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Post by Handy on Feb 22, 2021 22:00:49 GMT -5
"The one thing Democrats get right is health care for all.
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Post by jerri on Feb 23, 2021 2:46:33 GMT -5
Taxation and EPA and I won't be a Republican. I am a "yellow dog Democrat" who wanted Bernie.
The Republicans believe that the government should not put everything on the "credit card". That was something I accepted as long as the ultra-rich were taxed and pork was cut. What would I change? Bloated defense spending. ...Nixon (Republican for those who are not Americans) put together the Environmental Protection Agency.
<sings kumbaya my love/Lord, kumbaya...>
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2021 10:56:07 GMT -5
Actually I think that real people aren't choosing sides, they're leaving the parties. The media reports on "sides" but the majority party in the USA (45-50% depending on the day of the poll) is unregistered as anything and that number is growing.
I'm not a registered anything, if there was a socially libertarian party that would balance the national budget that would be me.
Democrats are right that we need healthcare reform.
Republicans are right that we need actual immigration reform, migrant worker visas, etc.
If I were the latest savior-king of the US, I would go with some mandatory time off requirements. The rest of the world gets a lot more paid vacation than we do : )
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Post by isthisit on Feb 23, 2021 15:21:24 GMT -5
Actually I think that real people aren't choosing sides, they're leaving the parties. The media reports on "sides" but the majority party in the USA (45-50% depending on the day of the poll) is unregistered as anything and that number is growing. I'm not a registered anything, if there was a socially libertarian party that would balance the national budget that would be me. Democrats are right that we need healthcare reform. Republicans are right that we need actual immigration reform, migrant worker visas, etc. If I were the latest savior-king of the US, I would go with some mandatory time off requirements. The rest of the world gets a lot more paid vacation than we do : ) I agree. I was shocked to learn of the typical annual leave allowance in the US. This made me realise why I have generally encountered Americans around the world who are either very young or retirees. It must hard to travel far internationally with severe time restrictions. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2021 17:20:14 GMT -5
I belong to a forum of people who ride their adventure motorcycles all over the world. I've done a little of that myself but on the forum I started noticing that most "epic rides" were Europeans or Australians. If someone from the USA did something similar it was usually in the category of I-sold-all-my-stuff-and-quit-my-job variety. Those are the choices. Be very young, leave everything behind or be retired.
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Post by isthisit on Feb 23, 2021 17:26:20 GMT -5
I belong to a forum of people who ride their adventure motorcycles all over the world. I've done a little of that myself but on the forum I started noticing that most "epic rides" were Europeans or Australians. If someone from the USA did something similar it was usually in the category of I-sold-all-my-stuff-and-quit-my-job variety. Those are the choices. Be very young, leave everything behind or be retired. Every nation has its pro’s and cons. That’s just yours. Anyway, the northern half of Europe travel purely for sunshine! Most of you guys get that for free! |
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Post by mirrororchid on Feb 23, 2021 20:43:32 GMT -5
"The one thing Democrats get right is health care for all. See, that's a good one. If we had a room full of people playing this game, I think you might get a few Republicans doing spittakes with their light beer. I'll play. I'm a liberal and... "The one thing conservatives get right is that the 2nd amendment is absolute. The 'well regulated militia' part is explanation, not restriction." Remember, fellow liberals, no debating until everyone takes a turn with their own little blasphemy. |
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Post by worksforme2 on Feb 25, 2021 11:12:39 GMT -5
It wasn't easy for me to find something Democrats are for that I agree with. But this morning I read a number of Democrats sent China Joe a letter saying the criteria for using nuclear weapons should be more than just the President authorizing the action. I agree. It was suggested the VP or some other high ranking official (my choice--- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) needs to agree for the order to be valid.
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Post by ironhamster on Feb 25, 2021 20:19:43 GMT -5
Spreading responsibility is a dangerous precedent. If Democrats are really that scared of Biden's cognativity, they need to look at that 25th amendment thing they've been kicking around. We have one executive decision maker. We should keep it that way.
