KentuckyWoman
KentuckyWoman's JournalSo what would happen if the US quit exporting arms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry
US and Russia are the biggest arms exporters but the US sales are nearly twice those of Russia. This doesn't even take into account weapons exported by Smith & Wesson or Colt.
Yes humans are a violent bunch and will remain so even if we stop fueling violence around the world for the sake of a quick buck.
These sales enshrine both the dollars from the sale and the fact these weapons are used to create the chaos necessary for economic predators to swoop in and control money and resources. Not to mention the contractors who are hired to go in after the wars and rebuild.
The US can do better when it comes to making money on manufacturing. We don't need to fill our pockets upon the deaths of people on the other side of the globe.
EDIT.... to provide clarity and correct typos. UGH.
What, you expected personal responsibility from a Republican?
ain't gonna happen...... no way.... no how....not ever.
The Republican party has spent decades telling people their problems are all someone else's fault. They blame unions. They blame minorities. They blame women. They blame the sick. They blame the poor. They blame people who don't even live in this country. They blame children. They even blame each other.
The only entity that ever escapes blame is whoever is shoving money into their pockets.
Part of the beast. Don't bother using up perfectly good anger on these folks. Just roll your eyes and move on. Save your energy for something more productive.
My humble advice.......
Attention span of the American people - a perspective
In 2007 / 2008 Obama kicked Kardashian, McCain and Palin all in search trends.
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=donald%20trump%2C%20bernie%20sanders%2C%20hillary%20clinton%2C%20kardashian%2C%20obama&geo=US&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5
For the last 12 months Trump is the only one breaking through the Kardashians. The goal on our side is to get the attention of the American people generally.
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=obama%2C%20trump%2C%20hillary%20clinton%2C%20bernie%20sanders%2C%20kardashian&geo=US&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B5
Hillary and Bernie have different paths to get the job done and have some fundamental differences on what can really be achieved. I would peg Hillary for being a little more on the side of serving her own interests over mine and peg Bernie for being a little more concerned with my interests than his. A lot of people disagree with me on Hillary and I'm cool with that. But the bottom line is either candidate WILL serve the American people on some level. You can bet your last dime that no one in the RNC gives a tinker's damn about anyone but themselves.
The cost of single payer .... the math at my house.
My husband is currently on chemo. He's on a medicare advantage plan. I am too young for medicare. I have recently had to stop working but was self employed. I still have some income from my store (run by hired staff). I buy medical care insurance through Kynect, which is targeted to be closed.
We have spent enough on medical care the last 8 years to be able to itemize it on our taxes and get a deduction. Prior to 2013 that means anything over 7.5 % and thereafter anything over 10%.
With single payer, if I had to pay a 10% tax on every penny we have coming in as income, including social security benefits, in order to pay for singer payer, we'd be ahead in 2015 by about $2400. If the math holds up as expected in 2016 it will be closer to $3300 we'd be ahead by buying single payer with the rest of America.
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My brother and sister in law work for the same medium sized company, who pays 75% of the medical care insurance premiums. They have family coverage including them both and 2 working college age kids. The premium they pay is $688 a month. This means the employer is paying $2064 a month. With deductables and copayments my brother's family spent $11691 on medical care for the 4 of them. The combined income for all 4 of them is $77844 in 2015. Their employer paid an additional $24768.
At a 10% tax for single payer on their income they would have paid $7784 and been ahead $3907. This doesn't even take into account the money their employer spent on premiums instead of wages. Give the employees an extra $12000 each in in come, tax it at 10% for single payer plus whatever regular tax rate they would have and they still come out $1000's ahead every year.
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Every time someone tells you WE can't afford single payer ask yourself WHO IS "WE". Just follow the money. Predators are everywhere in medical care at at every level. It's one thing to make a good living being a medical care professional, or manufacturing medical devices and treatments, or running a medical care facility. It's quite another to be swimming in gravy while the hungry starve. When the doctor owns the testing machines and constantly sends people for testing on it, or has a relative working at XYZ medical device manufacturer making commission on all the knee replacements, or stents or whatever that are used... which is more common that you think.... it's a recipe for using the sick as cash cows and even making marginal people actually sick.
