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Post by artraveler on Mar 5, 2020 13:43:56 GMT -8
Are willing to posit that the primary motive behind an individuals actions is financial success, then we also must accept that is the motive for running for office, with the exercise of power secondary but supporting financial goals. Is there any logical reason other than these two that could be a motive?
For example the much beloved socialist Bernie Sanders in 2016 spent most of his advertising money with a firm set up and operated by his wife. He therefore funneled millions of dollars from his campaign into his own pocket all above board and legal. How many similar deals have the rest of the field done, and who, if anyone, is tracking them. The Clintons did the same thing in Arkansas in the 90s. Don't forget Hillary's $1000 cattle futures "investment" that returned $100,000 in less them 90 days.
The corruption is endemic in both parties. It is not likely that we can ever eliminate it, but full disclosure is the only light that can lessen the corruption. I don't expect human nature to change. It never changed in the USSR, it hasn't changed in the PRC. However, as long as the media is more corrupt than the people running for office, democrats and republican.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 5, 2020 14:10:17 GMT -8
According to this article, much can be earned from selling books and speaking fees. One should question the source (will Yahoo! ever wonder how much the Clintons make?), but here's an article that uses Huckabee as an example. |
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Post by timothylane on Mar 5, 2020 14:23:26 GMT -8
There are many ways to profit from a political career. Hosting a "news" show, lobbying, writing memoirs (often ghost-written by someone else) or other books (Nixon probably did better financially after being forced to resign).
Greg Gutfeld made a very interesting point about the Blonde Squaw on The Five. He noted that she ran as a victim, relying on identity politics. She was the American Indian, then she was the victimized woman. He argued that Americans want victors, not victims -- hence Trump. And this is why all those identity points Demagogues went nowhere. Every one of them ran as a victim. And so the Demagogues end up with a pair of old white males (which would have been 3 white males if Doomberg had any charisma). Plus Tulsi Gabbard, who doesn't care that she gets almost no votes.
It's even possible this helps explain why taller candidates tend to win.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 5, 2020 14:23:47 GMT -8
You seem to be saying, Artler, that it's been some time since Mr. Smith has gone to Washington.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 5, 2020 14:36:48 GMT -8
You will recall, Brad, that from the beginning of ST I pointed out that they were all politicians and not to be trusted or overly relied on. They were all in it for personal profit and power. Sadly, this has always and will always be the case. The odd man out, such as Washington or Cincinnatus, is exactly that, odd.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 5, 2020 14:57:36 GMT -8
One of the great ironies is that the generations who said “Don’t trust anyone over the age of 30” have a vast trust in a whole lot of geriatric politicians over the age of 30 and beyond.
I remember having an in-office quick chat with some yute chick several years ago. I had mentioned that politicians, as a species, could not be trusted. She was truly aghast at this notion. I could see that from her point of view, to distrust someone was impolite.
Obviously such “trust” tends to extend only to one’s religion (which is a political party in the case of the Left). But I think she truly meant it. Naive ain’t just a river in Egypt. And if it’s not in Egypt, it’s somewhere.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 7, 2020 21:21:00 GMT -8
I had heard of Finland's female-child government, but this is the first thing I have read of it. Young dumb and gluttonousI am shocked! Who could have predicted that a government composed of thirty-something females would be a joke and do some really stupid things? |
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Post by timothylane on Mar 7, 2020 21:35:48 GMT -8
The Greeks should ship all the invaders ("refugees") up to Denmark, Finland, and any other European country that shares their support for these violent Muslim invaders. Don't let them ruin great places like Kifissia.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 8, 2020 9:00:43 GMT -8
No comment regarding Finland’s female-child government. I’m already in enough trouble for the things I’ve said regarding the unsuitability of women in politics.
Luckily, I am not alone. The top comment there is:
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 8, 2020 9:09:28 GMT -8
I have a theory that when things are going too well, some type of self-destructive impulse is triggered in many people. Whether this is because of boredom, self-hate, guilt or something else, I don't know. But is certainly true that many people do their best to wreck their own, very comfortable, lives.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 8, 2020 13:59:46 GMT -8
It’s difficult to quantify human behavior. But I think Dennis Prager would say this is a case of people acting according to their “heart” and not their head. I would say there is a lot of do-gooder self-delusion involved as well. But those two factors aren’t mutually exclusive.
But I’m going to assume one thing: I don’t know the real story. We have to therefore try to piece together from afar because very few people are willing to tell the truth and/or lack the wisdom and life experience to basically call a spade a spade.
These people (women and men) are indoctrinated into the position. And with barren women, I have little doubt that they try to “mother” others when they don’t have the real thing. Also, if you go by chimpanzee studies, the females often love the idea of the foreign male coming in to challenge existing ones. That could be a factor although it would be difficult to quantify even if people were remotely honest about what motivated them. My shtick is that women don’t generally know what motivates them.
