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Deepspace
You may want to read these two articles before you tell me I'm wrong about union support for President Trump:
Donald Trump gets Regan-like support from Union households.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/10/donald-trump-g...
Teacher Unions smarting after many members vote for Trump
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/23/election-unions-teachers-...
@#13
No, Hillary was the type of stuff that gave us Trump. Had the democrat party and the talking heads on Television and radio actually taken a strong hand and fought for someone other than Hillary Clinton, Trump would not be president today. You have only to look in the mirror when analyzing your staggering defeat.
It is a 2 party system. Bernie ran as a Democrat because a third party cannot win. Look at the pathetic showing of the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. All they did was pull votes away from the Democratic Party. A vote for a third party candidate was a wasted vote or a vote for Trump. The 2 parties are too well established for another Party unless something drastic happens. They have strong infrastructure. I have read that upto 8% of Bernie voters voted for Trump, despite Bernie endorsing Hilary. This is the type of stuff that gave us Trump.
Deepspace: What am I missing here? You state "....only two parties can share Congressional power". I'm not aware of anything in the Constitution that limits members of either chamber (House, Senate) to one of two specific parties. A recent and notable fly in the Senate's ointment was Bernie Sanders, an "Independent" and self proclamed "Democratic Socialist". Had the DNC not sabotaged him, we might at this very moment have Bernie, the non Republocrat, sitting in the Oval office. Clone him and we could easily have powerful blocks of Progressives embedded in both the House and the Senate, tamping down the gluttony of traditional Republicans and Democrats. No?
Legend
Whats your point
I work for Carroll County Public Schools, you can reach them at 410 751 3000. Im not willing to give out the information. Again, what is your point?
Where did I say opt out? Actually many companies do pay employees that opt out. Or at lease a partial payment as they get a tax write off on what they contribute towards your medical insurance. If husband and wife work they may take the best plan jointly and opt out on the other. But that is beside the point. Maybe you will understand the question if I put in in a formula. $200 per month + employer contribution = your total monthly healthcare insurance payment. What is your employer contribution?
Legend are you really that dumb or is it an act.
If I were to opt out of the insurance, that money would not become part of my paycheck. No company, government or anyone pays the employee for benefits not taken.
So you are going to ignore the part that your company, school distract or what ever pays? Because $200 per month is not the total cost.
Trump has already started negotiations with NAFTA. He just hit Canada with a 20 % import tax on softwood lumber. as a Canadian I am not to happy about that of course. I wish we had a leader that but our country first like Trump is doing. Little tip. If you are going to build something better buy your lumber now prices are going up.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 18.0px Helvetica}
LET US REPLANT - {a rhyme}
O Donald, in mercy please grant
us relief from your ill-informed rant,
and please admit
that govern you can’t,
and please then quit
so we can replant
the GOOD things here in our nation.
{When rid of your aberration,
we’ll create a re-creation.}
============================
I highly doubt that if Trump renegotiates NAFTA, the American worker will benefit.
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Outback. A third party would have to put together a platform convincing enough to siphon huge blocks of voters away from one or both of the big Wall Street parties, since only two parties can share Congressional power. In my opinion, that's one of the most aggregious flaws in our Constitution. I don't think a grassroots third party has ever upset a major party in our entire history.
A parliamentary system improves democracy, because it gives voters more opportunity to vote for competing parties with a real shot at power and that better reflect their own viewpoints -- parties closer to the people that are less corruptible by corporate lobbyists. Add in "instant runoff voting" and the United States really could be a people's nation, as originally intended.
Of course, in the real world of corporate facism, none of that is possible in the foreseeable future. We're stuck with a thoroughly corrupted two-party system that is the plaything of the billionaire class. At this point, infiltration of both major parties at all levels and/or widespread resistance and serious revolution (hopefully peaceful) are probably the only realistic options left that would effect significant and lasting change for the better.
But how do you rally the majority with a dishonest media and an electorate that can't even agree on independent facts and objective reality?
We'll never see those "jobs" T.Rump is always talking about, back here in the USA again. What company is going to rebuild the factories, etc., required to make a product, then pay American wages & benefits to the workers? We've priced ourselves out of those jobs forever. "Jobs" is just a carrot on a pole to keep you pulling for him. T.Rump has many words like that to make you think anything but the truth about him & his intentions. The man is a pathological liar. Besides, even if he did benefit the US workers in any way, it would be offset thousands of times over in what he & his plunder monkeys are taking. Didn't you hear about the huge tax break he's giving himself & his cronies while Social Security wasn't increased at all last year & only .3% (that's 3 tenths of 1%) this year because the cost of living hasn't increased. I wonder where they shop. If you believe anything this ..... president says, for GOD's sake, look at what he's doing!!
The crazy thing about Trump and free trade is that Trump is a card carrying member of the party of free trade. So there's no way in hell he's going to end any free trade agreement....it was just one of his many lies to get elected.
On this and several other issues Crooked Donny ran as a progressive and thus hoodwinked voters who were totally unaware that the Republican Party is by far the party most responsible for jobs getting outsourced to slave labor markets.
Remember McConnell blocking Democratic legislation to end tax breaks for companies outsourcing jobs? Obviously Trump voters didn't remember..... why would they?... our corpse media never mentioned it.
