02-19-2017, 08:51 PM
(02-19-2017, 07:13 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: [quote pid='21523' dateline='1487489265']
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Rags, unless you're making minimum wage in some service or farm job, illegal aliens are no threat to your income. The raise you haven't had is because of the bosses who refuse to give you one, just like George Carlin and Bernie Sanders said. The rich cocksuckers are grabbing all the wealth for themselves. CEOs make 300 times what their employees make. Minimum wages are ridiculously low, and that affects other wages. Blaming the immigrants is an effective campaign for demagogues, but that's ALL it is.
Europe has very little to fear from the flood of refugees. Maybe one or two got in through the flood. But the terrorists there were entirely people who lived there long before Assad's terror forced all those refugees to come. Where are they all going to go? Assad has chased his people out of his country; those that he didn't kill, torture and main for life. You can't say this holocaust didn't have an effect on the West. But it's not the effect that you think. The refugees are not bringing crime, they're not bringing drugs, and they're not rapists. Those who are, were already there. No, they ARE good people, in spite of what Trump says. The BAD people are Trump, the Brexit mongers, Le Pen, Putin and all the other fascist demagogues who are taking political advantage of the xenophobia. Period; end of story.
1. Eric, I do make minimum wage because H1-B's replaced me. So yeah, there's lots of stuff I'd like to see happen. It goes like this. If you're IT and over 40, it's over, period. That's why I want lots of "reforms", mostly which do a huge smackdown on CEO/corporate America. Shutting down access to cheap labor here in the US is one of those prongs. There may be a trace of Boomer in me after all. I DESERVE to be paid better.
I want that fatter paycheck to come out of the hides of said CEO's/corporate America. That's why I also want a VAT tax/single payer health plan. A VAT tax is perfect for smacking anyone who attempts to import cheap stuff including outsourced labor from overseas like call centers in India. I don't think we disagree much on domestic economics except for cheap labor that American citizens should do including legal immigrants. I have no issues at all with legal immigration. I do have issues with illegal immigration because that opens the door to exploitation and wage suppression. Besides, should we use Mexico's policies towards immigration? Of course I also recognize that the US needs to shut down the war on drugs since that is fucking Mexico over. It's not all Mexico's fault and I know that. Well, I agree with you Rags that you should get a fatter paycheck
Preferably out of the hides of some rich CEOs.I'm not sure what VAT you are talking about that would smack people who "import cheap stuff including outsourced labor from overseas like call centers in India." I know there's a lot of that going on, but I always thought it had to do with free trade and lack of tariffs. But who knows, the CEOs seem able to get around a lot of stuff in order to hire cheaper labor that we Americans could do just as well.
The problem you see with illegal immigration, it seems to me, could be solved by enforcing the minimum wages laws on everyone, illegal or not. Yes, we need to shut down the war on drugs, but the other half of the Mexico drug war equation is the cheap legal big guns that we enable the Mexicans to buy and take down there.
Quote:2. A lot of Europe's problems stem from Qaddafi not being there. Clinton and her Neocon friends are who I blame for that one. If Qaddafi were still in power, then there would not be this huge human smuggling problem going on.
Not at all. Most of the refugees come through Turkey and Greece. Some do come through Libya to Italy, if they survive, but I don't see how Qaddafi could have stopped them. Plus Qaddafi staying in power would have meant a bloodbath just like the one in Syria, and thus 10 times more refugees from Libya itself. You forget again that it is the repression of Arab Spring 2011 peoples' revolutionary movements against tyrants like Assad, Mubarek, Ben Ali and Qaddafi that created most of these refugees; NOT the Islamic State or Al Nusra.
And sometimes I can't believe just how much on target I was in my prediction that 2011-2012 period would see a whole, whole lot of refugees and revolutions. It's right there in my videos from years before. It was all in the stars; specifically Neptune in Pisces. All you had to do was remember the Potato Famine and 1848 Revolutions and how many refugees all that created the last time Neptune was there. Some of them came all the way out here to California to join the Gold Rush and establish our state. I knew what was coming, and so I know what it is.
Quote:3. As for Europe, it's gonna blow. Some nice, some not so nice... I think there's a lot of fuel for said demagogues there. Perhaps tuss can put his 2 cents worth since he lives in Sverige.
Tussilago can toss in his right wing spiel as he wants, but we don't know yet how far the right-wing will get in Europe. They're a lot smarter than we Americans are, by a long stretch. It won't be as easy for the Trumps over there as it was over here to fool the people. Half of Americans are so dumb they would follow a blind pig off a cliff. And they do.
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1. The [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax"] VAT tax [/url is how I'd finance a true single payer health care plan, Medicare for all. Medicare has a good track record and I've listed how to pay for it. The VAT tax is a legal WTO way of implementing a "border tax". As far as most folks are concerned, they'd be paying a new tax, yes, but in exchange for no more Medicare taxes and no more health insurance premiums. I'd venture to say that Medicare taxes and health insurance premiums are more regressive than the VAT. If the VAT is structured to be imposed on each level of production than healthy food would have a lower rate as well. It works like this, fast food has a lot of production steps and inputs like plastic containers. I purchase rye grain and quinola from Amazon. Whole grain rye and quinola don't have that many steps from producer to consumer. In fact, I'd love to buy wheat and soybeans from the farmers where I live. Generally, the fewer steps in food production there are, the better quality of food you get.
2. A flood of refugees is usually always a problem Eric. Europe's economy sucks and Mideast culture does not mesh well with European culture. I agree with you terrorism is a minor but present threat. I'm even astounded at the US terrorism fetish. Auto crashes have a far higher chance of doing me in than a terror attack. I don't like illegal aliens coming to the US because
a. Illegal is just that, illegal. It's not OK to follow some laws, but not others. It's also not OK to ignore some laws, and not others. That's a recipe for anarchism. If there are laws I don't like, I'm obligated to vote for folks who want to get rid of the laws I think are stupid. The war on drugs is number 1. The war on drugs is a failed venture, it costs a fortune in jail costs, and it has absurd features like THC being a schedule III drug in the form of Marinol, but a schedule I as a plant.
3. Illegals in the US. I refer you once again to the population overshoot problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation
So, do you agree or disagree with this. Do you think like I do that global warming's going to put a major hurt on carrying capacity? Sorry, I'm not into having a Soylent green future. So yeah, I can't help it that I was "there" in the 1970's. What was old is new again, man.
4. Why don't the refugees go to places like Saudi Arabia? There's lots of room there.
5. Neptune/Pisces: I'm not an astrologer. All I know is in the case of the Mideast is we got a "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." It's even harder because of <shameless badering> Rags can't get Eric to do a chart for him because he has to pay </shameless badgering>
5. Baddies in Mexico can get guns from lot's of places like they do with chemical precursors for meth. Mexican Ice and weed are some of their most sought after merchandise.
---Value Added