I've seen far too many politicians flip flop from side to side to not think republican/democrat isn't a sham. For example Rick Perry who is a front runner for republicans in the up coming election, was a democrat in 1988, even Al Gore's Campaign Chairman. That's one small example there are many more.
To top that off the massive focus on corporations and leading democrats and republicans both having their hands deep in those pockets. Then you have suspicious meetings groups like Bilderberg, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, G8, and G20. I'm sure there are many more. Those all fall into the group of global elite, you have politicians both republican and democrat attending meeting where they illegally discuss politics with members of the media and corporation leaders.
Some of them like Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove also practice staged human sacrifice ceremonies such as the Cremation of Care Ceremony at Bohemian Grove. Or Skull and Bones where they give each other nicknames like Long Devil and dress up in black robes. Supposed upstanding conservative religious men taking part in all of this, there's nothing suspicious about that.
To top all of this off neither side ever changes anything, but of course that's rationalized by congress, senate, and the president wrestling for power. So it appears everything is essentially running as planned and nothing is out of the ordinary, all the while the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer and no one is any the wiser, and to that I say good game.
Just because politicians change parties doesn't mean that they are merely switching which side of the coin they want to be on. People change their political views all the time and it doesn't make sense to be one thing and call yourself something that holds certain beliefs that you have abandoned. You're only hurting yourself at that point.
You need to remember that these politicians are only human and, like all humans, they are vulnerable to the same things that the common man is. The only thing that sets apart a politician and a normal citizen, before they obtain office, is that the politician is often more charismatic. Normally, I would hate using Hitler as an example of this, but he exemplifies the role that charisma has in politics and why, even though people may not have the best ideas, their charisma often saves them. People love a leader as long as that leader is looking out for them, so it's no wonder why Adolf rose to power. Of course, the people would later abandon Hitler once the fascist policies really kicked in.
If anything, you should be wary of the politicians who go into office and then follow a path that isn't what they promised.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
Compromised of ordinary people who are elected by ordinary people.
In retrospect, the United States government was founded entirely on compromise.
People need to be able to compromise for the government to properly function. When two parties can't compromise, the entire function of government becomes gridlocked and progress can't happen. That's exactly what's happening in the US with this whole debt ceiling debate. I hope people will learn from this and look for leadership elsewhere because, quite frankly, I'm tired of having to hold my breath whenever a crisis comes into play. We seem to have too many of those lately.
And, in the meantime, the possibility that my grandmother who, at age 76, may not be able to get her social security check on time to pay for injections in her eye so she can keep her sight, is very real. I don't think it's the least bit funny that these fuckers are keeping this progress from happening. Oh yeah, my family has a stake in this as well and I'm not ready to see what will happen if August 2nd does come around and an agreement isn't reached. This is all along party lines too. You see the obvious offenders and then you see the people willing to compromise. Obama was willing to compromise from the very beginning, but the other side wouldn't have it, so now we have this countdown and everybody has their thumb up their asses. My grandma needs her check to come because her Medicare doesn't cover the insane cost of these eye injections ($600 of the cost comes out of her pocket). And the scary thing to think about is how many cases are out there that are similar to my grandmother's?
"Elections have consequences." - Senator Bernie Sanders (I)
Great post, Don. I don't think I've ever agreed with anything more since I've been on this forum.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
I feel that, without those entities, we would be running that hamster wheel anyway because we are used to a rhythmic schedule of wake the fuck up, go to fucking work, go home, eat dinner, and sleep. We created the hamster wheel ourselves, they don't have us running it. Koch Industries just watches us and thinks, "what can we do to make them work harder and get us more money."
We have had the hamster wheels long before Koch Industries were here, but our ownership was then sold to Koch Industries and other current companies from companies of old. It wasn't always David Koch and the others of this generation, but it was always somebody.
"By censoring body that would prevent him from making wrong decisions" do you mean jail?
