Maxine Waters Sounds Off On Impeaching … Mike Pence — ‘You Knock One Down, And Then W

[stjames1_53]

Hell, that's the oldest gig around. Even Kings and royalty could be excommunicated if they didn't do what the church told them. And the church was all about getting new converts. New converts means more money in the baskets every sunday, and more people that would go to hell if they didn't do as they were told.
Church's were also huge funders in exploration for that very reason. And with bases in all kinds of places around the globe, their business and political endeavors were off the hook. It wasn't until fairly recently their power started getting overidden by corporations.

the only church that wielded that much power was the Catholic church. So, you are talking about the Catholic church, right?

[stjames1_53]

[QUOTE=RadioGod;2423772][QUOTE=Ransom;2423726]

We the people, lol. That implies a democracy. We are far removed from a democracy. It's a representative republic where our representation has been silenced in favor of big companies. That amounts to no representation at all. I did need a good laugh, though, thank you

Fair enough. I totally understand why you would call me out for saying these things. Let me start with the USPS question. Do you think is correct for the US government to decide which companies get their shipping cost subsidized? I don't. The USPS does have private competition. Those companies, ironically, also have deals with USPS. Oftentimes something I order has UPS or FEDEX shipping, and shipping gets handed off to the USPS anyways for delivery. Again, all at a reduced rate. But lets say I want to sell things online with Ebay or Amazon with a seller account. I will have to pay the full cost to ship things, which usually adds quite a bit of overhead to the price. To be competitive with the companies receiving shipping discounts, I will have to lower my prices across the board, usually into whatever profit margin there was. Then, I will not be in business very long. It's not fair, and it's not an even playing field, and it actually inhibits small businesses from starting.
As to how has my representation been silenced by big companies? This seems obvious to me. Politicians are in constant need of money and power. They need money to run their campaigns. They need money to show their party they can, in fact, run a campaign against the opposition, or their party will try to replace them with a better fund-raiser. With those fat donations comes placing those donors in higher regard than everyone else. And if they wish to get more money in the future, they had better vote the way they are told. This means the billionaires and corporations control our representatives, and we don't.
Politicians need power, or the appearance of strong backing, in order to put up legislation and have it taken seriously. Again, the only people with that much clout in DC are billionaires and corporations, not we the people.
An argument could be attempted that those companies are also run by citizens, so they are the people too. In that case, it is still a few people speaking for all of us. It is not representation of all of us. And not all of the companies that control our politicians are even American companies.
Apple does sell phones, ipads, and funny attempts at computers. All of it overpriced and with 3 to 5 year old technology. But they have a following and a consumer base. They have their own app store and make alot of money. But they also sell all of their users information to the government agencies, like the CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI, etc.
Apple had a big story awhile back about not unlocking some criminal's phone for the FBI. Everyone in the tech world was cheering for them, and wanna-be terrorists everywhere probably went out and bought iphones. But the real story is the FBI had already cracked the phone and just wanted to set a legal precedent, and Apple wanted to be seen as a privacy advocate, because they know that's what consumers want. But not only did the FBI already open the phone, all they would have needed was a fisa warrant and Apple would have gave them access to everything he did on his phone.
These companies don't want the government getting data for free, not when it can be a billion dollar commodity. They often try to appear to champion people's privacy, as it only increases the value of that data behind the consumer's backs. Much like legalizing drugs would take away the profit margins of drug dealing.
The real question I cannot answer is exact numbers on how much they get for data selling. I know it is billions, but not how many. The NSA's website is mysteriously silent on the topic:0 In any case, it is a large part of all the big tech corporate values. And it is taxpayer money going to private companies. At the same time taxpayers are funding the usual government agencies that are collecting the same data anyways.

Apple does sell phones, ipads, and funny attempts at computers. All of it overpriced and with 3 to 5 year old technology. But they have a following and a consumer base. They have their own app store and make alot of money. But they also sell all of their users information to the government agencies, like the CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI, etc.

I would advise you to give up your tech until it changes to suit you..........easy peasy

[RadioGod]

the only church that wielded that much power was the Catholic church. So, you are talking about the Catholic church, right?

Yes.

[RadioGod]

[QUOTE=stjames1_53;2423847][QUOTE=RadioGod;2423772]

I would advise you to give up your tech until it changes to suit you..........easy peasy

I'm sure you would like that.

