Let's Make America Strong Again

a reply to: kendix1960

Right, we can't project strength and power if we're weak. It's like spending all your money on a fancy car but going home to a shack a bridge. Eventually you won't be able to fool everyone anymore.

"Look over there at those guys!" and "We have to send troops there!" ... meanwhile we never turn our gaze back upon ourselves and our own internal problems. Wealth inequality, infrastructure, rising cost of living, inflation, unemployment...all of these issues are HERE and touch on each of us NOW in the immediate.

Lets take some time to fix ourselves from the inside before we try to be Team America: World Police.

originally posted by: Willtell
When was America great?


After the two world wars they started to excel economically and somewhat socially.

Particularly after WWII when the economy for everybody, particularly the lower middle class, started to raise wages through unions and high taxes on the rich.

In the early fifties all the way through the 60’s and 70’s up until the 80’s when Ronald Reagan stopped that with union-busting and welfare bashing and huge tax cuts for the rich. Then over the years since then all the high wage accomplishments began to fade.

Then they came with the trade deals that sent good jobs overseas as well the bad banking policies.

Now we are in a constant wage recession and demand recession just because ordinary people no longer have the high wage jobs to support the demand of a growing economy.

So therefore America is close to a third world country and no where near as Trump says:
Becoming great again.

The OP is talking neocon rhetoric which will not make America great but probably bring the world to a third world war.

America will only become great again with a foreign policy somewhat like Rand Paul and a domestic economic policy like Bernie Sanders.

I comment only because I tend to agree with you in that the 1950's was probably the high water mark for the US. I returned to the US in the mid 1970's and its been a constant downhill trip since then.

I'd disagree with your observation that the US can ever become "great" again. Thanks to a variety of factors, open borders, corruption of the political class and the voting systems and most of all, unbridled Globalizaton, the "US" will never be great again; its being absorbed into the economy and politics of the Global Elites like George Soros. Rand Paul? Bernie Sanders? It wouldn't matter. The Shadow Government runs things, not the people elected to public office. You could put Clarence the Circus Clown in the White Hut and have the same result.

a reply to: kendix1960

I'm impressed by your generosity with other people's money that you so casually spend without their permission. You will make America proud with your left-wing ideas of spending big bucks. Since you are so generous with using up what little money I have, perhaps you can come over and take it yourself to fund your military missions?

I challenge you to a dual. If you win, you can use the money to fund your military adventures halfway across the world. I knew those people 15,000 miles away are a huge threat to you and your family at home. They could kill you any day now. If I win, I will use your money to fund a series of writing contests where they write about whether dirt poor people in desert holes causes today's problems, or whether the wealthy elite in their Manhattan towers are the cause of today's problems.

Also, I can't help but notice the USA spends what seven times more than its closest competitor, China? And that isn't enough for you. Its never enough, is it?

Here is an idea for the US military. Stop pissing away America's wealth it accumulated by the capitalism it used to have by sending hundreds of billions of dollars in desert holes, and instead America could actually properly equip itself so it could actually mount a defense against an attack for once.

America is a weak, pathetic, collapsing country. Its true. But you are pointing your finger at people making $3,000 salaries which makes you an ignorant fool.

Learn about social contracts. In a social contract, you can't simply bind people to your country as slaves and take everything they have for your military adventures. First you ask, "What can I do for you?. Then in exchange for money for your military adventures in places that are irrelevant in global terms, you actually will be doing something to earn the money.

I don't give the feds anything at the end of the day. I make it a point not to. If they want my money, they'll have to start acting like the non-profit organization they are in people's wrong imaginations. If you want me as a citizen to your slave country, the USA, then you have to convert your country to an organization that bargains with me and gives me negotiating power over what I'll be doing for the USA, and what I'll get in return. Just like every other contract in existence. Its mind-blowing to me that 99% of people don't realize that social contracts should have the same standard as any other contract.