No. Jail is not censoring. Incarceration happens AFTER the event took place. It's the reason why planning a crime is rarely criminalized (only in rare cases where the crime is really heinous and the planning constitutes for a substitute to attempt).
No, but Incarceration is a different form of censoring. It's using psychological deterrents to cause people to not want to commit a crime. Does it always work? Of course not. Would the MSBB always work? Of course not. But they are different ways to come about the same conclusion.
Freedom is one thing. Letting houses sit empty and forcing good men and women to live outside on the streets is another.
No they're not. The empty houses are a direct consequence of freedom.
Freedom includes the freedom to buy a house. Freedom includes the exclusive rights to that house. A homeowner is free to paint the walls (in some places they might have to consult someone else for the external walls for the good of the neighborhood, but lets keep our focus on the internal walls). A homeowner is free to knock down a wall to join two rooms or build a new wall to divide one room into two.
A homeowner is free to live in his house, but also free to keep the house empty. Hell, the freedom also includes the freedom to demolish the house.
So, the fact that some houses sit empty is the direct consequence of some homeowners exercising their right to not live in their houses.
People have every right to do whatever they want with their houses. I have no problem with that. A company is not a person though, and the supreme court can kiss my ass on this subject. If a person leaves their house empty, then fine. I have no problem with that. If a company (ie bank) take a house from somebody else then leaves it empty, I have a problem with it. These companies have dozens of houses that they have no intention of living in them, planning to let them just sit there vacant until the end of time.
I guess I don't personally afford companies the same "freedoms" as I do people.
That would be one of the many censoring bodies that is in the United States. (For a free nation, we certainly have very, very few freedoms. )
I'm not sure whether you know what freedom is. Or what censorship is, for that matter.
Freedom is not the lack of repercussions. Freedom does not mean that everything is allowed. That is anarchy. Freedom is the lack of any preventive measures and censorship.
Although murder is criminalized nearly everywhere, you are free to think of murder. In your head, you are completely free to plan a murder, or any other crime you can think of. That is freedom. There is no chip in your brain, no wiretaps on your phones just in case you were planning a murder.
Patriot act ftl.
But honestly, there are more ways to censor then just brute force. You can censor through fear, through discrimination, through ignorance, etc. There are many ways you can get the job done, and still not look like your the bad guy.
There is one valid reason to limit freedom. And that is to prevent an individual from harming others. In a state of anarchy (no laws, where everyone is free to do what they can) a state called "bellum omnium contra omnes" ("the war of all against all") exists. In it the freedom of person A to live their life happily is limited by person B's freedom of at any point come and murder person A.
Therefore a truly free state must criminalize harming other free persons. But because "harm" is subjective, it changes slightly from state to state.
I am not talking about actually punishing people for doing wrong things. I am talking about making people so afraid to speak up that they fear their life and the lives of their loved ones, like the teen and his girlfriend who was fired at by 6 police officers until their clips were emptied. That kind of nation (ie America) is the kind of nation that uses fear as a censoring body.
A few limitations of freedom exist, for example laws that state that motorcyclists need to wear crash helmets. It's a fairly sensible law, and even a libertarian like myself can live with it.
No it's not. Only thing a helmet does is helps to clean up the mess. Sorry, don't want to seem like I am nit picking, but this point right here just agitates me a bit.
But companies are people. They are joint operations of individuals that form a legal entity called a corporation. And no-one is taking anything away from anyone.
Like I say, I don't buy this bullcrap that "companies are people too!" Sorry, I just can't stomach that garbage, and I think the Supreme Court (I know you are not using that as the reason why you are calling them people, I'm just pointing it out) say that they are people, but I think the Supreme Court are dumb as shit for saying so, or at least being paid off.
The houses weren't those families'. Else they wouldn't be evicted. It's simply a matter that the families never owned those houses in the first place. They were in the progress of paying for them, but the banks still owned them.
Under this logic, the companies are stealing the part of the home that the family already paid for. But it's a company, so theft is okay?
