Krugminator2
Member

Foreign policy is important for a lot of reasons. But Cuba has good foreign policy. It doesn't matter at all unless you have things taken care of domestically. It is nice that Gabbard has good views on Syria, but frankly that doesn't affect my life and most people in the US nearly as much as numerous other issues. The issues I care about in order of importance. 1. Government spending 2. The drug war 3. Cutting taxes 4. Monetary policy 5. Health care policy 6. Regulations 7. Civil liberties 8. Foreign Policy

Actually she is better than exactly zero Republicans. Peter King is better. Anyone with R next to their name is better than Tulsi Gabbard. Susan Collins will accidentally vote correctly more often than Tulsi Gabbard. She is a Bernie Sanders Communist.

It was tongue in cheek. Though I do hate soccer and the riots and do find it unwatchable and am completely indifferent if the US does well in it.

74 dead and 250 injured because fans don't like the outcome is normal. I think I see Phil Mickelson rioting... no wait.. soccer again.

Soccer is a third world sport that symbolizes a lack of progress. Soccer is just an excuse for people to riot while they are watching a 0-0 game in overtime. The US dominates every sport that matters: basketball, golf, baseball, and football. Soccer is the only thing I root against the US in. Doing poorly in soccer will hopefully encourage US kids to play real sports.

That's exactly right. That would be my ideal. That is what would happen in a free society. The problem is that will never happen. So I am for forcing people like in Singapore and Switzerland to get insurance and forcing people to save. It isn't a good way to do things but it is more free market than the current system of Obamacare, the VA hospital Medicare, Medicaid and letting people stiff the emergency room when they don't have insurance and can't pay. And it is a much better alternative to French and Canadian style socialized medicine.

Every liberal publication even admits premiums are much higher specifically as a result of Obamacare. ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, and Washington Post all have articles explaining this with a simple Google search. Here is the first thing that shows up on Google from ABC in an article titled Why Health Care Premiums Are Rising Under Obamacare . "HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell cautioned that insurers are “continuing to adapt” to a market that looks very different from before “Obamacare,” one in which they are trying to compete for costumers “based on price and quality” and not necessarily by “finding the healthiest customers.” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/health-care-premiums-rising-obamacare/story?id=43047190

No. People on Obamacare do not get group purchasing discounts. That is just factually wrong. Obamacare is much more expensive than if a person got an individual plan prior to Obamacare. In Obamacare healthy people are subsidizing unhealthy people.

I'll just repost what I said. And the second part of what you said would seem to confirm that the two time periods are very similar. I can't tell if you are purposely trolling.

Well... I would say in almost every way they are alike. The stock market crashed in 1929. The market made a couple hundred percent move off the lows. Interest rates went to zero and stayed very low along with quantitative easing. The Fed started tightening and you had a depression in 1937 8 years after the initial crash. The market crashed in 2008. The market made a couple hundred percent move off the lows. Interest rates went to zero and stayed very low along with quantitative easing. The Fed has (gradually) started tightening. And we will see what happens 9 years later. It seems like they are pretty close analogs. You also have similarities in the wealth gap. Things haven't gotten better for a significant part of the country. People are embracing populism in elections like in the 1930's. Not to mention taxes did go up. Obama raised taxes in 2013. The top rate went up. Payroll taxes went up. And you had the Obamacare taxes. You had a dramatic increase in regulations under Obama. Regulations are tax. That is beside the point though. You probably won't see a tax hike with Trump.

That, of course, has nothing to do with promoting associations. The issue is for self-employed people and 1099 workers who don't get group insurance through a business.

Yes it does. It wouldn't make sense otherwise. I don't agree with the first part. But I do think allowing people to buy insurance across state lines is very overrated. Good on Rand for getting a GOP talking point into law. But it really doesn't do much because of how hard it is to set up an insurance network.