Learn the social contract and understand what you are talking about, which is spending other people's money without their permission. Taxation is theft.

a reply to: centarix

You don't get it at all. Isis doesn't care whether our country spends money or not or what the money buys. Nor do they care about social contracts or taxation. All they care about is imposing an Islamic caliphate on the West and imposing their way of life on the rest of us. That includes you! An issues reorientation should be your next major goal!

This just isn't about spending other peoples' money. It's about wanting to save American lives and preserving our way of life for ourselves and children as well as for our grandchildren.

originally posted by: kendix1960
a reply to: centarix

You don't get it at all. Isis doesn't care whether our country spends money or not or what the money buys. Nor do they care about social contracts or taxation. All they care about is imposing an Islamic caliphate on the West and imposing their way of life on the rest of us. That includes you! An issues reorientation should be your next major goal!

This just isn't about spending other peoples' money. It's about wanting to save American lives and preserving our way of life for ourselves and children as well as for our grandchildren.

But keep in mind that, although we may get a minor attack once in a while, ISIS is really no threat to the average US citizen. We have about 30-40 more pressing problems. The threat and fear of ISIS is a government and media creation. Somehow the "Tough American John Wayne Clint Eastwood Die Hard not afraid of anything Stereotype" has been replaced by American Cowards who are afraid of their own shadows.

a reply to: kendix1960

All they care about is imposing an Islamic caliphate on the West and imposing their way of life on the rest of us.

We have had people trying to impose their religion on us for decades a couple of them are even presidential candidates this year, but we have a constitution that is clear on that.

a reply to: kendix1960

But once again this isn't about right wing politics or left wing politics or war mongering.

Sure as hell sounds like war-mongering to me.

You have sons and daughters? You'd be willing to send them over there?

Your entire "blog" is one thing - scary.

Stop watching Fox News. They are poison to a thinking mind.

a reply to: centarix

You will make America proud with your left-wing ideas of spending big bucks.

There is NOTHING "left-wing" about this person's ideas.

It is war-mongering, fear-mongering, and violence being called for.

My ten step plan to fix the United States:

1. Back the dollar with gold and silver and stop the rampant inflation

2. Dissolve the Federal Reserve and place control of our money supply in the hands of Congress

3. Deport all the illegals

4. Institute a flat tax and drastically lower the corporate tax

5. Increase tariffs on imported goods and offer financial incentives to corporations that keep more than 50% of their employees inside the United States

6. Repeal Obamacare and never touch socialized healthcare ever again

7. Reaffirm our second amendment rights by instituting stand your ground law in all 50 states and CCW laws in all 50 states. Repeal any laws that require background checks or waiting periods as unconstitutional.

8. Overturn the SCOTUS's gay marriage ruling as unconstitutional and hand it over to the states to be decided as a state by state issue. It is not within the federal governments authority to make religious decisions of any kind.

9. Increase the military budget

10. Bomb all the muslims

a reply to: peskyhumans

That plan, except for number 5, sucks. And blows.

5. Increase tariffs on imported goods and offer financial incentives to corporations that keep more than 50% of their employees inside the United States

Okay! Meanwhile, insist that corporations pay their fair share and can no longer "hide" their assets and receive corporate welfare. INCREASE the taxes on corporations AND on capital gains.....then, if they keep American workers employed here in America, they might get a tax break......
Corporate Tax Breaks didn't work when Brownback tried it in Kansas. Just so you know.......


anyway ------
Even if we tweaked #5 accordingly, your plan is a total Fail.

originally posted by: peskyhumans
My ten step plan to fix the United States:

1. Back the dollar with gold and silver and stop the rampant inflation

This will be worthless towards our economy.

2. Dissolve the Federal Reserve and place control of our money supply in the hands of Congress

This will completely break our economy. Like I'm talking financial meltdown break.

3. Deport all the illegals

Impossible, but will also break our economy.

4. Institute a flat tax and drastically lower the corporate tax

Wait. You think corporations are paying too much taxes?