I personally dislike two-party systems like the US has. UK had a two-party system for ages, but now it's more like 2,5-party system. Democracy is all about finding compromises between opinions, so with only two parties the compromises might become rather major. Especially the extreme opinions will be majorly dissatisfied with these kinds of major compromises.
Other than that, it's just an ordinary political system.
Didn't the UK have a major issue with none of the three major parties getting the majority of votes here a year or two ago?
When two parties can't compromise, the entire function of government becomes gridlocked and progress can't happen. That's exactly what's happening in the US with this whole debt ceiling debate. I hope people will learn from this and look for leadership elsewhere because, quite frankly, I'm tired of having to hold my breath whenever a crisis comes into play. We seem to have too many of those lately.
/agree
On an off topic note, I'm not used to being on the opposite side as Don Guillotine, though it seems to of happened a lot lately.
Also, for anyone interested in another way of voting and getting people in office more attune with their constituencies, check out the Alternate Vote.
Politics really just seems like one big game. I mean seriously when has an elected official actually done what he or she said they would do. The American political system is so ineffiecient and corrupt that it hardly matters who you elect. No one has the balls to change the status quo so nothing ever happens. Can someone name one person that has delivered on their political promises? Probably not
Actually, Politifact is a good place to go to find promises fulfilled and promises broken. It's also a good place to find when people are telling the truth or lying.
As for one person who has delivered on their political promises, President Obama has kept about 72 promises? Many have kept their promises. Not always good promises, or bad promises, but promises none the less.
Usually that is what happens. And then because people tend to focus more on the negative and less on the positive (As well, negative news sells better then positive news).
Granted, sometimes the negative far, far outweighs the positive. (Like politics today.)
"You passed a bill you promised you would pass? Great, now stop fucking with Wikileaks you bastards."
A recent example in my country was a politician who said he would provide funding for a local hospital and local schools - neither of which came to be. Most of the promises he kept applied to other states so we got the short end of the stick. Just because we have a smaller population doesn't mean he can treat us this way and I'm sure that party will see a sizable loss in voters come next election.
Another huge problem we have in America is the media. Almost all mainstream news network are clearly biased for one side or another. Most of the time the mainstream media doesn't report on the things that actually matter or have an impact on people. Instead they choose to spend an entire month following the fucking Casey Anthony murder trial ( which was a complete circus in it's own right). When was the last time there was a report on the situation in Libya or the famine in Central Africa? The only time the media reports on the war in Aftganastan is when someone is killed. Everything in the news is always negative. And every major network is at fault here. But the probably is more about society as a whole rather than the media. The culture of the US is completely warped and flawed. People need to start holding their lawmakers and people in positions of power accountable for their actions. Until we do that then we will continue to head down the path we are headed.
Yeah I get sick of negative news. Even the paper is pretty bad, almost always with a depressing headline. I would say the ratio of bad news to neutral/good news is about 60/40. It's a bit worse on TV news and Current Affair programs are a joke. But as they say, bad news sells better. It's just something we have to deal with unless you want to start watching Jehovah's Witness shows. Then you deal with religious ideals getting crammed down your throat.
So I guess I just realized that Blizzcon isn't that far away. I mean, the last time we actually heard about it, it was February. Now it's pretty much August. And Blizzcon is in October.
August 1-31
September 1-30
October 21-22 (Blizzcon)
61 + 21 = 82 days until Blizzcon
So, yeah, I thought you should all fucking know that.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
Actually, since I like motorcycles and I've driven one I know a fair bit about them. The helmet is one of the few things that keeps a motorcyclist alive in a crash. Of course, no-one is able to survive a really bad crash, but even really mild crashes in speeds not surpassing 20-30 mph can be fatal without a helmet when your head hits something. With a helmet survival rates in motorcycle crashes increase significantly since the head is the weakest part (in terms of survival) of a human body in crashes.
Of the few times my friends and my parents friends have been in motorcycle wrecks, I've not seen that much use for helmets. I may be wrong, I don't ride a motorcycle myself. I'm just speaking from observation.
