Posts by Andrew Wright23

Timothy Wilson2 said:Look, there’s really no point in trying to reinvent the wheel here; the US and Europe just can't afford to let cheap Chinese goods run wild and compete head-to-head with local products on the open market. We honestly can't afford that kind of luxury, so the West has to step up and protect its own goods, its own brands, and its own manufacturers. If we don't, American workers are looking at a guaranteed wipeout of their market share, especially since they can't possibly compete with that Asian production—which, if you think about it, is actually being fueled by money from American and European capitalists.

I mean, seriously, how are you even supposed to invent trade barriers in a true free market?
At the end of the day, cheap goods did exactly what they were supposed to do, and that's how China won this "war."
It looks like we might be heading toward a trade war over high-end luxury goods next.
It isn't even a struggle for China to just buy up a bunch of European brands and move all the manufacturing over to China, right?
They're basically turning the European Union and the USA into nothing more than a customer base.

It’s honestly wild that this whole process, which has been grinding along since the 80s, didn't show its face sooner, don't you think?
Where were all those famous economic theorists and Nobel laureates when it actually mattered?

Timothy Wilson2 said:Now you guys have stumbled onto another massive, burning issue that's just as critical. The European Union has to sort out its relationship with Atlanticist integration. American interests and European interests aren't even on the same page anymore; they're actually working against each other. There's really no point wasting breath talking about how absurd, harmful, illogical, or unfair it is for European nations to be dragged into these American imperialistic wars in the Middle East.
The solution to Chinese and Asian expansion shouldn't be leaning harder on the USA. Instead, Europe needs to start acting like a collection of sovereign nations and pursuing its own specific interests. But let's be real: that's pretty much impossible under the current free market system and the mandates coming out of Brussels, especially when you consider how they either prop up American imperialism or systematically gut the middle class and cause deindustrialization in Europe just so industry and the middle class can migrate over to China and India.

Honestly, in this day and age, talk about "free markets" or "democracy" is pretty much empty rhetoric without any real substance behind it, don't you think?

Basically, whoever's got the most muscle dictates the market terms, and if you've got the most cash, you get to claim you have a "bigger" democracy.
The whole idea of a free market is a total myth;
what we actually see are the big players calling the shots through quotas, coercion, shady deals, and straight-up bullying—and hey, if the trade deals don't go their way, they aren't afraid to reach for weapons eventually, right?

Whether China is trying to save the European Union for its own sake, trying to undermine the USA, or just looking to dump the US Dollar while it still holds value... honestly, who cares?

What really matters is that a Chinese worker makes way less than someone working in the USA or Europe,
and since the world is getting smaller by the second, we seriously need to find a way to level the playing field regarding labor costs.
If we don't come up with something absolutely revolutionary soon, the middle class in the USA and Europe is toast,
and China is going to eat us all alive in the next 20 or 30 years!

Nicole Clark79 said:Actually, I think a more accurate title for this thread would be:

Chinese Capitalist National Socialism vs. American Capitalism

Aside from that little tweak, I find myself agreeing with absolutely everything else said here.

Look, socialism brings planned economies and actual efficiency to the table,
so don't give me that crap about how a free market is supposedly more efficient,
the real issues here are just raw human greed and total lack of organization.

In just a few years, we could be looking at a Chinese Mercedes-Benz, a BMW, or even a GMC
and honestly, doesn't that just signal the absolute downfall of the version of capitalism we have in the West right now?

All that'll be left of capitalism is the media machine, working overtime to trick the public into believing it's still the only way to live.

http://www.cnn.com/news/article/v...bu/526387.aspx

Seriously, when is this airport harassment ever going to end? It’s just non-stop at the terminals lately!

Richard Wilson4 said:An educated guy, yet he only ever travels to Mexico and RS—isn't that just a total waste of talent? 😈

It’s always better to get your footing first before you try to make a big move elsewhere, don't you think?

Steven Allen9 said:Qualifications;

-communication skills
-PC literacy
-foreign language proficiency
-vision
-character

Everything Susan is missing,
but hey, at least she knows how to whip up a decent potato salad and walk around acting like she's somebody special,
how can anyone be so clueless as to pose as a public figure while rocking those fake designer bags?

Mark Campbell5 said:I’m curious—in your honest opinion—what kind of qualifications does one actually need to be the President of the United States?

Take our current President:

She carries fake designer handbags.