5. Increase tariffs on imported goods and offer financial incentives to corporations that keep more than 50% of their employees inside the United States

This is a complicated issue, but compounded with your other economy destroying proposals, it certainly wouldn't help the economy any.

6. Repeal Obamacare and never touch socialized healthcare ever again

This would break health care worse than it was broken pre-Obamacare.

7. Reaffirm our second amendment rights by instituting stand your ground law in all 50 states and CCW laws in all 50 states. Repeal any laws that require background checks or waiting periods as unconstitutional.

You don't think that ANY of this should be left up to the states to decide on their own?

8. Overturn the SCOTUS's gay marriage ruling as unconstitutional and hand it over to the states to be decided as a state by state issue. It is not within the federal governments authority to make religious decisions of any kind.

It wasn't a religious decision. It is applying something that Christians tried to claim as religious to a secular crowd. There was already precedent for this decision from the interracial marriage ruling anyways.

9. Increase the military budget

Yes, because what we haven't spent enough money on yet is MORE weapons that destroy and kill people...

10. Bomb all the muslims

Pure bigotry.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Funny you mention Fox News. I rarely watch it. My ideas are my own. We simply do not agree. The war was started by Isis. All you want to do is say it's not as important as other issues and ignore how serious a threat Isis poses to the West and our way of life. If there is something more important than our lives and the lives of our loved ones (which Isis continually threatens) in your scheme of priorities for America, then we're just not on the same page!

a reply to: kendix1960

Funny you mention Fox News. I rarely watch it. My ideas are my own. We simply do not agree. The war was started by Isis. All you want to do is say it's not as important as other issues and ignore how serious a threat Isis poses to the West and our way of life.

No - the war started back during "Arab Spring"........

ISIS does not pose an actual threat to the USA.
They are a bunch of nutters who are wreaking havoc - over there. There is NO WAY they could 'destroy' our way of life.
There were more mass-murders in the US caused by religious christian zealots and people who need mental health care in this country than by "Muslim extremists."


10 worst examples of Christian or far-right terrorism

From Fox News to the Weekly Standard, neoconservatives have tried to paint terrorism as a largely or exclusively Islamic phenomenon.

Their message of Islamophobia has been repeated many times since the George W. Bush era: Islam is inherently violent, Christianity is inherently peaceful, and there is no such thing as a Christian terrorist or a white male terrorist. But the facts don’t bear that out. Far-right white male radicals and extreme Christianists are every bit as capable of acts of terrorism as radical Islamists, and to pretend that such terrorists don’t exist does the public a huge disservice.

Your "ideas" scare the crap out of me, and many millions of Americans.

a reply to: peskyhumans

Reaffirm our second amendment rights by instituting stand your ground law in all 50 states and CCW laws in all 50 states. Repeal any laws that require background checks or waiting periods as unconstitutional.

Yeaaaahhh, violent felons with guns is such a great idea!!

Love how you take a states right stance in the next point but don't want to apply it here.

OMG you totally got me I AM on Obama's payroll!! I would say that you're on the defense industry lobby's payroll. Seriously that's a cheap way to make generalizations. Yes I don't agree with so I must be on Obama's payroll. weak. You're either with us or against us right?

I am on the side of my country I just don't see things your way. I'll take your post number by number and tell you why I don't agree. You may be surprised that I do agree on some points but here it goes.

(1) Increase the military budget to a trillion dollars. - Not at all necessary. We already spend more than the next 10 countries combined on defense. I think we need to look at how we're actually spending it and maybe even lower that budget. We can allocate how it's spent. Maybe we actually use defense dollars to benefit our veterans? Pay our soldiers better? Give them better housing? Give them what they need in the field? We already have the most advanced and most powerful military mankind has ever seen we need to take care of them.