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Post by worksforme2 on Feb 25, 2021 21:19:04 GMT -5
Spreading responsibility is a dangerous precedent. If Democrats are really that scared of Biden's cognativity, they need to look at that 25th amendment thing they've been kicking around. We have one to executive decision maker. We should keep it that way. Gotta disagree ....A good example of why single authority can be a bad idea is the special executive authority given to Governors by many legislatures to deal with Covid19. Cuomo being the poster boy of the day. But he isn't by himself. Newson in Calif.is another di*khead who should have his authority removed due to gross negligence. There's also the Governors in Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, and a bunch more who have seized the moment to become dictators. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely I'll toss in one more factoid to bolster my argument. The constitution mandates only the congress can declare war. The founding fathers gave a lot of thought to avoiding hostilities or war being waged by a President. The way it is now it's possible no state of war has been declared, yet the President could authorize the use on nuclear weapons. |
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Post by ironhamster on Feb 25, 2021 21:41:30 GMT -5
Spreading responsibility is a dangerous precedent. If Democrats are really that scared of Biden's cognativity, they need to look at that 25th amendment thing they've been kicking around. We have one to executive decision maker. We should keep it that way. Gotta disagree ....A good example of why single authority can be a bad idea is the special executive authority given to Governors by many legislatures to deal with Covid19. Cuomo being the poster boy of the day. But he isn't by himself. Newson in Calif.is another di*khead who should have his authority removed due to gross negligence. There's also the Governors in Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, and a bunch more who have seized the moment to become dictators. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely I'll toss in one more factoid to bolster my argument. The constitution mandates only the congress can declare war. The founding fathers gave a lot of thought to avoiding hostilities or war being waged by a President. The way it is now it's possible no state of war has been declared, yet the President could authorize the use on nuclear weapons. Emergencies should only last so long, and government is prone to expand its power even moreso during times of crisis. When the scram missiles are in the air and its six minutes until detonation, what benefit is it to call a committee meeting? |
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Post by mirrororchid on Feb 26, 2021 6:02:40 GMT -5
Spreading responsibility is a dangerous precedent. If Democrats are really that scared of Biden's cognativity, they need to look at that 25th amendment thing they've been kicking around. We have one executive decision maker. We should keep it that way. ICBMs can get here in 15 minutes or less. Scram has cut us down to six? We should ask, is this a counterstrike? Or a pre-emptive one? Maybe different criteria. The worry may not be about Biden but a future president. Methinks many Democrats recall their concern with Trump's responsibilities that are no longer an issue. (but could be again? a la Grover Cleveland?) Trump's light hand on even conventional weapon triggers should suggest a second Trump presidency would be similarly uneventful. The policy should stand on its own. I'm unsure it doesn't. (at least for pre-emptive strike.) Rumors flew that a groundless command to nuke anybody would have been slow-walked until cooler heads prevailed. We've heard actual accounts of Soviets that refused to launch counterstrikes against what turned out to be false alarms. Given our submarine nuclear fleet, chances seem fairly good that no attack would go unanswered. The only questions is, will we know who nuked us? M.A.D. suggests to me that any nuclear strike will be a single low yield blast with no one explaining why it was done. |
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Post by ironhamster on Feb 26, 2021 6:21:35 GMT -5
