laughingdog said:

zzripz said:

laughingdog said:

DividedQuantum said:

I read Chomsky's recent book Who Rules the World, which I recommend.  He goes into vivid detail about everything in the video and more.  ....

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thanks - i just ordered the book

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I was never ever into Chomsky, and only really found out about him post the 9/11 attacks.

I very much distrust him. To me he is a total charlatan because ....

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the topic under discussion was about the war crimes of US presidents - do you distrust this data?
and who else is raising these points, organizing the data and presenting it?

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Brian Jones said:

"The American Dream" has always depended mainly on what part of the boom or bust cycle we were in. The problem is that the masses used to benefit from the boom cycle. Now, for decades, the disparity in income/wealth only seems to get bigger regardless of what part of the business cycle we are in. Their was some fluctuation in this with JFK, Johnson, Reagan IDK, and Clinton. But with ever increasing disparity, the only one who  redistributed wealth was FDR (And of course the conservatives think he was a communist, and in a small sense, I guess he was.) The conservatives would have us believe that anyone who is not doing great, has been getting progressively lazier and lazier and lazier for the last 30 years even if they are working 40-65 hours a week.
    If you don't have money now,  you are fucked and it ain't goin to get better.

    As far as Hunter S. Thompson, I read everything he wrote in the 70's. He's interesting, but other than being a perpetual hard drug user (which makes him a god like hero on the Shroomery), he is a semi-comedy writer like Tom Robbins. I don't like conservatives, and Thom Wolfe is kind of a conservative, but he is twice as good of a writer as Thompson.

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LunarEclipse said:

Actually, I stated that I missed a property tax payment, not a mortgage payment.  It wasn't for lack of money, but because the county sits back and waits for people to pay their taxes and why not?  They can legally ream you on the penalty and interest, and if you don't cough up the money, eventually just take your property and auction it off. 

The point I was making was that even being so called "free and clear" you still have property taxes.  I could choose not to insure my property, but that seems a little bit stupid all things considered.  It only takes once, and relative to the value of the property the insurance isn't too bad.

Now, compare this to Obamacare, and your thesis that insurance in numbers will lower costs.  I don't think so, not for me at age 63.  It's 800 bucks a month, with a copay and a big deductible.  Once again, the risk of not having it likely outweighs the cost, but it's getting to be a toss up at that ridiculous rate.  No, I don't smoke tobacco either.  It's just a giant rip off and getting worse, this Obamacare disaster. It's one thing maybe Trump can do some positive with because it's hard to imagine it getting much worse.

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demiu5 said:

LunarEclipse said:

Actually, I stated that I missed a property tax payment, not a mortgage payment.  It wasn't for lack of money, but because the county sits back and waits for people to pay their taxes and why not?  They can legally ream you on the penalty and interest, and if you don't cough up the money, eventually just take your property and auction it off. 

The point I was making was that even being so called "free and clear" you still have property taxes.  I could choose not to insure my property, but that seems a little bit stupid all things considered.  It only takes once, and relative to the value of the property the insurance isn't too bad.

Now, compare this to Obamacare, and your thesis that insurance in numbers will lower costs.  I don't think so, not for me at age 63.  It's 800 bucks a month, with a copay and a big deductible.  Once again, the risk of not having it likely outweighs the cost, but it's getting to be a toss up at that ridiculous rate.  No, I don't smoke tobacco either.  It's just a giant rip off and getting worse, this Obamacare disaster. It's one thing maybe Trump can do some positive with because it's hard to imagine it getting much worse.

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My mistake.  i apologize for mis-reading.  Unfortunately, the whole basis of grouped health insurance policies (which, to my knowledge is all health insurance) is what keeps the cost "down" to what it is, which is the same for auto insurance.  Granted that one's own insurance rate can be affected by one's actions, most often negative, but occasionally positive.

i also agree that America's new and current national health system is a debacle.  while not opposed to national, socialized health care in and of itself, i'm also not a supporter, for a variety of reasons.  imo, the worst aspect of the affordable care act, which i fell victim to the first year it was instilled, is that one is taxed (or fined, however you want to look at it) for NOT having it.  that's like requiring everyone to have auto insurance whether or not they own/drive a vehicle, or having to purchase insurance to ride a public transit system (which is suppose is likely figured into the total cost of an individual's use of public transit)

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