Please! Let's get the "buzz words" out and play with them: that will make us "feel" better and more cleverer
Legend
It's really none of your business what I pay, but I'll tell you this it's less than $200.00 per month for me and my spouse.
I don't know how many times I have to tell you, I don't have a victim mentality. If I fail, it's because of me, when I succeed it's because of me. I work hard, and get along with people who work hard.
The Democrats don't have to worry about Trump outflanking them on populism, they are already outflanking themselves on populism. It's a speciality of theirs.
Is it really nesessary for "comments" to be personal?
Populism? As in "grass-roots democracy; working-class activism; egalitarianism"? (one dictionary definition). Thom Hartmann, get your head out! With you it's consistantly "the Republicans against the Democrats". When are you going to acknowledge that, other than their rhetoric, you can not slide one thin dime between these two parties. They are BOTH neoliberal, which means the prime movers in each party are transnational capitalists that do not give one flying f**k about this country; their only concern is winning that big game of Monopoly. Get off this sideshow about Republicans vs Democrats and start talking about a third alternative. ANY third alternative. Please!
Somehow, the prospect of a fake billionaire, ant-labor boy king who lies constantly, even about small things, sincerely negotiating corporate trade deals in good faith on behalf of American workers neither rings true nor inspires confidence. It would be totally out of character for this 70 year old scion of the greedy class to suddenly have an epiphany, go against everyone in his circle and everything that defines his world, and strike a deal that would reduce corporate power and strengthen the hand of regular people. Don't hold your breath; improving NAFTA will be just another failed campaign promise.
OU812 you may have a very good Union negotiated Health Care Plan. I always had Corporate Healthcare plans until I went private contracting at 62. Had to pay out of my pocket. But in todays world, many do not get Healthcare with a job. The fact that you will not share what you pay is interesting. It is no big deal. My last policy was about $1200, per month for me and my wife. I was on Cobra for 18 months, then the company put us on its plan without Cobra. Never went on Obamacare. I am now on Medicare, but wife is still on private plan.
Again I ask, as a teacher what has the Republican Party done for you to make you so right wing? Simple question.
Ou812 (#12): "Listen Asshole, I'm not your wife don't tell me to answer any questions. ... I'm sorry you're poor, but that's not my fault, it's yours." (#28): "It's not my "myopic nastiness" that isn't welcome here, it's my opinion that is so different than yours."
The subconscious and the conscious are one in the same mind. The outward reflects the inward through words and actions and reveals our inner state of being, whether or not we are completely aware of that particular "self" -- frightened and isolated -- at the conscious level.
Volumes have been written, of course, about how unconscious thoughts and feelings directly influence one's political stances, and so, naturally, marketing firms, media companies, and political campaigns shamelessly exploit voters' general lack of self awareness by targeting and manipulating the subconscious.
Some studies have more depth and honesty than others. "Conservatives Without Conscience" by John Dean is an insightful, self-reflective work written by a once-staunch conservative who was right in the middle, literally, of another failed Republican administration that stepped over the line. It shines a bright light into a very dark corner.
Sincere opinions, right or wrong, are always welcome here, one would hope. Opposing world views make for lively discussion and exposes the raging conflicts inherent in our collective human mind that have created a world of selfishness, greed, poverty, war, and misery on a planet that is, considering the astounding violence of star formation, a true miracle and paradise. Why did we allow this to happen? That's the deeper question.
ps: Ou812 (#28): "You washed up lefties lost most of the rank and file union members in the last election." Factually untrue! Please don't elevate yourself as the spokesperson for the majority. The Democrats may have lost a lot of the white, male union members because of the Trumped-up "fear of the other," but most other rank and file members (with accurate historical knowledge, anyway) know full well which party is their real enemy. I agree, though, that the Democratic Party strayed too far toward the corporate side of the equation and needs to get back to its roots to become a strong champion of labor once again.
Since 1998 and renewal of MFN China, the trade deficit has been the main driver for the Federal deficit. The trade deficit sucks half a trillion dollars out of our banks every year. It eliminates more than 50 million jobs and makes our taxable economy too small. We boost bank reserves and pay for the Federal deficit with "quantitative easing" that is in fact an eventually fatal economic addiction. 50% of the trade deficit is from China, 8% from Mexico, 9% from Japan, 10% from Germany, and 24% from other countries. By commodity it is 43% clothing, 23% automotive, 19% energy, 11% electronics, and only 4% steel. We need a three to five year increased indexed tariff system on imports by country that exceed our exports until they are equal. Tariff free trade is only free when it is balanced. This is not protectionism of an industry or a business. This is protectionism of our economy that could collapse. Any idea of trade wars should be forgotten as irrelevant. Right now the accumulated Federal deficit is diving straight down in a fatal trajectory. If we do not turn it around, the result will be a global catastrophe of frozen liquidity for all transactions.
Erin Rose
Two paragraphs of name calling, and not one word of constructive argument. In my opening statement I gave you "washed up lefties" the opportunity to convince me why single payer is the bettor choice over what I now have for health care. None of you have. Do you have any idea how many of us like our health care? You washed up lefties lost most of the rank and file union members in the last election. Single Payer is not popular among the Unions. Health care plans are one of the last true bargaining chips remaining in their arsenal. And you want to take that away.
It's not my "myopic nastiness" that isn't welcome here, it's my opinion that is so different than yours.