|
|
| From | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
 Political TopicsOpen borders I have crossed many international borders. Have you? The border between Mexico and the US is NOT open. The border from Germany to Sweden is open. I flew to Sweden, requested the customs officials stamp my passport, and was told, "oh that is o old fashioned. We do not do that anymore.". Sadly, my passport bears no Sweden stamp. The border between Poland and Belarus is the tightest I ever crossed. Quite a story behind that one. Crossing from Finland to Russia required an expensive visa. But Lithuania to Latvia, Latvia to Estonia, Estonia to Finland--no one stopped me. Those borders are open. I apologize if this post comes across as childish or trollish. Colorful language is just a habit of mine. Please look past it and comment as the rational, mature adult that you are. I do not mind being called a child, but I would prefer our focus stay on the topic rather than on each other's personal failings or hygiene. Illegal immigration Apprehend them, send them back. President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to three million illegal immigrants. I see no reason we cannot do something for Dreamers. Children without any criminal history who would suffer if deported. Sanctuary cities If municipal law enforcement wants to make federal crimes a low priority, I favor local control. They have good reason for the policies they adopt, which in no way hampers federal immigration enforcement. ICE continues failing to raid the Nunes family farm in Kansas, though. No cash bail Depends on the crime and flight risk. First offense, non violent crime? Maybe. Not prosecuting crime I want to see the Jan 6 coup organizers brought to justice, and Trump should also be charged with his numerous other crimes. He is still mad at McConnell for the impeachment speech, and tryning to get him removed from office. Defunding the police I oppose police forces having tactical military gear deployed the way too many do. I oppose no knock raids such as the one that claimed the life of Breonna Taylor. Please don't blame the victim because she chose to be born black. Emptying and eliminating jails Private prisons, yes. Marijuana users? Yes. Drug addiction is a medical problem, not a criminal one. If a drug user is stealing to support their habit, go after the theft. Allowing homeless encampments Why not put those ten thousand mini guillotines and FEMA cement coffins and concentration camps to good use, instead of saving the for Republicans? Increasing drug usage acceptance and encouragement Like by the Sackler family? Lying by government officials 30,000 lies. I'm against it, whoever does it. Except lying about blowjobs to protect the reputation of interns. While generally opposed, it seems forgivable. RECEIVING a blowjob is a much bigger issue, but Clinton was not impeached for that. Government mandates such as those for Covid, Yes. We mandated vaccinations ever since discovering this wonderful technology. public education and competition in education I have nothing against private schools, but oppose government financing them. Government should not be picking and choosing winners and losers. Public education is an essential state function. CRT in public schools It is not being taught in elementary or secondary school now, and probably should be. Slavery was so horrible people should be aware of just how thoroughly evil this practice was. race relations and Systemic White Racism, Hard to believe we are still fighting these battles in 2020. The 1960s called and wants its movement back. inflation It is troubling term limits Opposed. That is what ballots are for. If the people cannot vote wisely, they deserve to suffer, as we all did under Groper. disarming the public Opposed, save for military style weapons. Antipersonnel tanks, land mines, bazookas, RPGs, machine guns, semiautomatic rifles, and other hardware that one commonly finds on battlefields, aside from sidearms like pistols. Disclaimer--I do have a thirty round magazine for a pistol, becaus it was inexpensive. If I had to surrender it in a general ban of such things, it wouldn't bother me at all. I have no real need to expend 31 rounds--crowd control or whatever. and the role of our government agencies in society To help us get along, resolve disputes, etc. I like the post office, public education, and believe we should step into the 21st century with public health care too. Nurses in particular would appreciate better regulation of for profit health care, which could be financed by reducing the massive overhead of the medical insurance industry. |
||
|
pawntificator 18-Dec-21, 00:45 |
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com |
||
|
It seems the original attempt degenerated quite quickly into a series of "Groper" rants and other things. When you originally listed the Number One topic I thought maybe we could give that topic a few serious posts and then possibly move on to another. That didn't happen, so maybe we can try again. Here you have given many topics a one-liner or, at most, a few sentences. Do you wish to treat all these important topics with only a one-liner or, at most, a few sentences? Are we now done? In making comments about everything, each time, we won't be able to give serious discussion to any of them. I think it better to discuss one, for a bit, and then move on. If OK with you... I'll start and I'll select "Inflation" where you gave an acceptable reply "It is troubling". Yes, I can agree with that. Inflation is basically caused by too much money for the amount of goods and services