We've got to chop the the absolutely predatory nature of sick care in this country out of the equation. Whatever it takes.
There is no mystery to the "Trump Phenomenon".
So up until a month ago most everyone but Fox News and Rushbo were treating Trump as the buffoon. Now we are all talking about the "Trump Phenomenon". They act like they are collectively scratching their heads on why he's still at the top of the leaderboard.
Bull effing shit.
We all know EXACTLY why Trump ran and why he's so popular.
RACISTS.
They want the guy that convinced them all we put a Kenyan in the White House to make the establishment and the brown people of this country PAY for what they did...... including any Republican who attempted to work with him or failed to scream about impeachment every 5 minutes.
They are sick of spending tax dollars on locking up the hoodie wearing black "thugs" who they think are making life miserable for "real Americans" like them. Sick of hearing Black Lives Matter people whine and moan about black people randomly getting shot. Sick of having to share jobs with black people. Sick of those brown people that own all the gas stations taking their hard earned money and sending it to the terrorists. Sick of those brown people with their anchor babies coming over to take those good American lettuce picking or chicken plucking jobs that pay $2 an hour if they are lucky to get paid at all.
They want Trump to buy plane and boat tickets for the whole lot of them and send them all back where they came from, ESPECIALLY THE KENYAN, so this country can go back to being a nice white CHRISTIAN country where Bible reading in school is mandatory, the 10 Commandments are plastered on every corner and men can beat their wives and molest their kids without consequence and everyone speaks American (not English because that shit sounds too gay as per a member of my family).
I am a white woman born and raised in Kentucky and when it comes to blue collar working class people I am surrounded. I can tell you Trump has managed to turn merely prejudiced people into racists and racists into rabid dogs. Not all of them but more than I would ever expect. It's breaking up families all over the country. It is surprising to me only 30% of them will openly admit to backing Trump.
The danger in Trump is not any policies or initiatives he may or may not back if elected - though that can't be good either. The worse danger is the mere fact he emboldens the racists. His mere existence in the race escalates the violence against brown people of all sorts. His longevity in this race shows all of us how deep goes the racism in this country and how critical it is to beat it or breed it out of this society once and for all.
People are largely just lost
The vast majority of people I know were union members until their jobs were shipped off to some slave labor country or else the company started "in-sourcing" short term labor from temp services at lower wages.
The unions at national level didn't see fit to organize to stop it. The government that allowed it and even passed laws to make it easier simply told the workers to quit being moochers and lazy bums and spend $1000s in debt (at a nice fat interest rate) to go get a college degree...... and then promptly rewarded companies who shipped college jobs out or imported cheaper labor.
People have just gotten to the point where they don't trust anyone but themselves. The expect the government to fuck them out of whatever small savings or safety net they've been able to cobble together....... home equity, IRAs, SSI, Medicare..... you name it. And when a candidate comes along and says the reason your safety net is in trouble is because of all these moochers over here, and if we cut them all off you will be safe...... well it rings a bell...... or rather a dog whistle.
Now a guy like Bernie comes along and says the reason your safety net is in trouble is because we've handed the "job creators" the nation's wealth on a platter and spent OUR money on weapons to kill kids and grandmas on the other side of the world they are very skeptical. They are convinced what little they have, in the form of a paycheck, will vanish if we dare offend the money people AND the one avenue of semi-security for them or their kids - a career in the military - might vanish as well.
The mantra people are voting against their interests is not accurate from what I've seen. The truth is more like people have become convinced the Democratic talking point that government can help is a lie....... based on what they consider life experience to date. Not that they trust the GOP any better.
Christmas Eve in my family gave me hope
Previously posted in THIS THREAD and moved to an OP at the request of Niyad.