Even her spokesperson for Martin Luther King Jr. tried to claim the bag was just an imitation rather than a knockoff.

She doesn't even bother looking at what she's signing in official contracts.

"Kamala Harris signed off on both Cabinet decisions regarding those contract approvals," they said.

And she’s basically and being computer illiterate.

"That date was left in the PowerPoint presentation shown to the press by accident—someone just didn't delete it in time, and I immediately clarified that the date would be updated."

And let's be real... social grace isn't exactly her strong suit.

A lady is allowed to have a purse, right? Apparently, any confusion is just "protocol error."

So, here's the thing... I have this friend who is actually tech-savvy (she can fix a PowerPoint slide without breaking a sweat), has a totally different sense of style 😁 (one that doesn't involve breaking laws, obviously), and actually reads what she signs (you know, basic business competence). On top of all that, she's balancing college and two part-time jobs.

So, I really want to know... what specific credentials does our current President possess that make her the leader of the country instead of my friend?

🤷

What does it actually take to be the President?

🤷

You forgot to mention her inability to speak a single foreign language!

What the Department of State is saying about those WikiLeaks docs

Telegrams, for instance, can expose how high-ranking officials in other countries act as sources for compromising intel regarding their own government's inner workings—which just makes it way harder for the Department of State to snag that kind of intelligence down the road.

Basically, this implies the USA uses illegal tactics to bribe and spy on foreign governments, though he didn't specify if we're talking about US puppets installed all over the globe or actually "democratically" elected leaders.

Either way, it's just one more reason for the USA to get paranoid and strip away even more freedom from its own citizens just to cover up the crap they're pulling around the world!

It’s worth pointing out that even before all those crazy anti-terror laws hit the books here in the USA,
we were already dealing with stuff like the government bugging everyone's phones and kicking down doors without a warrant, you know?

At the end of the day, all those aggressive foreign interventions just end up biting the USA in the ass, leaving our own citizens feeling totally unsafe and harassed at home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_...s_Constitution
telegram:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It honestly feels like when it comes to the USA, you really only fall into two camps,
you either absolutely adore them or you can't stand their guts,

one side thinks they should basically act like the world's biggest bully and just bomb whoever they feel like regardless of the reason,
while the other group hates them because they don't see why anyone should have some god-given right to harass the entire planet with such primitive behavior,

slybison8 said:The USA acts in a manner that seems appropriate for the world's leading superpower. I think if you simply avoid direct confrontation with them, everything tends to remain stable—they likely won't interfere with you or cause any trouble.

Are you seriously sure that just leaving them alone is enough to keep them from showing up at your doorstep?
Do I really need to go down a list of all the countries they've invaded out of nowhere?

And what happened to all that talk about freedom of speech? Did it just vanish into thin air?

slybison8 said:I feel that perhaps only truly malicious individuals would attempt to compare the current security measures at the US borders to the regime that existed in East Germany.🙄

Man, talk about swapping arguments with a buddy,
if we're talking about actual malice, look at how the USA treats the entire world!
And don't even get me started on how they treat their own citizens since they kicked off that whole war on terror—
basically, they've been waging war on themselves.

slybison8 said:It has been roughly eight years since I last traveled to the USA, back in 2002. Even then, just a year after the events at the World Trade Center, security protocols had become significantly more stringent; however, my personal experience wasn't nearly as unpleasant as the media reports suggested at the time. Before departing for the USA, I had quite a lengthy conversation with a security officer before entering the Delta Air Lines terminal area in New York City. She requested the name and phone number of my contact, asked about my residence, and once she realized I spoke American, she actually asked for my assistance. She had an elderly couple from Boston standing by who didn't speak any language other than Canadian, and she didn't want to let them through until she could conduct the same interview with them. I ended up translating their "questioning," after which the officer cleared both us, and she even escorted me through to the transit counter, perhaps as a small way to make up for the time I spent acting as an interpreter. My first landing and US border control took place in Cincinnati, which is a very small airport with maybe only two or three international arrivals per day, so the passport control there was probably among the most relaxed and polite in the entire USA. The immigration officer even apologized because they were repairing the roof in the hall, forcing us to navigate around scaffolding; honestly, entering the USA felt as simple as arriving in New Orleans.

