it immediately. It didn't happen. Brexit still has to happen. And in the mean time, everyone does the logical thing: weigh their options and wait.

Hardly anybody I know is suffering from Brexit regret, don't believe everything written by the people Brexit will affect the most, after all shouldn't we be in WW3 and a third world country by now?

The likelihood of WWIII is still increasing by the day so don't hold your breath there.

bah of all those in the EU the far-right extremists won't miss the UK (for the wrong reasons though) and the rest - at least the democrats - won't miss it either so no biggie

Well it will make european politics easier. They already had a bunch of exceptions to their name.

If you mean Cameron rushed into the vote because his "inner circle" (i.e. the 1%'ers) had assured him he would win and he was so confident of that (because he never asked anybody else until it was too late) that he didn't even consider binding the referendum to the same requirements that he himself had for bringing in new laws (i.e. 2/3rds majority), then yes he was an idiot so blinded by his own bull**** he never even considered an insurance policy in case he lost the gamble.

He underestimated his own unpopularity. He tied his own fate to the Referendum and i think a lot of people saw it as a way to show the middlefinger.

[Ian-S]

If WW3 breaks out it won't be as a result of us leaving, I think that's what made peoples eyes roll an it was said because it's obvious even to a child the threat is elsewhere on that front.

It also couldn't have helped when all the kids came home from school and started spouting pro-EU propaganda to their parents, I don't know if it was a central government thing or all the heads decided it was a great way to try and manipulate the vote, but it backfired in a spectacular way as nobody likes seeing someone using a kid as a pawn.

[Falcon Horus]

You answered that question yourself with the following NY Times article link--

I added it as an addendum. Thought you might have had other ideas.

One can only wonder what type(s) of "HARM" that would be implying.

The only harm I see happening from that article to the US is the complete pull back of investments in American business, no more access to military bases in Saudi Arabia (or possibly pay a lot more rent), and no more alliance.

Go back into the article to see what else they could do.

Such as, first-- send over as many undesirable refugees (problematic souls from the Middle East, and other regions)

They don't send refugees around the world to anyone -- don't know where you picked that up from. The UNHCR is responsible for refugees.

It isn't beyond such a wealthy country to buy out whomever they choose, to do their bidding of nasty stuff.

Did you read the article?
It clearly states that the country is having a cashflow problem, even had to cut pay of government workers.

...this already happened with the destruction of the WTC...

The problem of course that there wasn't any proof that Saudi Arabia was even involved in that.

Or jack up our gas prices so high, that it cuts especially into the middle class guy who's been trying to overcome various commodities increases of the past, only to see more money fly out just to get decent transportation in this (USA) country.

How much of your oil is from that side of the ocean?

For the record:

In 2015, about 24% of the petroleum consumed by the United States was imported from foreign countries, the lowest level since 1970.
Petroleum includes crude oil and petroleum products. Petroleum products include gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, jet fuel, chemical feedstocks, asphalt, biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel), and other products.

Source: US Energy Information Administration (last update March 8, 2016)

With the job situations being reduced to the point where an employee has to travel sometimes up to an hour one way to get to work, that hurts the financial pocketbook.

I drive an hour every morning and evening to work, 5 days a week and pay approximately 40€ for 36L of diesel a week. Your point?

And our petrol isn't locally sourced.

Coincidentally, *strange* thing happened day or two after the JASTA law came out (I don't remember the actual dates any more)--but NJ transit train for the NJ/NY metro area crashed and critically damaged the station over in Hoboken(NJ).. this has messed up metro traffic and transit for possibly several weeks, as a major hub rail station needs excess amount of repairs -- so other stations must be alternatively used instead; and a train engine is permanently out of use (it got demolished). Meantime, "terrorism" was being ruled out as a factor, for the duration.

That happened on Friday, and I'm afraid it was a technical error. They do happen.

Not everything is terrorism. Sadly accidents do still happen.

Hoboken train crash: authorities question engineer and name victim

No. I meant exactly what I said. The gov't agencies, etc., get their lesser messenger minions to do the service work into researching various data info on this and that (which is how most of our current USA regulations end up becoming regulations and then LAW in the first place!), and then the agencies compile the data, sort thru it, and prioritize on what items get put into working projects.

Compiling data is not done by hand, for the record. That's what they have data crawlers for and algorythms and software... and spyware.

You (FH) already explained it yourself with your rant(s) about me.

Fine, I asked you a politely to explain what you meant. Instead, I get this.

To paraphrase my own **original** comment, I *think* it means tell me stuff that I/we (of this certain group of intellectuals) want to know, NOT what else is out there that might be helpful to also know or be aware of.

That's called staying on topic of politics.

Besides, how is it that just about everyone is capable of explaining something without the need to drag in half their family, but you.

That's pretty much what politics does anyway-- complicate and confuse -- ever see the IRS tax return "LONG version" form?

Then I have one answer for you: educate yourself on the subject.

Hardly anybody I know is suffering from Brexit regret, don't believe everything written by the people Brexit will affect the most, after all shouldn't we be in WW3 and a third world country by now?

The pound is so low, buying in the UK is awesome.

[thekillman]

If WW3 breaks out it won't be as a result of us leaving, I think that's what made peoples eyes roll an it was said because it's obvious even to a child the threat is elsewhere on that front.

Such things do not happen because of one single point in time, but that doesn't mean it can't contribute.

[Womble]

If WW3 breaks out it won't be as a result of us leaving, I think that's what made peoples eyes roll an it was said because it's obvious even to a child the threat is elsewhere on that front.

We're already IN the World War III, people just refuse to recognize it as such.

Did it occur to anybody else that there's a disturbing number of similarities between the Syrian war of the last few years and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939?

[Falcon Horus]

Beyond the painting, I'm unfamiliar with the Spanish civil war.