You could make an argument that there are a lot of similarities between 1937-38 and right now. You had a large triple digit stock market recovery. There is a lot of complacently. Everyone seems to think things are back to normal. The Fed has started tightening and talk is getting interest rates back to "normal". If Trump appoints the wrong person to the Fed, the risk from tightening too aggressively is asymmetric to the downside. At some point the market is going to drop but how much and how much it bleeds over to employment will be determined by the Fed. The unemployment rate went to 19% in 1938. It won't go that high now but it could definitely double if the Fed does something stupid.

Here's Levitt's rebuttal to Lott. http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/

I have this book but haven't finished it yet. https://www.amazon.com/Fish-That-Ate-Whale-Americas/dp/1250033314/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507579926&sr=8-1&keywords=banana+king I did read the part where the guy, who later became the head of United Fruit, raised his own private army of guerillas when Honduras put a tariff on bananas and then overthrew the government and installed his own general. He actually fought himself which and got shot which was even more amazing. Very interesting story that I had never heard. Here is from the Amazon description "The fascinating, untold tale of Samuel Zemurray, the self-made banana mogul who went from penniless roadside banana peddler to kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary. From hustling on the docks of New Orleans to overthrowing Central American governments and precipitating the bloody thirty-six-year Guatemalan civil war, the Banana Man lived a monumental and sometimes dastardly life. "

Well. You are wrong and isn't debatable. Communist governments killed 100 million of their own people in the 20th Century. Capitalism has helped cut world poverty in half over the last 30 years. Capitalism is the only moral system. I don't believe taxation is slavery. I do believe not being able to own any of your labor or property and not being able to leave a country is slavery. Having the government seize your business and land without compensation is slavery. That isn't cartoonish. That is true. Here is from just this weeks New York Times using the word slave to describe doctors there. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/americas/brazil-cuban-doctors-revolt.html

Che fought for Communism, the most evil system in human history. And what imperialism in South America was the United States engaged in? Funding the rebels against the Communist Sandinstas and fighting Allende in Chile? So you mean fighting slavery? Cuba did not invade other countries. That is true. Though Castro did point nuclear weapons at the US and urge the USSR to use them. Castro and Che made every single person in Cuba a slave. Hugo Chavez prattled about fighting imperialism as well. Venezuela has hyperinflation and the people are starving. It turns out non-interventionist foreign policy is pointless if you combine it with Marxism. For some reason I would rather live in Bill Kristol and Lindsey Graham's America than a country ruled by Che or Castro. But that's just me.

1. Don't own any guns. The Second Amendment has probably been the most untouched part of the Constitution by the government. I would bet the Framers would be pleasantly surprised with how well it has been preserved. 2. Already in the 33% bracket. Don't love taxes but the flip side is the US is the best place to make money in the world. I wouldn't consider moving for a second. 3. Obviously I am for drug legalization. I think drug prohibition is a major infringement and the crime associated with drug illegality is a major issue. It is the single worst governmental policy. 4. People should be able to drink raw milk. That does not rank in the top 50,000 things that matter. I have probably faced more government regulatory abuses than most. I have had five figures stolen by the government playing poker over the years. I just finally got my money back from the DOJ this week from Absolute Poker which the government confiscated in 2011. The biggest things I worry about on a daily basis are regulations that government can use to mess up my life. Yet, it is important to have context. Those are minor inconveniences compared to someone born in 90% of the rest of the world. Someone born in South America or Africa or most of Asia, and most of Europe has no opportunity in life. The United States in 2017 is still the best time and place to live in human history. It isn't perfect but it is the least imperfect place to live. Most of human history has been people living short, brutal lives. The United States has been a deviation from that.

The ACLU is just not a good defender of the First Amendment. At worst, they should take no position on this case. Forcing nuns to pay for birth control has nothing to do with the Constitution. And they should really be staunchly defending religious freedom.

