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#Post#: 17584--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: SHL Date: July 7, 2019, 5:38 pm
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[quote author=Alharacas link=topic=1200.msg17580#msg17580
date=1562534135]
Hopefully, everybody realizes how great this is - we couldn't
have had a better mix of US members if we'd tried. And no, I'm
not being ironic here.
We're getting a running commentary on US politics from every
conceivable angle, with Steven and Jerry at opposite ends of the
horseshoe (therefore actually quite close together ;) ), and
Neal and Susan a lot further towards the middle, but still kind
of opposite each other - wonderful!
The only thing I'm missing right now is Susan's take on the
full-employment-at-minimum-wage question - Susan?
[/quote]
Yeah, Alharacas, you can‘t go much further east than Nevada
(forget Arizona and Idaho- both hopeless ) without running into
this political craziness, at least not until you get to New
England (much of New York is probably ok). Everywhere else in
between? These people living there probably think Elvis is still
alive.
Minimum wage is for teenagers working at McDonalds. Really, for
like short-term periods, it’s not for adults.
I made double minimum wage with full benefits in the late 70s,
when I was like 19. You can‘t brag about full employment and
bringing back jobs if the best you are talking about is minimum
wage jobs. What is that? A sick joke?
See, I can see the difference. I come to a great place like
Germany (and the rest of the EU is good too) and then I look at
the US, with all its potential, and you really have to wonder
what is wrong with all these people? You‘d think we could kind
of get our act together for awhile, and put away all the flags,
and fix this mess. But, oh no. We have to worry about Ohio and
these places. My god.
I really was impressed with the little kid on the plane with the
t-shirt on, „Kamala Harris- for the future.“ And the kid wasn’t
probably more than 10. And did you know the Republicans have
started some rumor already like they did with Obama that Kamala
Harris doesn’t qualify to be President because they say she
wasn’t born in the US? All because her skin tone is a little
darker, and she’s got some kind of mixed ethnicity, Jamaican and
something else I think (I forgot, have to look it up). They
always have to pull that one out of the bag. ::)
#Post#: 17585--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: SHL Date: July 7, 2019, 5:49 pm
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Alharacas,
Kamala Harris‘ father was Jamaican and her mother was Indian,
but she was born in Oakland, across from San Francisco, so it‘s
just the Republicans doing their usual thing, when they think
their candidate is challenged.
HTML https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
#Post#: 17586--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: Nikola Date: July 7, 2019, 5:50 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Alharacas link=topic=1200.msg17580#msg17580
date=1562534135]
Hopefully, everybody realizes how great this is - we couldn't
have had a better mix of US members if we'd tried. And no, I'm
not being ironic here.
We're getting a running commentary on US politics from every
conceivable angle, with Steven and Jerry at opposite ends of the
horseshoe (therefore actually quite close together ;) ), and
Neal and Susan a lot further towards the middle, but still kind
of opposite each other - wonderful!
The only thing I'm missing right now is Susan's take on the
full-employment-at-minimum-wage question - Susan?
[/quote]
Yeah, we don't seem to have this kind of political diversity
within our European group. We must seem very vanilla to our
American friends.
#Post#: 17589--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: Alharacas Date: July 7, 2019, 6:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1200.msg17586#msg17586
date=1562539854]
Yeah, we don't seem to have this kind of political diversity
within our European group. We must seem very vanilla to our
American friends.
[/quote]
Hm, well, I did get rather upset the other day, when they were
trying to get our unmitigated disaster of a defense minister
voted onto some major committee in Brussels. But if you haven't
had the misfortune of hearing her incompetent bleating for the
last decade or so, I guess you can't really relate.
And otherwise, getting het up about EU politics is rather like
getting worked up over the slowness of a giant turtle, isn't it?
Both difficult and obviously futile.
#Post#: 17590--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: SHL Date: July 7, 2019, 9:32 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Alharacas link=topic=1200.msg17589#msg17589
date=1562543829]
[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1200.msg17586#msg17586
date=1562539854]
Yeah, we don't seem to have this kind of political diversity
within our European group. We must seem very vanilla to our
American friends.
[/quote]
Hm, well, I did get rather upset the other day, when they were
trying to get our unmitigated disaster of a defense minister
voted onto some major committee in Brussels. But if you haven't
had the misfortune of hearing her incompetent bleating for the
last decade or so, I guess you can't really relate.
And otherwise, getting het up about EU politics is rather like
getting worked up over the slowness of a giant turtle, isn't it?
Both difficult and obviously futile.
[/quote]
Well, I don’t have an opinion about Ursula von der Leyen as
Bundesverteidigungsministerin, but I never heard anything bad
about her. She seems like a nice enough lady. She’s a physician,
nice-looking for her age (she is around my age, born in the same
year). Now, she is a classy lady. I know she lived in California
in the 90s while her husband did something at Stanford
University.
HTML https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen
So, these are sophisticated people, she and her husband, a
professor of medicine I believe.
So, whatever her faults might be, she’s got a lot of style,
unlike Trump, who has no class, no style and goes through staff
with lightening speed and changes advisors and office holders
like he changes his underwear, because he doesn’t know what he
is doing. It’s shocking when you think of all the damage Trump
can do and has done over the last 2 1/2 years. And to imagine
having him for another 4 years is a nightmare.