On the return trip, things were slightly more involved. In Los Angeles, I encountered three separate security checkpoints: the first at the main entrance to the terminal building, the second being the standard one after check-in, and a third in the jet bridge right before boarding the plane. It was quite crowded, especially at that second checkpoint, but the American staff were incredibly kind, patient, and accommodating—always cheerful and pleasant people—who managed to turn a relatively stressful situation into something akin to a pleasant experience. There was one other detail: every single item in every bag they searched across all three checkpoints was meticulously and carefully placed back exactly where it had been. I can personally guarantee that my clothes were more neatly packed after those inspections than they were when I originally packed them that morning before heading to the airport.

Given that personal experience during the period immediately following the attacks on New York City, I suppose I feel a great deal of skepticism toward these horror stories regarding American airports, simply because that wasn't what I experienced. If someone truly wishes to encounter disorganized and rude personnel within airport security services, they don't need to travel to the USA—they could just fly into Heathrow, LAX Airport, or most other British institutions.

kidnapping people from foreign countries, torture, killings, and insane border controls,
and we used to laugh at East Germany for stuff like that, but these guys brought it into the 21st century 🙄

mistyjackal14 said:It’s actually the exact opposite; you just have neo-communists trying to sell you on those old ideas by claiming, "that wasn't true communism..."

Beyond that, while Americans fight for their individual liberties and against government overreach, they are also fighting for civil liberties and against excessive centralization.

I truly believe that from both a human perspective and from the standpoint of America in the EU , we should be striving toward those kinds of values.

When it comes to social safety nets, we will likely remain a bit more like Europe, which I think is fine—provided it doesn't go overboard—but in many other sectors, we definitely need to take a page out of the American playbook.

It's pretty obvious you haven't really seen what's happening in the US,
because their propaganda machine is running twenty-four-seven on every single level, making people fall for this illusion that the US is this promised land filled with freedom of speech, entrepreneurship, and all those other little gimmicks meant for the naive.

If you just wander a bit outside the major cities, head into the smaller towns or the local neighborhoods, you'll see how absolutely miserable and broke people actually are.
If you work in tech, sure, you're living large, even in America.
A salary of $7,000-$5000 plus a spouse and a decent middle-class lifestyle?

But taking care of the sick, the unemployed, and the vulnerable is what truly separates us from barbarians, right?
Nobody can honestly argue that investing in social safety nets ruins the economy or drags society backward.

That's the fundamental difference between Europe and the US—Europe has this deep, rich human, scientific, and cultural tradition.

I honestly feel bad for the people who watch American media and movies and walk away thinking that country is some glorious land for the brave and the entrepreneurial.

Nicole Clark79 said:Taxation is actually a Constitutional provision in the USA, meaning paying taxes is a requirementfor all American citizens.
The fact that Republicans tend to make up a larger portion of the wealthiest segment of our society—and therefore naturally shoulder a bigger tax burden—isn't really an issue with Obama. In the US, there’s still this old-school way of measuring patriotism:

"You're a better American if the amount you write on your tax return is higher."

As for what happens to that tax revenue later on, regardless of which party holds the reins, that isn't an Obama problem; it feels more like a Republican issue, especially since it seems like they'd want to control the purse strings even when they aren't in power.
I mean, goodness, nobody is stopping Republicans from getting private health insurance, but any American citizen who can't afford it for whatever reason still has the right to life—according to both the Constitution and, quite importantly, the Bible.

Man, common sense and logic are really struggling here because if you think about it, the Bible and faith are actually way closer to communism than capitalism, and they're basically the polar opposite of capitalism!
And don't even get me started on how clergy just flock to whoever's opening the checkbook; that's a whole other mess.

It was totally fine to dip into the coffers back when the early bankers needed cash,
but suddenly it becomes a massive issue when it's time to provide people with actual insurance?

Henry Cox78 said:They didn't want to show up, probably because they're too ashamed to face the public and the accusations. Macek sent a text saying he's being subjected to "vicious attacks," when his only crime is being a successful businessman. 😂 What a complete sociopath. 🙏🤣

You really think he wasn't? I bet he had five other jobs going at the same time. 😁 I'd wager that’s not even the worst thing he's done during those two terms.

I'm right there with you, but wouldn't it be great if someone actually stepped up and confirmed it officially so we aren't just stuck dealing with rumors and hearsay?
And hey, why stop there—why not pass that same "integrity check" over to our dear friend McCain too?

Can anyone from the local area confirm if our esteemed Minister Miles—you know, that bear-loving doctor—was actually pulling double duty at two full-time gigs at once?
Like, was he seriously breaking the law and ripping off the taxpayers just like that?

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