Actually no. The way it works is that the bank finances the purchase of the property through a mortgage. The house acts as a security in this deal. So, in the case of a default, i.e. the situation where debtors are unable to pay their debts, the house will be liquidated (i.e. sold) to cover the loan.
So, let's say a house costs $100,000. The bank loans that $100,000 to our fictional family X. Then the relations will go like this:
Family X owes $100,000 to the bank.
Family X has the possession of the house.
The house is kept by the bank as a security.
Lets say Family X has paid $50,000 of the debt when they realize they're unable to pay the rest. All sensible alternative remedies have been tried. The bank liquidates the house and sells it for $95,000 (after paying the realtor and whonot). Then the bank writes $50,000 of that 95k as payment for the loan, and gives the $45,000 to the family.
The bank will never take more than what the family still owes.
Of course, in many situations, especially right now, the value of the property has gone down, and the families haven't paid for a significant portion of the house. Therefore when the bank liquidates the property, there isn't as much to be given to the family.
But I don't know where you got the notion of banks stealing something.
I appologize, I've never heard of this happening. It may possibly be true, I've never had a mortgage, so I've never heard of any of this. Like I say, I am just speaking from what I am seeing across America, ie theft by banks.
Also, it's still theft if I take your stuff, regardless of whether I give you money after the fact or not. If I took your house and then later gave you $45,000 for it, I'd still go to jail.
Charisma is definitely one of the hardest things to carry. There is a lot of heart involved and you need enough strength in your demeanor and voice to be able to sway the hearts of so many people with so few words.
You don't even need a good idea to sway hearts. You just need your voice and enough conviction to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
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To top that off the massive focus on corporations and leading democrats and republicans both having their hands deep in those pockets. Then you have suspicious meetings groups like Bilderberg, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, G8, and G20. I'm sure there are many more. Those all fall into the group of global elite, you have politicians both republican and democrat attending meeting where they illegally discuss politics with members of the media and corporation leaders.
Some of them like Skull and Bones and Bohemian Grove also practice staged human sacrifice ceremonies such as the Cremation of Care Ceremony at Bohemian Grove. Or Skull and Bones where they give each other nicknames like Long Devil and dress up in black robes. Supposed upstanding conservative religious men taking part in all of this, there's nothing suspicious about that.
To top all of this off neither side ever changes anything, but of course that's rationalized by congress, senate, and the president wrestling for power. So it appears everything is essentially running as planned and nothing is out of the ordinary, all the while the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer and no one is any the wiser, and to that I say good game.
You need to remember that these politicians are only human and, like all humans, they are vulnerable to the same things that the common man is. The only thing that sets apart a politician and a normal citizen, before they obtain office, is that the politician is often more charismatic. Normally, I would hate using Hitler as an example of this, but he exemplifies the role that charisma has in politics and why, even though people may not have the best ideas, their charisma often saves them. People love a leader as long as that leader is looking out for them, so it's no wonder why Adolf rose to power. Of course, the people would later abandon Hitler once the fascist policies really kicked in.
If anything, you should be wary of the politicians who go into office and then follow a path that isn't what they promised.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
In retrospect, the United States government was founded entirely on compromise.
People need to be able to compromise for the government to properly function. When two parties can't compromise, the entire function of government becomes gridlocked and progress can't happen. That's exactly what's happening in the US with this whole debt ceiling debate. I hope people will learn from this and look for leadership elsewhere because, quite frankly, I'm tired of having to hold my breath whenever a crisis comes into play. We seem to have too many of those lately.
And, in the meantime, the possibility that my grandmother who, at age 76, may not be able to get her social security check on time to pay for injections in her eye so she can keep her sight, is very real. I don't think it's the least bit funny that these fuckers are keeping this progress from happening. Oh yeah, my family has a stake in this as well and I'm not ready to see what will happen if August 2nd does come around and an agreement isn't reached. This is all along party lines too. You see the obvious offenders and then you see the people willing to compromise. Obama was willing to compromise from the very beginning, but the other side wouldn't have it, so now we have this countdown and everybody has their thumb up their asses. My grandma needs her check to come because her Medicare doesn't cover the insane cost of these eye injections ($600 of the cost comes out of her pocket). And the scary thing to think about is how many cases are out there that are similar to my grandmother's?
