The cancer infecting the political Left

[pbrower2a]

(07-31-2020, 09:20 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(07-31-2020, 07:06 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(07-31-2020, 12:41 AM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(07-30-2020, 11:24 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(07-30-2020, 10:45 PM),Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Things got this way after 40 years of "lower my taxes, get rid of regulation" Republican policies. Here's the deal, I'm going with the Zombie because Trump wants to take away my Social Security/Medicare , worker safety, etc. No more shrddeding the remaining safety nets by Republicans. They've destroyed  enough enough already. That's a red line for me.  Since the Republicans are still at this project , I'll vote for even a yellow dog, over Trump and any Republican down ticket.

As for shots, "like the old days".. I have a problem with that also. Every civilized country in the world has publicly funded shots, except for the US. As for the Covid shot, it's not going to be free either.  This is stupid. Healthcare should never be a privately supplied service.  People over profits!   The American Right fat cats are the ones who are the most about the benjamins. That's the problem. As for China, I don't care about that issue either.  If anyone has a problem with China, it's the American fatcats who made China what is today.  If China wants to take stuff away from "American" companies, fine.  Let those fuckers pay for the mistake they made , chasing cheap labor. Fuck 'em.  "American" companies can eat shit and die.   It's all about the benjamins for me, just enough to not be on the streets or starving. If AOC want's poor people to have more,  more power to here.

Yes, I know damn well Biden bad, but the Republicans have done jumped the shark. At least there's a chance the youngins and Bernie can light a fire under some butts who want to to be Neoliberals/Neocons.

How is Trump going to take away our social security, medicare, worker protections without American support? Like I said, you have to stop think like a Democrat and start thinking like an American. I was a typical American worker too at one time. As a matter of fact, I don't know a Republican voter/supporter who isn't/wasn't a typical American worker these days. Dude, the safety nets are being watered down (inadequately funded) by all the added financial commitments and obligations. We have to break free from the bulk of liberal commitments and the only candidate that I've seen trying to do it so far is Trump. One other thing, YOU PEOPLE ARE LIVING OFF OUR PROFITS and Projected Profits. Me, I'll be happy to keep my profits and let/ watch you people die under the Democratic regime. You see, I don't owe you or the Democratic party shit.

Here's how he's going to do it, by the back door.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2...-drop-dead

OK, cut SS taxes means compromising the trust fund. The trust fund should be fixed by popping the cap. There is no reason why Warren Buffet should pay a lower tax rate on Social Security than the working class does.

Our profits?  So it's OK if Amazon has a lower tax rate than the working class?  Nope, can't go with that program. If you're ok with Amazon paying a lower tax rate than you do, fine. I can't change people.   Btw, do you care about worker safety? Remember, it was Trump who ordered the meat workers back to their jobs. That's why meat packing plants are Corona petri dishes. And lots of folks are already dying under the Republican regime.  Profits are more important than being able to handle disasters like pandemics. Pandemic planning isn't a profit center. That's why we have the mess we have now.  As far as pandemics and other things, the US is a typical shithole banana republic now.

Now if you want a perfect tax free paradise, may I suggest emigrating to Somalia. There are no taxes or regulations there.

As long as we have a few books worth of complicated tax codes, Amazon and its owner Bezos will always have an advantage and pay less tax as a percentage than smaller business's and American working class tax payers. The American people eat meat and Trump understands that maintaining an adequate food supply during a crisis is important. Did you notice all the meat shortages that occurred after a few packing plants were shutdown for a while by the CDC because of COVID19.  I'm an essential worker, I place myself at risk by being out and about in public. I don't live in the big city. I live in a smaller city a stone throw away from the country. Plus, I can still go out this fall and kill it and grill it too. Dude, more people have died under the Democratic regimes so far. Oh, if you're interested in living in a place like Somalia, I'd suggest that you come up and check out Minneapolis or Chicago where the gangs rule right now. If Venezuela is more your style, I'd suggest California or New York City or New Jersey. I would say New City is on the teetering point between Somalia and Venezuela at this point.

Republicans have made the tax code the complicated and unfair mess that it is. Their schemes for simplifying it such as a flat tax would only benefit their rich clients. Meat is the worst possible food because it pollutes the most, takes up more land, causes more heart attacks, and stirs up more climate change, than any other agricultural product. No wonder Trump demands that it stay open and kill its workers. With Trump Virus unemployment, the fat meat cats can always find more workers to kill. You deal in fossil fuels, so Trump supports your work too. Illinois has a lower murder rate overall than any red state you can name. If you want to go to a place like Somalia, I would recommend Alaska where criminals go to hide and guns are easily available. They have the highest murder rate and gun violence rate. New York has a low murder rate, New Jersey is rated one of the best states to live in, and California does OK with its strict gun laws.

Republicans used to stand for the small businessman, the mom-and-pop store and restaurant, the small-town bank, the manufacturer with a limited market, and of course the family farmer. They well knew that they could not get away with showing unqualified support for rapacious tycoons who could squeeze out their small-business competition. They were slower than one might expect for a party that had the support of economic elites in reducing the taxes of the economic elites. 

Consider that the  1950's were the heyday of small business. Part of this was that the Lost still believed in business at every size, and not only giant enterprises, and that the Lost, who finally got to enjoy some economic success in a close-to-free-wheeling economy, had such an entrepreneurial bent. High,graduated taxes created niches for small businesses that no longer exist. Due to tax cuts that began with John Kennedy (to undo stagnation that had set in) that accelerated under Reagan to the point that they became unqualified orthodoxy. the model of American business went from mom-and-pop businesses to monopolistic, vertically-integrated behemoths that could squeeze out the competition of small businesses in  banking, manufacturing, and even services. A flat tax that imposes the same corporate income tax on a mom-and-pop restaurant that offers better Mexican food than Taco Bell or better Chinese food than Panda Express must compete with owners of Taco Bell and Panda Express. If the IRS audits a small gift shop for a day, then that gift shop shuts down. Wal*Mart, due to an economy of scale, can better deal with the IRS. Add to this, Corporate America has the power of advertising budgets that small businesses (which must work with word-of-mouth opinions of quality and service) can never afford. Add to this, Corporate  America and hire lobbyists... and sponsor politicians who believe as tycoons and executives do, that no human suffering on behalf of those elites can ever be in excess so long as those elites get what they want -- more, more, and more. If that means a war for profit, then so be it, no matter how many must die for the execution of that war. 

That, Classic X'er, is the cancer -- a cancer of the soul that can turn America into a plutocratic nightmare in which more than 90% of the people suffer for a minuscule fraction of the American people that tolerates no challenge to its domination of economic and political life, a situation that remains until perhaps some war for profit turns into a catastrophic defeat that either topples the leadership directly (that describes Nazi Germany very well) or leads to the overthrow of that elite in a revolution in which people claiming to speak on behalf of the masses (which describes Imperial Russia very well) overthrow the social order and institute a 'socialist' dictatorship.  

For a biological analogue to the cancer of the soul I might suggest one of the most lethal cancers, one that develops with little warning and is difficult to diagnose until it is too late, when it makes every nerve shout in agony: pancreatic cancer. The cancer that you see is a minor skin cancer that can be excised easily in a dermatologist's office much as a dermatologist excised a non-cancerous (but ugly) sebacious cyst -- the latter basically a pimple that never erupts but instead keeps growing

(A little detail on the cyst that I had: it was about the size of a kernel of corn, it was shaped like a football, and it was pale yellow in color. I would have loved to watch that cyst carbonize in sulfuric acid...)