US Politics Thread 2016-2020

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by August

Sounds good but:

How are you going to shoot straight when you are in the hospital getting your private parts cut off.

Why should we the taxpayers be forced to fund it?

Probably the exact same way when current military members get vasectomies, ED treatments, appendectomies, hair-loss treatments, C-sections and a multitude of other operations that we have been funding for decades and decades and decades.

They get put in the hospital and get discharged when they can resume their duties. Nothing is going to change. Just like all military members do.

No one asked my permission for that new $13,000,000,000 aircraft carrier nor was I asked about the F-35 at $100,000,000 per copy, but my taxes pay for that. Why am I forced to pay taxes for those?

There are a lot of things my taxes are used for that I don't agree with. A relatively small number of trans-gender surgeries does not make even the top 1,000 tax expenditures concerns in my book.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

More and more Republican Congressmen are drawing a red line over Sessions. I would love it if they would join the Democrats and impeach Trump. He needs to go.

If they can prove that Trump violated the law to the extent that impeachment is appropriate, I am sure the majority of the citizens would accept that.

But he has to violate the law first.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Probably the exact same way when current military members get vasectomies, ED treatments, appendectomies, hair-loss treatments, C-sections and a multitude of other operations that we have been funding for decades and decades and decades.

They get put in the hospital and get discharged when they can resume their duties. Nothing is going to change. Just like all military members do.

First off medically unnecessary elective surgeries like vasectomies and hair loss treatments should never be equated with life or death ones like appendectomies. Secondly just because a wrong has been committed for "decades and decades and decades" does not mean it should be allowed to continue. I'm kind of surprised you'd attempt to make that argument Platapus.

No one asked my permission for that new $13,000,000,000 aircraft carrier nor was I asked about the F-35 at $100,000,000 per copy, but my taxes pay for that. Why am I forced to pay taxes for those?

There are a lot of things my taxes are used for that I don't agree with. A relatively small number of trans-gender surgeries does not make even the top 1,000 tax expenditures concerns in my book.

Lowering unnecessary costs and limiting the loss of duty time versus your 1,000 more important expenditure concerns are not an either or proposition. It is just another straw on the camels back and is no less valid than any other readiness destroying wasteful social experiment.

Why am I forced to pay taxes for those?

Maybe because you and your fellow citizens didn't object to them strenuously enough, but should that stop you, us, from continuing to try?

[eddie]

Trumps new communication directer is a class act!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0da64e877f30e

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by August

If he is forced from office it could cause a civil war. Is subverting the will of the voters really that important?

If he stays in office it could start a civil war. He's a loony, he served his sole purpose (keeping Hillary out of the office) and we have a much better man in the #2 role. Why are you defending him?

Originally Posted by Skybird

The "old white men" in the US are losing their voter base, the massive immigration wave form Latin America votes by majority for socialism braking out even more powerfzul in America. The - left-leaning - Democrats benefit from that, the Republicans will either turn socialist too, or get pushed out of the game for power. In the end, the differences between both parties will vanish, and all will turn into a one-party state. Like we already have in Germany by Merkel's net effect.

No doubt, it's just a matter of time. The US is doomed to slide into a Hispanic socialist country. May be delayed but it cannot be stopped, not with the level of laziness and entitlement growing here.

[August]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

If he stays in office it could start a civil war. He's a loony, he served his sole purpose (keeping Hillary out of the office) and we have a much better man in the #2 role. Why are you defending him?

If he is shown to have broken a law then I wouldn't defend him but until that happens I want him in there because I believe he has more purpose than just keeping her out of power. What she represented is still very much alive and well and makes up the majority of his opposition. As I have said to me Trump pisses off all the right people but I don't know if Pence can do that.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by August

If he is forced from office it could cause a civil war. Is subverting the will of the voters really that important?