"Elections have consequences." - Senator Bernie Sanders (I)
Great post, Don. I don't think I've ever agreed with anything more since I've been on this forum.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
We have had the hamster wheels long before Koch Industries were here, but our ownership was then sold to Koch Industries and other current companies from companies of old. It wasn't always David Koch and the others of this generation, but it was always somebody.
No, but Incarceration is a different form of censoring. It's using psychological deterrents to cause people to not want to commit a crime. Does it always work? Of course not. Would the MSBB always work? Of course not. But they are different ways to come about the same conclusion.
People have every right to do whatever they want with their houses. I have no problem with that. A company is not a person though, and the supreme court can kiss my ass on this subject. If a person leaves their house empty, then fine. I have no problem with that. If a company (ie bank) take a house from somebody else then leaves it empty, I have a problem with it. These companies have dozens of houses that they have no intention of living in them, planning to let them just sit there vacant until the end of time.
I guess I don't personally afford companies the same "freedoms" as I do people.
Patriot act ftl.
But honestly, there are more ways to censor then just brute force. You can censor through fear, through discrimination, through ignorance, etc. There are many ways you can get the job done, and still not look like your the bad guy.
I am not talking about actually punishing people for doing wrong things. I am talking about making people so afraid to speak up that they fear their life and the lives of their loved ones, like the teen and his girlfriend who was fired at by 6 police officers until their clips were emptied. That kind of nation (ie America) is the kind of nation that uses fear as a censoring body.
No it's not. Only thing a helmet does is helps to clean up the mess. Sorry, don't want to seem like I am nit picking, but this point right here just agitates me a bit.
Like I say, I don't buy this bullcrap that "companies are people too!" Sorry, I just can't stomach that garbage, and I think the Supreme Court (I know you are not using that as the reason why you are calling them people, I'm just pointing it out) say that they are people, but I think the Supreme Court are dumb as shit for saying so, or at least being paid off.
Under this logic, the companies are stealing the part of the home that the family already paid for. But it's a company, so theft is okay?
Didn't the UK have a major issue with none of the three major parties getting the majority of votes here a year or two ago?
/agree
On an off topic note, I'm not used to being on the opposite side as Don Guillotine, though it seems to of happened a lot lately.
Also, for anyone interested in another way of voting and getting people in office more attune with their constituencies, check out the Alternate Vote.
As for one person who has delivered on their political promises, President Obama has kept about 72 promises? Many have kept their promises. Not always good promises, or bad promises, but promises none the less.
Granted, sometimes the negative far, far outweighs the positive. (Like politics today.)
"You passed a bill you promised you would pass? Great, now stop fucking with Wikileaks you bastards."
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
August 1-31
September 1-30
October 21-22 (Blizzcon)
61 + 21 = 82 days until Blizzcon
So, yeah, I thought you should all fucking know that.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence
United Bank will never move into a house.
Of the few times my friends and my parents friends have been in motorcycle wrecks, I've not seen that much use for helmets. I may be wrong, I don't ride a motorcycle myself. I'm just speaking from observation.
I appologize, I've never heard of this happening. It may possibly be true, I've never had a mortgage, so I've never heard of any of this. Like I say, I am just speaking from what I am seeing across America, ie theft by banks.
Also, it's still theft if I take your stuff, regardless of whether I give you money after the fact or not. If I took your house and then later gave you $45,000 for it, I'd still go to jail.
Now there is science, literature, politics, etc, discussed here. Amazing how things change.
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
You don't even need a good idea to sway hearts. You just need your voice and enough conviction to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
I hate the way you cling to ignorance and pass it off as innocence