Spreading responsibility is a dangerous precedent. If Democrats are really that scared of Biden's cognativity, they need to look at that 25th amendment thing they've been kicking around. We have one executive decision maker. We should keep it that way. ICBMs can get here in 15 minutes or less. Is this a counterstrike? Or a pre-emptive one? Maybe different criteria. The worry may not be about Biden but a future president. Methinks many Democrats recall their concern with Trump's responsibilities that are no longer an issue. (but could be again? a la Grover Cleveland?) Rumors flew that a groundless command to nuke anybody would have been slow-walked until cooler heads prevailed. We've heard actual accounts of Soviets that refused to launch counterstrikes against what turned out to be false alarms. Given our submarine nuclear fleet, chances seem fairly good that no attack would go unanswered. The only questions is, will we know who nuked us? M.A.D. suggests to me that any nuclear strike will be a single low yield blast with no one explaining why it was done. Given that Trump is the only President in decades to get us into zero new conflicts and the timing of the proposal has come after his departure, and there is video of Biden clearly saying he doesn't know what he is signing with someone off camera yelling for him to "just sign it", I think we can all deduce who this proposal is aimed at. ICBMs are decades old technology. SCRAM jets can travel roughly 10x the speed of sound, and not in a straight line. Rods from God, telephone pole sized tungsten rods dropped from space, is another modern technology that might prove difficult to defeat. |
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Post by mirrororchid on Feb 26, 2021 7:08:13 GMT -5
ICBMs can get here in 15 minutes or less. Is this a counterstrike? Or a pre-emptive one? Maybe different criteria. The worry may not be about Biden but a future president. Methinks many Democrats recall their concern with Trump's responsibilities that are no longer an issue. (but could be again? a la Grover Cleveland?) Rumors flew that a groundless command to nuke anybody would have been slow-walked until cooler heads prevailed. We've heard actual accounts of Soviets that refused to launch counterstrikes against what turned out to be false alarms. Given our submarine nuclear fleet, chances seem fairly good that no attack would go unanswered. The only questions is, will we know who nuked us? M.A.D. suggests to me that any nuclear strike will be a single low yield blast with no one explaining why it was done. Given that Trump is the only President in decades to get us into zero new conflicts and the timing of the proposal has come after his departure, and there is video of Biden clearly saying he doesn't know what he is signing with someone off camera yelling for him to "just sign it", I think we can all deduce who this proposal is aimed at. ICBMs are decades old technology. SCRAM jets can travel roughly 10x the speed of sound, and not in a straight line. Rods from God, telephone pole sized tungsten rods dropped from space, is another modern technology that might prove difficult to defeat. I was editing my text to mention that not a whole lot happened during Trump's turn when you said this. He's just about as non-combative as Jimmy Carter. Come to think of it, Obama continued wars he inherited. I guess Libya might count. I don't think a trade war against China counts, nor am I sure I opposed it. It was pretty lame but I'm liking the intended diversification of manufacturing supply, even if it's a slow start. (C'mon, India!) Looked up project Thor. Space X might make the cost manageable and quite the improvement on nuclear options. "A related problem is that anything on the rod that is not made of tungsten is going to want to burn up in re-entry. Things like the guidance computer, sensors, and hypothetical remote control radio." I suppose all the gear needs to be embedded in the rod. Maybe thermal protection included. Can the rod fly blind accurately enough? What equipment would keep it on target? |
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Post by ironhamster on Feb 26, 2021 7:29:03 GMT -5
I'll leave the engineering specifics up to the engineers. The Space Shuttle design included ceramic tiles so good at inhibiting thermal transfer that if your home were covered with them you could heat it with a candle, and that design is forty years old.
Carter was frustrating, in that he allowed the Shah to fall, replaced by a regime that has killed hundreds of thousands and intends to kill millions. After Obama flew $140B cash to Iran, there was a huge increase in terror in the middle east, along with a horrible humanitarian crisis that by all rights historians should name after him.
He armed IS/ISIS with weapons from Libya. Goodafi was on our side in the war on terror. After 911, Goodafi dismantled his WMD program. He was no threat to anyone. Years previous, he went to war against his third world basket case neighbor, Chad, and got his ass kicked, so he wasn't even a regional concern. His one downfall was that he was creating a gold backed pan-African currency that would have threatened the Euro and the Federal Reserve Note. We know his weapons went to Islamic terrorists, but nobody has ever said a word about what happened to the gold.
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