(2) Markedly increase bombing raids over Syria. - To what end? Increasing the number of bombing runs will only increase the number of civilian casualties. This as we have seen in the past has led to more hatred of the west and the US in particular. I really don't know what increasing the bombing raids will do. Where do you want to bomb? Who should we be bombing? ISIS? or Assad's forces?

(3) Lead coalition of our allies in placing up to 50,000 boots on the ground to destroy Isis in Syria, Iraq, and Libya so as to include Arab partners such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia. - 50,000 troops...let's think about that. No! Why is it our responsibility to put more of our kids in harms way? I think we need to get the nations you listed to step up and use their resources to combat ISIS. Sure we may need to get some additional troops over there but 50k is just a ridiculous number.

(4) Stop letting Isis know in advance what we are going to do. - Not sure exactly what your referring to here so I'll pass on this one.

(5) Call Isis what they are i.e. radical Islamic terrorists out to destroy our way of life in a world wide holy war against western civilization and culture. - They are radical, they are terrorists, they purport to follow Islam. I think to call them radical Islamic terrorists only serves to legitimize them and their fight. I would actually prefer to just call them something completely ridiculous like Team Goat F***er or something that would be offensive to them. To call this a holy war also only serves to legitimize them and their fight and needlessly creates a religious boogey man that as we have seen only leads to demonizing an entire religion because of the action of a vocal and loud minority. If anything we should call them religious extremists.

(6) Stop using the idea of political correctness to excuse cowardly inaction and fear. - with this one too I'm not sure exactly what your referring to here so I'll pass on this one.

(6) Take the fight to the enemy and destroy them where they live before they try to come to us in order to kill us where we live. - Isn't that what we've been doing since we started the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

(7) Only negotiate with Vladimir Putin after we restore our nuclear triad and increase our military budget so we can act from a position of strength rather than weakness as we have been doing. - If you check this link you'll see that we pretty much have Russia out manned and out gunned from a conventional perspective. According to this link www.armscontrol.org... we have about 7100 nukes and Russia has 7700. Both sides have more than enough nuclear firepower to destroy the entire planted a few times over. When you say that you want to restore our nuclear triad are saying that we don't still posses the capability to deliver nukes via, ICBM, submarine and bomber? We have plenty of power and Putin knows it.

(8) Introduce a Bill of Impeachment against President Obama for failing to protect our nation and turning his back on our greatest Middle East partner, Israel, if the President continues to refuse to deal effectively with the terrorists and continues to cave into Iran. - What are you even talking about here? Failing to protect? Please tell me what you are talking about. How has he turned his back on Israel? We're still giving them 3,000,000,000/yr..that's THREE BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. What specifically has Obama done that could be considered turning his back on Israel? ...cave in to Iran? I guess we'll hit that next.

(9) Pull out of the awful Iran-Nuclear deal as Iran continues it's ballistic testing and development of nuclear war heads in violation of the said deal and in violation of U.N. sanctions. - As much as we don't like Iran and don't get me wrong the Iranian government is a bunch of radical a-holes I'm sure we can agree on that!) they do have a right to defend themselves. So they basically do have a right to develop and test weapon systems. They're not developing nuclear weapons. They can't and if you think that they are you need to provide some sources for that not just opinion and conjecture. With out a deal with Iran we are completely open to them developing a nuclear weapon. With the deal we can keep an eye on them and make sure that they're not. They've already shipped out most of their uranium (n.pr...) and they've gotten rid of 4112 centrifuges (http://(link tracking not allowed)/1Rj05eM). With no deal we have no recourse to deal with them outside of war.

(10) Stop ignoring ever increasing tendencies in Europe and elsewhere to attempt a link between the Israeli- Palestinian issue and the motives of Isis when the two are entirely unrelated problems. - I'm not really familiar with what your talking about there man. Please elaborate. I can see how they can be related but in general they are two separate issues that need to be dealt with separately so I guess we have some type of agreement on this issue.