#Post#: 17595--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: NealC Date: July 8, 2019, 2:34 am
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Yeah the four of us should make up one of those Sunday morning
political talk shows. Are they a 'thing' in Europe? Making
sure you have the Sunday political talk shows covered with your
people is an important part of politics here.
#Post#: 17598--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: Irena Date: July 8, 2019, 2:55 am
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[quote author=SHL link=topic=1200.msg17567#msg17567
date=1562527871]
I understand the logic of trying to lure Chinese billionaires to
Ohio and avoid the tariffs and damming up a flow of immigrants,
but $12.50/hr wages to guys who a few decades ago made $36/hour?
You ought to be able to make $12.50/hour running a Limonade
stand. How is anyone supposed to live on that? And what a slap
in the face to people who used to make triple that?
That’s really pretty pathetic. Even if you see this as a victory
for Trump´s policies, it‘s a very marginal one at best. If it’s
really his policies that did this, the best anyone can say is he
put Dayton on economic life support without really accomplishing
much.
They don’t have this problem in the EU. The wages and benefits
are high and the products are built locally.
[/quote]
$12.5/hr sounds like a very decent wage to me. I mean, that's
roughly what I make, and I promise you I don't operate a
lemonade stand. In fact, this is quite a decent amount of money
in most European countries. Certainly, everywhere in the former
Eastern Bloc, and not just there.
The problem with the United States is its rampant individualism,
which means no universal health coverage, and also material
expectations that are generally much higher than in Europe,
which (paradoxically) means that more modest (and therefore more
affordable) solutions are simply unavailable. I'm thinking of
your nutty zoning regulations and those huge single family
houses. Why can't you people just live in apartments and take
the bus to work, like Europeans do? Because that's for "poor
people," isn't it? So, does that mean that Europeans are poor?
See, you can't have it both ways.
#Post#: 17599--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: SHL Date: July 8, 2019, 3:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Irena,
It‘s all relative to the cost of things. An apartment in the
town I live in goes for US$1,500/a month and up. Houses rent for
the $2500 range (although the mortgage on most are around
$2,000). So, as you can see, $12.50/hour wouldn‘t even put a
roof over your head.
Yes, the rampant individualism is outrageous. Every man for
himself is the motto. It‘s like being in the water and trying to
get on a life raft and everyone wants to push you off. The
military are the only ones really taken care of. Half of their
income is tax free like for housing supplements (they call BAH,
basic assistance for housing) and food supplements (called BAS
-basic assistance for sustenance), plus COLA (cost of living
increases depending on where they are stationed), plus they get
their regular taxable salary on top of that. I like getting the
military clients because they’ve always got money, no matter
what their rank. I know that. A colonel I have in one case makes
$12,000 base salary, plus about $2500 tax free for housing, plus
$400 or more tax free for food. And, of course their medical and
dental is all free (no deductions from their pay for it) and
retirement is all paid for by the government, again no
deductions, plus they still get social security when the time
comes to retire in addition. And their healthcare is for life.
So, they are all on the gravy train. They even get paid to go to
college (if they are not college educated). As if college were a
job or something.
And you know that the healthcare is a mess. The poor folks get
Medicaid, the over 65 get Medicare. And it gets more complex.
Yeah, busses are like for homeless people (except the special
google busses for their employees) and apartments are thought of
for the poor and young, just starting out. You’re expected to
own your own home if possible. I know some who bought their
first house at 21. And there’s no public transport so you have
to have a car. Otherwise you can't even get to a supermarket to
buy food without being an Olympic athlete.
You know how it goes. That’s the way the Republicans want it.
They reflect on the good old days in the 1950s and wish things
were like that now.
#Post#: 17604--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: Irena Date: July 8, 2019, 5:12 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Steve, you're trying to convince me that $12.5/hr is a poverty
wage and that it is therefore imperative that the wage be
increased. Correct?
To that, I say that $12.5/hr is only a poverty wage (a) because
Americans have higher material expectations than Europeans
(solution: lower your expectations), and (b) because your health
care and public transportation systems are a sorry mess
(solution: fix your health care and public transportation
systems). If you don't like my solutions, that's fine. But then
don't expect any sympathy from me.
#Post#: 17607--------------------------------------------------
Re: Trump might get voted out of office next year, in 2020 MOVED
FROM General Discussion
By: SHL Date: July 8, 2019, 6:52 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Irena link=topic=1200.msg17604#msg17604
date=1562580771]
Steve, you're trying to convince me that $12.5/hr is a poverty
wage and that it is therefore imperative that the wage be
increased. Correct?
To that, I say that $12.5/hr is only a poverty wage (a) because
Americans have higher material expectations than Europeans
(solution: lower your expectations), and (b) because your health
care and public transportation systems are a sorry mess
(solution: fix your health care and public transportation
systems). If you don't like my solutions, that's fine. But then
don't expect any sympathy from me.
[/quote]
Well, Irena, that’s the problem. I can‘t fix anything where from
where I live, nor can the whole State, because we have all
these other kooky Americans to deal with in these places like
Ohio. I don’t what to do about these people ???
What are we supposed to do? Start our own country?
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