There is one big fallacy in the above: subversion of the will of the voters. It is undeniable, except to the loon Trump, that a majority of the voters, exercising their rights of one person one vote, did not vote for Trump; he is a minority leader; if the US were a parliamentary form of government, Trump would have to form a coalition with his adversaries in order to maintain his rule. Plain and simple: more Americans voted against Trump than for him and the actual, unfiltered will of the voters would be someone other than him would be in the White House. In considering the actual number of votes cast for Trump, what would happen if we deducted the number of voters who cast votes for Trump not because they actually supported him and his "ideals", but, rather because they just didn't want to vote for Hillary, who, in fact, actually did earn more votes than Trump; and let's see what would happen if a deduction were made for those voters who just automatically vote for whoever their party puts up for election, regardless of whether they actually agree with their party's candidate. Somehow I think the percentage number would shrink to just about where Trump's polling numbers have been hovering, in the mid to low 30th percentile; having at least two-thirds of the American voting public openly against Trump speaks volumes about the "will of the voters": there actually is no will to subvert...

As far as a civil war is concerned, the whole idea is utter nonsense. As it is now, Trump supporters have been glaringly unable to muster anywhere near the crowd sizes of anti-Trump protests; and given the US is a nation of laws, any Trumpette who got their Pampers in enough of a bunch to actually and illegally attempt to enforce their will violently would be made very quick work of by the authorities while the rest of us grown-ups breathe a collective sigh of relief Trump is gone and get on with our grown-up lives and concerns...




<O>

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by August

First off medically unnecessary elective surgeries like vasectomies and hair loss treatments should never be equated with life or death ones like appendectomies. Secondly just because a wrong has been committed for "decades and decades and decades" does not mean it should be allowed to continue. I'm kind of surprised you'd attempt to make that argument Platapus.



Lowering unnecessary costs and limiting the loss of duty time versus your 1,000 more important expenditure concerns are not an either or proposition. It is just another straw on the camels back and is no less valid than any other readiness destroying wasteful social experiment.

Again I need to agree with August.

No doubt that the cost argument used to decide against genderism allowed to enter services was only brought up as a strawman. The point the Donald is about is genderism itself. And I agree even with that.

I have ead a comparison of various costs for medical programs provided by the US armed forces. An unbelievably high sum of money gets paid for - Viagra. Erectile dysfunction that resulted, as diagnosed by the treating doctors, from PTSD and other experiences during active military duty.

I see it like this: the state service should pay servants - armed forces but other services as well - such medical treatment that focusses on problems resulting from the service itself. Which in case of the PTSD-Viagra example above is true. But health problems resulting not from anything linked to the service time, should be paid for by a regular health insurrance that the subject pays into.

Also, it is not okay I think if you can enter a service, or the armed forces in this case, and bring your personal health issues with you and then demand the service in question to finance the curing of it. Its not even about the money that much, but about the principle. Who wants to see for example depressive patient without a therapy place or money for a doctor entering the army, and then telling the army that he is depressive and demands psychotherapy paid by the army? Or a high-pregnant women that enters service on one day and the next day leaves for motherhood leave? A depression somebody forms out after having done one tour in a war zone, having seen bad things and not being able to get along with his painful memories all by himself - that would be somethign else. But the army having to pay for health issues you bring along with you from all beginning of your service time on - that would turn the army into kind of a secondary health care insurrance itself. There is also a chance that people enter it not because they want to serve, but because they accept to serve as a payment for getting access to the wanted treatment. Is that really the audience one wants to attract for the armed forces?

The costs of genderism, is a strawman argument here, but I nevertheless agree with the real thing behind it: to now allow a thousand "Extrawürste" being roasted for a thousand special client groups. Your gender feeling is of no interest for armed services, what is of interest is your ability to fit in and to serve the duties that come with "soldiering". That necessarily comes with the temporary limitation of certain basic rights you enjoy as a private citizen, as well as the need of the candidate to fulfill certain demands and physicla conditions that the ordinary citizen must not be so much concerned of. You meet the criterions, you fulfill the same standards like everybody else: you can come in. You want extra treatment and demand special roles or think this is the place to improve your spirituality - you are out. Thats why I think claimed genderism shall have no place in the state's services, army or else. Solve your life issues and get your balance BEFORE you enter service. Your mission has to be to win the battle ahead. Your religion, your gender feelings, are your private stuff. Keep them private. If service and private stuff collide, either do not enter service in the first, or do service first, put private stuff second - this order, not the other way around.