...but I'll give it to you...you at least have a plan

a reply to: moresco

Thank you for at least conceding the fact thatIi do have a plan, and for those specific points upon which you passed for lack of sufficient information. I respect you for that. But I must reiterate the fact that much of the rest of your remarks sound terribly familiar. I have heard it from Obama in his many speeches and statements during the past seven years. And where has it got us?

The latest news reports indicate that Isis is about to launch a wave of terrorist attacks against Great Britain and that we will be their next target after that. The success they had in Paris and their bombing of the Russian aircraft has demonstrated just how much stronger Isis has become as a result of Obama's impotent and ineffective approach to their threats. You bet we need to to do something different and we can't be afraid to do it. Yes we do need more effective air strikes against Isis targets in Syria. And unfortunately we can't defeat them from the air alone as recent events have proven. A coalition led by the United States including Sunni Muslims from Jordan and Saudi Arabia in addition to our NATO partners totaling 50,000 against the 35,000 Isis soldiers on the ground in Syria, Iraq, and Libya could destroy the jihadists if combined with effective air support. And I think Isis could be quickly neutralized in this fashion.

I believe that the above is a viable plan of action and a far more effective one than anything Obama has done to date. Easy? No. Without risk and sacrifice? No. Necessary with the potential for success? Yes!

Necessary with the potential for success? Yes!

No!

You sound hysterical.....

Why the Islamic State Is the Minor Leagues of Terror
Putting Threats into Perspective for 2016

...you might be forgiven for thinking that we Americans lived in a land beset by, and under siege from, Islamic terror and the Islamic State. The latest polls indicate that striking numbers of Americans now view the threat of terrorism as the country’s number one danger, see it as a (if not the) critical issue facing us, believethat it and national security should be the government’s top priorities, and are convinced that the terrorists are at present “winning.”

You aren't alone in that...however, you are mistaken.

You would never know that, if you left out what might be called self-inflicted pain like death by vehicle (more than 33,000 deaths annually), suicide by gun (more than 21,000 annually) or total gun deaths (30,000 annually), and fatal drug overdoses (more than 47,000 annually), this is undoubtedly one of the safest countries on the planet.

Over these years, the American dead from Islamic terror outfits or the “lone wolves” they inspire have added up to the most modest of figures, even if you include that single great day of horror, September 11, 2001.

Include deaths from non-Islamic right-wing acts of terror (including, for instance, Dylann Roof’s murders in a black church in Charleston), a slightly more impressive figure in recent years, and you still have next to nothing.

Even if you add in relatively commonplace mass shootings, from school campuses to malls to workplaces, that are not defined as “terror,” and accept the broadest possible definition of such shootings (a minimum of four killed or injured), you would still have the sort of danger that couldn’t be more modest compared to death by vehicle, suicide, or drugs — phenomena that obsess few Americans.

(I happen to be one of those Americans who is obsessed by our domestic problems that lead to suicide and hoplessness, rather than ISIS...we have much worse problems to deal with).

I know it will stick in your craw if you read the above sourced article, but it includes data citations, and it is accurate.

Continuing to bomb countries thousands of miles away is wrong.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I hope you aren't hysterical if we have another 9/11. Have you seen the latest news reports that the so called "minor league of terror," Isis, is getting ready to launch attacks against Great Britain with plans to attack us here at home soon after?

I look at reality. Have fun looking at citations. I hope that will keep you safe.

a reply to: kendix1960

Have you seen the latest news reports that the so called "minor league of terror," Isis, is getting ready to launch attacks against Great Britain with plans to attack us here at home soon after?

Of course I've seen them.

Now, show us your sources for this "information", and I'll take them and their claims on, one at a time.....




Also, a question (you are under no obligation whatsoever to answer; I am simply trying to learn more about you).......

how old are you?
I remember 9/11: exactly where I was, what I was doing, where my kids were, etc.
What were you doing that day?

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I was born in 1945. When 9/11 occurred I was at my law office. Quite a shock. Pray it doesn't happen again. Thanks for your interest.