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The anti-bully campaigns in schools may actually be doing some good outside the school.
A cousin has been in an emotionally abusive relationship for some time. The guy is a master at treating her like shit then blaming her when her feelings are hurt, and looking like the good guy to everyone else. Over time he's convinced her this is better than what she deserves.
They played host to her sister's family.... which included 4 kids ranging in age from 8 to 18. Well the 8 yr old figured out the deal in under 2 days and enlisted her siblings. One day at the dinner table the jackass started his little routine and all 4 kids let him have it. Told him he's a bully. Told him he has no right to treat anyone that way. Told their aunt (my cousin) she deserves better, can do better, and should not have to live with this. Told their parents they should help her pack and take her back to their house until she can get divorced and back on her feet.
Being challenged the fucker's true color came out for all to see. Apparently the police were called and the 18 yr old of the kids was arrested..... released a few hours later to his parents as they were leaving town early. Of course it shot the hell out of Christmas Eve.
My cousin, their aunt, spent Christmas packing up her car and this morning arranging for a U-Haul and a couple strong backs. The financial cost to her in the immediate future will be incredible but she says the kids standing up and calling a bully a bully made her realize it's not just her. It's really him.
She has some mental and emotional work to do but I think those kids saved her......
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Update since this post dear cuz has moved out, taken half the bank account and is staying with a friend she actually thought she'd lost years ago. Cuz says she'd been toying with getting the hell out for years but stuck it out because people don't divorce and plus she thought it was all HER problem. The kids were the spark and jerked her to reality.
Her soon to be X is has never been the violent type and we are crossing our fingers he'll let her go in peace and get some help.
Why I bought a star.
I do not have many posts but have been poking around in DU for years. My sister, DUer SmileyRose joined back when it was WhistleAss vs Al Gore. She eventually got terminal and asked me to keep an eye on the site for her. She love you guys.
Immediate I saw why. Despite the turmoil lately and the loss of some familiar names, I think this website has a valuable roll to play in my life. I've done everything from kill time, to play fight, to roll eyes at the games others play, to get a real education on issues or to simply open my mind to different viewpoints.
At the end of the day I am grateful to Skinner and Elad and Earl G and whoever else is turning the knobs behind the curtain for this platform. Also the DU community for everything you've given to me and to my sister before me.
And it did not escape my notice that I never saw that DU robot once during this last debate / DNC fiasco thingy. The investment in new hardware obviously paid off. Wish I could have given more to the cause.....
America is kind of scaring the shit out of me
Where in the blue ass hell are these people at Trump rallies coming from? What hole did they crawl out of?
Even in the back hills of Kentucky if a family member runs their face in such a bigoted way it is made crystal clear to them very quickly that kind of idea is unacceptable. Flap your stupid pie hole in public with that kind of hate you'll be pretty much shunned by the community.
Oh they'll tolerate you disowning your daughter if she takes up with a black guy. But people in the small east Kentucky towns are appalled and offended anyone would harass, spit on or attack a woman simply because she's wearing Muslim religious garb - or threatening to bodily injure someone because they "look muslim" or "look gay".
WHY are we tolerating this from any political candidate? We sat around the let Turdblossom get away with his little whisper campaign about McCain's black daughter and tolerated the Quitter's yapping about Obama being a terrorist and now we are going to sit around and let Mr. Bankrupt prove to us this whole country has lost it's fucking mind.
Honest to gracious if my husband was not eyeball deep in chemo I'd be pulling together a bunch of women in the most severest black niqab or burqa or whatever you call it and hound Trump and his supporters everywhere they go doing zagareet as loud as possible.
We have to stop this craziness. Black kids are getting shot every 5 minutes. Woman in scarves are getting spit on and threatened........... We didn't learn anything when Gabby got shot...........
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Member since: Fri Apr 26, 2013, 04:51 PMNumber of posts: 6,679