No special treatment for lobbying subgroups. No quotas for this religion, that skin colour, this food habit or that or the other gender. And no complaining, please.

Don't like it? Don't enter service. Currently there is no drafting.

[Rockstar]

Was listening to NPR while I was getting my coffee this morning. There was a transgender advocate whos argument was, if I understood it correctly wasnt so much about how a transgender can shoot as well as any other soldier and therefore should be allowed entry into the armed services. But instead she was advocating entry so that those diagnosed with gender dysphoria can recieve the care they need while serving.

Sorry but thats not what the military is for. There has to be standards if you meet them then welcome aboard. But if as some estimates show that 70 percent of those diagnosed with gender dysphoria suffer from depression, anxiety, sucidal thoughts, and schizophrenia. Then maybe blanket permission to serve isnt such a good idea. I remember during my entrance exam nobody not even once asked me how well I could shoot. All anyone I saw ever wanted to know was if I was physically and mentally fit to serve. Marksmanship was not a prerequisite for military service. The big concern was my blood pressure which almost prevented me from going any further. In the end I was granted the priviledge to serve this country 24 years. It was some of the best times of my life.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by eddie

Trumps new communication directer is a class act!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0da64e877f30e

I guess the Donald and his whole entourage are gaga, maybe with two exceptions including Spencer

[eddie]

Originally Posted by Catfish

I guess the Donald and his whole entourage are gaga, maybe with two exceptions including Spencer

Seems like there is a serious melt down going on in the White House, whole thing is so unreal!

[Platapus]

So has everyone ordered their copy of Hillary's new book?



Evidently in her book she reveals why she lost the election

It was not because of her expensive but poorly run campaign
It was not because she has the charisma of a bowl of tapioca
It was not her demonstrated below average successes as a Senator and SoS
It was not because of her shady business dealings
It was not because of her pay to play shenanigans with foreign "contributions" to the CGI (that coincidentally faded away once she lost)
It was not because of her lack of being able to speak eloquently and be able to persuade people
It was not her lack of ability to make political deals even among her own party
It was not because she was generally disliked by citizens from both parties
It was not because she alienated large sectors of the voting population
It was not because she failed to appeal to the working classes
I was not because of her failure of judgment when it comes to handling classified information
It was not because of her questionable judgment in approving IT systems
It was not because (insert multiple reasons)

The real reason she lost the election was

(drum roll)

She was too powerful a woman and the "system" was against her.

(facepalm)

In other words, it was not her fault. It probably never is.

She just does not get it. Hillary' legacy is that she was probably the only candidate that could possibly lose against Trump.

No hurry to order this book, I am sure there will be plenty of copies on the shelves for a long long time.

[Rockstar]

And how that pesky electoral college subverted the will of the people and prevented her from winning the election.

[Skybird]

Mercilessly turns the wheel of life, who was hip now is hop, who was yesterday now is history, and on the grand stage in Washington the Donaldinarium's cast is being reshuffled once again for shooting another successful season like a shaker filled with dice all showing one point on each side (because only the Donald may use the one big golden die with only sixes on it, golden, of course). Great entertainment! I think even in Game of Thrones they did not die this fast, and so many in so short time. My bet for this year's academy awards, best actor, best screenplay, best hair cut, best soap opera, best comedy, and of course: biggest, best and greatest POTUS ever. Period!


What sweaty feet! Great! Tremendous!

[Buddahaid]

I wish he would just fire himself, but all this hoopla just feeds his ego and publicity is publicity.