Discussing politics and religion
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That makes me miss R. Lee Ermey. He died April 15th this year. :-(
Interesting that Trump is being depicted as a rat in that because he's what is referred to as a "Bulger rat". Basically, he's been a known criminal for decades but the only reason he isn't in jail is because he rolled on bigger fish. He was always low enough in the food chain that he could get charges dismissed or not filed if he agreed to rat on someone higher up. He's been connected to the mob probably since birth because his father was involved in the mob as well. It hasn't completely kept him out of legal troubles and he's bribed his way out of things at least once.
I will echo that I don't have an issue with Betsy DeVos being wealthy. I have an issue with her using her current position to increase her wealth by cutting funding to secular public schools & trying to promote only religious private schools. She wants to get rid of public schools entirely. (It is never a good idea to appoint someone to be in charge of something they want to abolish. I've mentioned before that 9-11 happened because Clinton appointed Doris Meissner as head of USINS and she thought we should abolish INS & open our borders.) Also, DeVos' brother is Erik Prince who is knee deep in money laundering & conspiracy with Russia-- and while she is not responsible for her actions, it was his close association with Trump & the Russians that likely got her hired in the first place.
Also, when it comes to Welfare, almost everyone I know who is on it is employed. The problem is that the legislators take bribes from large corporations/wealthy individuals & then give them huge tax cuts-- even bail-outs (or a form of welfare) but then don't want to pay their employees decent enough wages to make a living & do all sorts of underhanded things to avoid paying benefits & treating them like human beings. Then they turn around and complain that these people somehow don't deserve $. Corporate welfare combined with cutting taxes for the wealthy is what tanked the economy in Louisiana. Now, I'm not someone who hates the wealthy or thinks they should pay 50% or more of their incomes in taxes. I just think they should pay their fair share-- but many of them get away with not paying any at all-- and in Louisiana they actually got back more $ than they paid in. Meanwhile the cut funding to hospitals, libraries, and schools.
Welfare abuse would be cut in half if they just did a complete audit, or better yet, cancel it to everyone, then make everyone reapply and vet them correctly.
No doubt, but also cut subsidies to corporations cus...... wait for it....."corporations are people too!"
Nick
In Remembrance
One of local congresswoman ran on a platform of doing away with gov. handouts. Turned out her family farm gets $300,000 a year in farm subsidies. She's republican , got elected anyway.
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Nick
In Remembrance
Figures ..
In Missouri until a couple years ago, people met with a caseworker in their office. Now it is done over the phone and the case worker might be 300 miles away.
I would have to look up more info on the instances of fraud & such. I just know that it is tough for the people who legitimately need it. Dumping it & restarting it might sound fine in theory, but it can be life or death for some people. If they don't get the $ they could lose their homes/apartments, transportation, & possibly their jobs. Even with welfare, I know people who struggle to make ends meet-- and these are families where both parents work. The pay is just so crappy & prices/taxes just so high that they can't seem to catch up on bills.
I do agree that the system needs to be fixed, but I don't think halting it entirely is feasible-- especially with how long it takes our government to do things. If they stopped it to redo it later, it could be months or even years. Perhaps they could make a new plan & phase it in over time.
I don't think the people who are using it the way it is intended & who are not exploiting the system should be punished because there are people who abuse it-- just like I don't think law abiding responsible gun owners should be punished for people who misuse their guns.
I do wish there were ways to make employers pay their employees living wages without it causing them to jack up prices or fire employees. I wish there was a reasonable affordable incentive they could give to corporations who pay employees well & give them medical benefits & such. Right now with FICA, it can be a deterrent for raising wages & hiring more employees. But then, our welfare system seems to punish people who while making it more profitable for people who don't work. I know there is no perfect system, but we need something that rewards people for working without punishing people who are unemployed but don't qualify for unemployment or who have not been able to get a job by the deadline or who are unable to work but don't technically qualify for disability. I just don't know what the solution would be though.
I also think we need to revisit the whole Citizens United case & make it so our legislators can't be given such large bribes by corporations & oligarchs so that they act in favor/benefit of the to 1 to 10% while screwing over the rest of their constituents.
It's hard to tell if a subsidy in that case is good or bad. Maybe without the subsidy the farm would fail, dozens of locals would be out of work and we'd end up buying wheat from China. Maybe they had a bad year because of man made climate change.
(and that she's a Republican
)Same can be said about the internet BS that the rich pay zero taxes. We are presented with no actual facts to make a reasonable conclusion, and simply a statement to inflame people.
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she gets it every year and has for years.
Nick
In Remembrance
Sorry , I had to stop it at 145 seconds ..
I don't listen to either of the "liars clubs" CNN or FOX.
Nick
In Remembrance
Same here .. Would love to meet Hannity .. In a privet setting of course ..
Nick
In Remembrance
Wouldn't know .. To hot for hip Boots ..
Show me lies on CNN or MSNBC.
I believe Jon Stewart on the Daily Show mocked CNN for its lack of fact-checking. Led to a funny skit of John Oliver saying "CNN f***s goats". I think it was bc CNN fact-checked an SNL skit, but didn't fact check it's own stories. I don't watch CNN so I can't really comment on the accuracy.
Also, I find it interesting to see the comment about it being hard to judge if a farm needs a subsidy when the same courtesy is often not extended to individual people-- usually impoverished people. I'm not saying highup is guilty of that contradiction, but I've seen other people who express that on social media. It's like, when someone sees a family that gets public assistance and thinks they don't need it or that they are wasting their money because they have nice clothes, toys, games, phones etc. But their situation and the circumstances of how they came to possess those items are not known.
It is entirely possible that the woman legitimately needs subsidies to keep her farm running. It's also possible she could be scamming the government (regardless of political affiliation). Which brings me to ask, what is the evidence/proof of widespread fraud? Is it in government reports? Or is it assumption based on people saying they saw people on welfare that they don't think need/deserve it? I'm curious about that.
Also, I will take a moment to vent about companies that get people's info & then apply for Medicaid/Medicare $ for equipment/supplies that they never actually send to the people. IIRC, they were doing some sort of scam for scooters that way-- getting people to call to see if they qualified, taking down their info, & then filing for $ claiming they were providing those people with scooters when they weren't. I think there is more widespread corruption from larger organizations like that than from individuals people.
Also, I find it interesting to see the comment about it being hard to judge if a farm needs a subsidy when the same courtesy is often not extended to individual people-- usually impoverished people. I'm not saying highup is guilty of that contradiction, but I've seen other people who express that on social media. It's like, when someone sees a family that gets public assistance and thinks they don't need it or that they are wasting their money because they have nice clothes, toys, games, phones etc. But their situation and the circumstances of how they came to possess those items are not known.
It is entirely possible that the woman legitimately needs subsidies to keep her farm running. It's also possible she could be scamming the government (regardless of political affiliation). Which brings me to ask, what is the evidence/proof of widespread fraud? Is it in government reports? Or is it assumption based on people saying they saw people on welfare that they don't think need/deserve it? I'm curious about that.
Also, I will take a moment to vent about companies that get people's info & then apply for Medicaid/Medicare $ for equipment/supplies that they never actually send to the people. IIRC, they were doing some sort of scam for scooters that way-- getting people to call to see if they qualified, taking down their info, & then filing for $ claiming they were providing those people with scooters when they weren't. I think there is more widespread corruption from larger organizations like that than from individuals people.
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They slant to the left, Fox to the right.