[texan]

Everything you said makes sense. China is transiting from a low-cost producer to a consumer society much like the US. They are competing with us for resources, and they have 3 times our population. I am still undecided about the tariffs imposed on China, but I can see the rationale for trying it. I do know a tariff war will only escalate.
I also agree we should take stupid regulations off of business. But I also see a serious need for regulations to protect American citizens from pollution. And by pollution, I mean the really toxic stuff that is often a byproduct of manufacturing or energy production.
I know we try to subsidize our farmers and businesses in an effort to keep them competitive on the global markets. But countries like China do it better. Not that subsidizing any business is a good thing, I would like to see subsidies end altogether and let the corporate die-off begin.
And Trump was right about China purposefully manipulating it's currency to gain a price advantage over American manufacturers. But we do it too.
I would also like to see big businesses have a much smaller role in politics because of the corruption factor. I know that is a pipe dream, so I won't dwell on that.
You know, for all the times I have been called a liberal and a commie, I think in some respects I lean further right than most conservatives. But as you can see on my opinion on business regulation, I lean more liberal. We can all agree on some things.
And I do speculate But I try to do it thoughtfully and carefully. Sometimes it comes off bat-sh*t crazy. Sometimes it might be, but not on purpose. But when I look at issues, I try my best to see what all of the surrounding circumstances are, and understand the truth of what is happening.
On that note, to most Americans, everybody who posts on an internet forum is insane. So whether I make sense, or I dive into sh*t-posting, all of us crazies are here together

I will tackle one tonight it’s late. That one will be Tariffs. I remind myself every time I walk into a potential sale by saying “don’t play the game scared.” Someone’s has to take some steps to even this out. We set these tariffs up during reconstruction. But they were never managed properly and then with an influx of lobby money they have gotten worse. No politician will deal with it they are afraid of special interest and have likely been paid to leave it alone.

That said we may have some short term pain to benefit long term. My understanding it is all about economic power. Right now our economy is churning and theirs is not. They cannot afford the war. They will be harmed first and faster. Therefore timing is good. Trumps econimists know this is true so they are going for it now. I say let’s do it. I have no fear we consume the products way more than China.

I work in the Manufacturing industry. We are seeing the mills doing very well right now. Yes costs of material is up. But so is production and jobs in the sector. There will be trade offs. But we will prevail sooner than later. Let’s get it over with.

These measures will will pay back our debt way sooner than anything else. Make NATzo pay, make people be fair on tariffs., make the NAFTA type deals work for us or they lose access to our economy. Oh yes we will win this one.

[RadioGod]

I will tackle one tonight it’s late. That one will be Tariffs. I remind myself every time I walk into a potential sale by saying “don’t play the game scared.” Someone’s has to take some steps to even this out. We set these tariffs up during reconstruction. But they were never managed properly and then with an influx of lobby money they have gotten worse. No politician will deal with it they are afraid of special interest and have likely been paid to leave it alone.

That said we may have some short term pain to benefit long term. My understanding it is all about economic power. Right now our economy is churning and theirs is not. They cannot afford the war. They will be harmed first and faster. Therefore timing is good. Trumps econimists know this is true so they are going for it now. I say let’s do it. I have no fear we consume the products way more than China.

I work in the Manufacturing industry. We are seeing the mills doing very well right now. Yes costs of material is up. But so is production and jobs in the sector. There will be trade offs. But we will prevail sooner than later. Let’s get it over with.

These measures will will pay back our debt way sooner than anything else. Make NATzo pay, make people be fair on tariffs., make the NAFTA type deals work for us or they lose access to our economy. Oh yes we will win this one.

It's good to hear from someone with practical insider knowledge about an industry. Numbers never do reality justice.
I know that China needs consumers, or their manufacturing will be in vain. And I know the US and Europeans are the big consumers. Tariffs will for sure have an impact on consumer choices, and some companies are even going to raise prices on things and put the reason for the higher prices as Trump's tariffs. This will create a political snafu in certain markets, like with electronics and phones.
To be fair to Trump, even if he ditched the tariffs today, companies would still try to use it as an excuse to raise prices. Just like when gas prices went up in 2008(?), and food prices went up accordingly, but never went back down when gas prices did.
If we have more manufacturing jobs now, that is good. But I'm not so sure how long that trend will last. American manufacturers can produce anything other countries manufacturing does, but at what cost? I like the idea of people making a living wage for their families, but I also don't want to pay $400 for a pair of shoes I know with more automation coming in, that would bring costs down to a super-competitive level.
I would also like to see us making more technical things that require high skill and manufacturing. Things that the rest of the world will come to us for voluntarily, not because it's cheap, but because it's the best, and nothing else in that market will do. Thin-film solar, high-density batteries, memory chips, things like that.
Right now China is out-classing us in those markets, and they are the products that will set trends for the next decade.
I will reserve my judgement on the tariffs until I see how the Chinese and Russian economies react. But I have a sneaking suspicion if we don't get our act together, they might just write us off and make a new global economy without our input. Of course, that would require them to be ok with far less gdp and growth, but if it means not having to put up with us throwing wrenches in their economics, they might just do it.
I agree that the Chinese would be devestated in a trade war, and I totally get that we might as well get it over and done with. But I would prefer to be much more cautious about doing things there are no taking back. A trade war might not be necessary if companies stop playing the daily share price game, let investors know that they are in it for the long haul and to expect short-term turmoil, and start making things the whole world can't do without.
Right now, we make alot of things that require our governments help with to force on other nations. That is not a good marketing strategy, and can lead to world war 3.

[stjames1_53]

[QUOTE=RadioGod;2424060][QUOTE=stjames1_53;2423847]

I'm sure you would like that.

Not me. I like tech. You're the one with issues................you should give it up since it offends you.