Interesting that Finnish chicks come both in blond and dark-haired varieties.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 8, 2020 14:07:52 GMT -8
I read a piece in Takimag this morning and in it was the phrase, "Having a romantic heart is fine as long as you have a classic head. Otherwise, nonsense is very expensive." Unfortunately, our leaders have been letting their romantic hearts get the better of them, but we have been paying for this indulgence.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 8, 2020 14:14:19 GMT -8
Well, Finland has a lot of foreign stock in it because they, like most of Europe, have accepted a lot of mostly Muslim "refugees" (i.e., invaders). It also should be remembered that the Finns are not a Germanic group like the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language of the Uralian language family. Other F-U languages are Estonian, Karelian, and Hungarian (although the Hungarians used to think of themselves as Turanians, no doubt because at the time the Uralian and Altaic languages were grouped together), as well as various minor languages in Scandinavia and the Urals.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 8, 2020 14:27:58 GMT -8
I run into this every couple of weeks at our Saturday bowling-morning. One woman, of course a Dim, hates Trump and blames him for just about every bad or unfortunate thing that happens in the world. Of course, her heart bleeds for every person around the world who is not blessed to be an American. Yesterday it was bleeding for the Syrian refugees being abused by Turkey and Syria and not being let into Europe. She has no solution, but does feel good that she feels badly for these people. It gets tiresome hearing such pablum. I don't know what to call such people. Perhaps professional sympathizers. I might find them slightly more believable if they would go around in sack cloth and covered with ashes. A bit of self-flagellation would also help.
She also let it be known that Trump was responsible for the way things were going with the corona virus. He has "fired many people at the CDC which is making our response go poorly." I find it hard to respond civilly to such nonsense. It fact, the budgets for the CDC have not been cut. Trump has recommended they be cut, but Congress hasn't listened to him.
Trump did the best thing possible to retard the spread of the corona virus by cutting off travel from China. And if truth be told, the CDC can do very little to stop the spread of this thing. The actual handling of the virus will fall on local hospitals. Will they have enough beds and personnel to handle things? Are their disinfection protocols strict enough and followed? I am certain that the places with the best disinfection and strictest "anti-cross-contamination" procedures will have the best results. The CDC will have nothing to do with that.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 8, 2020 14:50:38 GMT -8
A lot of rappers and potheads know a few F-U languages.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 8, 2020 14:53:25 GMT -8
That gets to the essence of it right there. It’s about them not the refugees or their own country.
Do you know where I’m at right now, Mr. Kung? I think you do. I am in despair of the human race ever righting itself. This person you describe shouldn’t vote.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 8, 2020 14:57:22 GMT -8
I call people like that goodthinkful well-doers, a term drawn from the dystopian novels 1984 and We. The "goodthinkful" refers to people who always thing good (i.e., Insoc-approved) thoughts, and the Well-doer was the law (he seems to have been judge, jury, and executioner) in We. (The Well-doer was elected, but when a group of rebellious sorts voted against him, they were dismissed as mere troublemakers and his election was reported as being unanimous. Since people had to stand up at an open meeting to vote for him or against him, unanimity was the norm.)
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 8, 2020 15:13:33 GMT -8
Yup. I don't believe most people have any idea or interest in finding out how things truly are.
I understand that in Plano, large discount stores like Sam's Club and Costco have run out of disinfectant wipes, bottled water and other such items due to idiots worrying about what's going to happen. And wanting cheap prices for bulk purchases.
On the other hand, I am told if you drive a little ways out of town, you can find plenty of such items in other Sam's Clubs and Costco. That tends to reconfirm my thought that Asians are the biggest reason for hoarding. Plano has a large percentage of Asians and small towns around here don't. Also, the videos I have seen of people grabbing items like toilet paper from the shelves of warehouse stores showed that it was mainly Asians acting in such a way. And a friend told me that she was in Sam's Club to buy one mask and an Asian lady was there before her. The Asian woman took every single mask on the self, which left my friend with 0.
As I said before, Asians tend to panic more quickly than Westerners in such cases. Perhaps it is due to their history. In the last couple of days, I have had other Asians agree with my thoughts regarding Asian panic in the face of potential shortages.
As to what one should worry about. A friend in Switzerland owned a disinfectant company some years ago, and as a side-line, I distributed it in Singapore for him. This is why I know something about what actually happens in the medical field. The following article shows me that not much has changed in 20-30 years.
100,000 people a year dying from the carelessness and stupidity of medicos. That's what people should actually start to panic about.
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Post by timothylane on Mar 8, 2020 15:35:20 GMT -8
Those numbers on iatrogenic infections are bad. I will note that Betsy McCaughey often discusses this issue. But at the same time, I'll also point out that many people live long-term in nursing homes (I've been in mine for over 27 months, and have no place else to go), and inevitably they're going to get occasional infections. I don't know how many are truly iatrogenic.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 8, 2020 15:46:19 GMT -8
If any confirmation is needed of the fact that it is local community hospitals and clinics which will have to handle the corona outbreak, this info on the CDC should do it.
I can't see anything that the CDC does in the trenches. They do help with medical advice, guidlines and such, but once a pandemic is underway, it seems the most the CDC can do is try to come up with or coordinate the development of a vaccine.
This is one reason I get so irritated at people saying "Trump cut the CDC budget." What the hell do these jerks think the CDC is going to do? I saw somewhat that the CDC employees a total of 15,000 people. The Parkland Hospital System is the main public hospital in Dallas County and it alone employees over 10,000 people.
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