available. Too little money will stifle the economy and businesses will not be able to expand, hire employees, buy their raw materials etc. which will cause the public to have less money (overall) to spend which leads to deflation and contraction... recession. Too much money in circulation devalues the dollar which means for the same money, companies and people receive less goods and services. That is what we are seeing today. The government and the Fed have pumped "stimulus" dollars into the economy, paid people NOT to work, and created government welfare projects and entitlements. Inflation hits low income and elderly people the hardest. They generally have little or NO excess money to be spent on personal luxury items. Their money is generally spent on housing, food, gasoline and/or heating oil for the home, clothing, medical. Many are dependent on fixed incomes. In all cases, inflation devalues their dollars and they receive less for their same, small incomes. Therefore we should be doing everything possible to avoid excess inflation. A standard normal inflation rate is generally acceptable at about 3%. The government has allowed it to go to about 8% (per their own statistics) but many commodities are up 25% to 150% of what they previously were a year ago. Pumping more money into the economy with "stimulus" funds, paying off student debt, relieving mortgages, or creating entitlements and more government programs are NOT helpful to curbing inflation. |
||
|
Inflation A friend of mine retired his student debt by age fifty. Now he can begin saving up for a down payment on a home. If he can accomplish 20% in fifteen years, he will be able to start a thirty year mortgage at age 65. Pay it off by age 95, work another ten years to save up for retirement... Has his parents hailed from California their college educations would have been paid for by the state. |
||
|
Idaho Now of course Republicans seethed at that, so they could slash lake front vacation home property taxes on Californians. Not counting agriculture, I think most Idaho land not owned by the state or federal government is owned by people out of state. Idaho kids do not deserve a decent education, which is why Mississippi is about the only state with lower teacher salaries, MAGA. |
||
|
It all begins with extensive junior college, marshes through California State colleges and onward to University which contains such colleges as Cal Tech, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Sandiego, Uc San Francisco, UC Berkely, and such, I don't believe it's all free unless the family is needy, but the value for the buck is always present Example: Junior colleges used to cost $15.00 per semester for all the units you could handle. A California Private school called Stanford is famous for it's high tuition and quality education, but few know that if a family of a qualified child has a gross income of less than 150K the tuition is free and then the tuition slides upward to a family with 500K income where the tuition suddenly becomes retail rate. All the above tuition rates might have changed a bit, because I haven't looked into if for a few decades. But then: That's just how us commie, socialist, bleeding heart liberals are --- always throwing money away to persons other than fat-cats. |
||
|
I don't think that is really the case. When student loan debt is "forgiven", that means the government is paying it off to the lenders. The lenders are banks and credit associations. THEY are NOT forgiving the debt. The government has ensured the loans and if there were a default, the government would be paying it off. That will be real money pumped into circulation. That amount of money IS indeed being pumped back into the economy... and it is over a $Trillion in inflation producing excess money that should be payed off incrementally by the borrower over the stated loan maturity timeframe. Paying odd incrementally over several years will NOT cause inflation but paying off entirely, all at once, will pump a TRILLION inflation producing dollars in over a few months. Question: What if the education was paid for by dipping into savings... the students' own savings or the parents or other relatives? If the government "forgives" student loan debt, will these folks get reimbursed? Question: I paid for my own education (of course it was significantly less expensive back then). How do I get reimbursed for my education costs? WHO should be eligible for reimbursement? |
||
|
Lenders What we can rest assure is the banks are not using the remuneration to drive up the price of groceries, gas, and consumer electronics. Building g up plies might see a small increase, we're interest rates lowered to encourage borrowing. Expect rates to rise next year. |
||
|
Questions No, if your student loan is retired early you get nothing. To discourage defaults the government should only assume debt where payments were kept current. Does not have to be the entire debt either--to gauge the impact they could begin with periodic 10% balloon payments met out over ten years. No mortgage debt firegiveness--that is jst crazy talk. But investment in education is a genuine, long term investment in the nation. No reimbursement for theology degrees, or private school tuition. Only state schools. Your Harvard loans must be repaid by you. Hey, what about that GI bill? Did you hate that commie piece of crap? CRT teaches blacks did not qualify for home mortgage rate discounts on account of their skin tone. Kind of sad. |
||
|
Like Food Stamps How would a lender be entitled to MORE money for loans already paid off? That doesn't work. |