Whether countries are a good idea or not is debatable, but they do exist. And countries differ greatly. Borders matter in reality. All you have to do is go just south of the United States. Mexico and the United States are not the same. Mexico is a repressive third world hell because of the ideas they embrace. America is very prosperous because of the ideals we embrace. People shouldn't be proud of a flag or a country for the sake of being proud. If you are from Mexico, you shouldn't be proud of Mexico. On the other hand, I am very thankful for the very noble ideals the United States was founded on and the relative preservation of them for 240 years.

I have not seen one person who has been affiliated with the group espouse anything remotely close to views that relate to freedom. However, I have read their platform thoroughly, listened to their most visible spokesman Deray Mckesson, and seen how people associated with the group behave. Communism, looting, and stopping traffic aren't just differences of opinion. They are clearly wrong and anyone who supports them is wrong. It isn't a matter of a couple of bad apples. Just like there are no good white supremacists and Nazis, there are no good Black Lives Matter members. Even the superficial reason for the movement, cops shooting black people at a higher rate during confrontations, isn't even true. http://www.nber.org/papers/w22399 The whole spark from "Hands up, Don't Shoot" never happened. The force the officer used in Ferguson was actually one example of the police using reasonable force. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/19/hands-up-dont-shoot-did-not-happen-in-ferguson/?utm_term=.9d4cb8971dbd

I predict he is similar to Steve King. Kind of theocratic, protectionist, probably not great on privacy and civil liberties but not completely terrible. He'll probably be a thorn on budget issues and raising the debt ceiling. He seems like the kind of guy who will be an outcast so he might join Rand in a lot of his doomed votes like on foreign aid. He'll probably be a wrench in the gears, who prevents anything from getting done, which isn't so bad.

They are the first organization I think of when I think hostility toward religion. In what way are they supportive of religious institutions? They want to force nuns to pay for contraception. I am an atheist. But I can tell you, I support the Hobby Lobby decision, school choice, am fine with the Ten Commandments in public places, having God in the pledge, and don't think Christian bakers should be forced to bake cakes. The ACLU takes the other side of all of those issues because of their hostility toward religion.

Not surprising. Black Lives Matter is black supremacist organization that is fundamentally opposed to freedom on every level. http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/04/black-lives-matter-students-shut-down-th r Here are few other quotes from their chant. The ACLU is fundamentally awful too. They don't defend the First Amendment. They support anti-discrimination laws and are on other side of the lawsuit against the Colorado baker. They are staunchly against school choice. They were against Hobby Lobby in that Supreme Court case. We'll see how long their commitment to defending "hate speech" lasts. 915759189041041413

Isn't this pretty standard? Pretty Cruz and Paul and Steve Forbes' flat tax and consumption tax proposals were the exact same as far as eliminating these deductions as Trump's. The FAIR Tax obviously wouldn't allow for property tax deductions. This doesn't seem that controversial to me. The right thing to do would be to eliminate all perverse deductions like the mortgage interest and child care deductions and have a low flat rate or a very slightly tiered rate.

I get that is the goal. And certainly a good goal. But the empirical results are the more independent central banks are of the legislature the lower the inflation rate in that country. It makes sense that politicians would push for higher inflation. http://www.econ.ucdenver.edu/smith/econ4110/Alesina%20Summers%20-%20Central%20Bank%20Independence%20and%20Macro%20Performance.pdf "THE DEGREE OF CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE varies considerably across countries. Several authors including Bade and Parkin (1982), Alesina(1988, 1989), and Grilli, Masciandaro, and Tabellini (1991) found that more independent central banks are associated with lower levels of inflation."

You realize what you just described is a perfect summary of Audit the Fed, right? Your last sentence is one explanation as to why Audit the Fed is bad idea. There are other reasons why like inflation will almost certainly be higher the more oversight Congress has over monetary policy.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevehanke/2017/07/30/let-banks-manage-risks-not-regulators/#4ca1fe782cf5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevehanke/2017/05/31/how-bank-regulations-hinder-the-u-s-recovery/3/#66e3ed9c4953