We should set some ground rules here. You still believe the USA is insane, and not to be trusted. Have you thought about the ramifications of declaring such a thing? That even with the House and Senate and many governorships flipping after Trump's debacle of a presidency, that the US is insane and untrustworthy. Trust amirite? Do you want the USA demoted or removed from NATO? You don't have countries you don't trust , so they Should not be in a Trustworthy position.

Since the US is untrustworthy and insane and must be treated as such for a long time - is any and all cooperation now verboten?

Since the US isn't trustworthy, are you suggesting making the Yuan the official world currency? You cannot trust the currency of a country that cannot be trusted.

Or does your hatred for us not allow you do anything other than carry that hate as a core value?

Because many of us are celebrating the ouster of a huge problem, an incompetent president who is now a lame duck, and both houses of government controlled by more competent people (Democrats have their own issues, but they are generally better at running the country) The adults are coming back to take charge.

But rather than issue a writ of "thank goodness", you can't leave go of your hate.

You didn't - I was just noting that would not be a good idea - not everything is about you.

I see - I'm not certain where you are writing from, but you appear to be saying if say - Russia invaded your country, you should refuse any help form the USA. For we cannot be trusted, and we need to be left out of what is happening. Having the courage of your convictions, amirite?

Because while it might be a simple soundbite reaction, the world is much more complicated.

Feel that hatred. Rather than celebrate the removal of a cancer and the Democrats taking over both the house and Senate - double down. Feel your hatred and let it flow through you - Double down, that's teh ticket, and the path forward, and the right decision.

You certainly do have an investment in your hate - so you do you.

I give analysis you give insults. Keep it up, you are an embarassment to liberals

Sorry, dude. I haven't voted for a Republican since 2000. That includes 2024. I worked much of my career trying to get young Women interested in STEM careers.

Now let's take your response to what I wrote. I noted that it was my informed opinion that in 2024, the Democrats had lost their way at that time.

That opinion was based on interviews, reading other's interviews, and a certain amount of personal observations.

The Democrats badly needed some introspection. And guess what - they did some introspection.

You meanwhile, won't. Your response to me was a hardly veiled condemnation, insinuating I am against equal rights for woman and minorities.

Further, I will note that the party that put out the Men for Kamala campaign video https://www.youtube.com/watch?... and the "vote against your husband" ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?... were the most public facing examples of internalized and thoughtless free misandry. Utter cringe inducing.

Some people won't learn from mistakes. And the Dems did. You on the other hand, perhaps did not. If someone posts something your narrative won't accept you pull out your narrative compliance response.

Can you show us the citations that over 150 million people in the US support Trump? 50 percent by your claim. I can go to various areas, and find people that will support whoever.

from circa 2016 to 2024, there was a certain insanity that the US was engaged in. We had years of Democrats losing their way, and Trump telling a lot of people what they wanted to hear. We indeed had a woman win the popular vote in 2016, yet lose to a weird electoral college (which has proven to be superannuated)

And now for a little historic comparison. The Republican base, largely racist, was thrown into a tizzy when O'Blama was first elected, went batshit crazy when O'Blama was re-elected.

The far left Democrats likewise went crazy in 2016, and by the time 2024 rolled around, they had largely abandoned the working class, and became very misandric. Years of blaming men for every problem, and never missing a chance to let men know, and a party that claimed to be science believing yet could not tell the difference between man and woman, ended up culminating in alienating young men, once a reliable source of Democrat votes.

In essence, the Democrats forgot how to read the room, hitched their wagon to far left academic kooks. And had no actual process of selecting a candidate after Biden quit the 2024 race, only that it would be Harris

That's the condensed version. So we got Trump 2. And that has proven to be horrifying.

You don't hear much from the Dems about transgenders, men playing on women's sports teams, blue estrogen fueled waves these days. Brought back to reality, I suspect. Even dropped most of the misandry.

So are you disappointed in the recent results? Does it conflict with your narrative?

Most of us Americans are horribly embarrassed by the results of the 2024 elections. So we did something about it. The likely result will be a lot of fence mending, to bring things back to where they should be, and largely was.

As for the punishment you and others seem to want to be inflicted on us, well, it probably isn't a god idea to go all Treaty of Versailles on us.

So now pedophiles can rebrand themselves as head starting intimacy enableization experts

I wrote: "I have to note, I was born in poverty, and worked myself up to around top 10 percent. Zero help. Put myself through college, built a salable skillset. Doing 6 figures in retirement." You replied: "Not sure how you mean that. You had the background, the skill, and the help you needed."

No, I did it all by myself. You quite clearly disagreed. Now explain how I got the help I needed.

I shall defer to Merriam WebsterYou can correct them if you decree they are in error

Capitalism - "an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market."

There is not a free market. That's the problem - Free markets only last until those at the top decide they don't want a free market - they want to ensure their financial dominance. That's the problem with capitalism. It eventually destroys itself.

Corporatism - "the organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction." There is a difference. Parts of each might be in each, but when claiming that the USA is a capitalist country - well, none of the social benefits would exist, and we do have social benefits.

In a pure capitalist country, the only people who have any power are those with the capital, and in the free market, the rule is pay as you go for every single thing. That shouldn't even be nuance.

The police noted that they were following a "credible lead".

So I would suggest that everyone who has a 2012 Hyundai Elantra, either hide it or get rid of it. Because the towing and impound are completely justified in FlockWorld.

Are the cameras still there? Don't for a minute think that they aren't, don't for a minute think that the same "mistake" won't happen again. Just like the woman who was stopped twice at gunpoint over a couple days the problems in the database do not get fixed. Flock has now identified this woman as the enemy, and the police will follow the orders of the Panopticon.

In early Soviet Union, there was indeed a maximum salary, called a partmaximum.

Wesley Lloyd representing the State of Washington proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have limited annual incomes to $1 million

Another colleague John Snyder introduced another amendment proposal that would have limited personal wealth to $1 million.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a maximum income of $25,000 Also proposed a 100 percent tax on income over 40,000, yeah, I know those two numbers don't add up quite right, probably after the 25,000 was taxed.

Until it was fixed, people in Sweden occasionally faced a tax of 102 percent. Talk about a positive feedback loop. Astrid Lindgren was an example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

So there are plenty of people who demand a tax rate of 100 percent on any income over (x), which is exactly a maximum wage.

I think people call it a better distribution of wealth, that doesn't need a level field but when there is too much concentration of wealth there is also too much concentration of power (capitalism by definition?).

Well, I do suspect that if you create a maximum wage, and just give that money to everyone else, and keep doing it until there is a standard salary. That's a level playing field, where everyone makes the same wages. And then the question becomes, If I make the same mopping floors as I would in stressful dangerous jobs, what would be the reason to do those jobs?

What help was that, since you appear to be claiming I am dissembling? My family told me that I was on my own after graduating high school. And what kind of background makes for success. We lived on surplus food (no food stamps at that time) I wore clothing from second hand stores, or hand me downs from relatives. The only "help" I got was marrying a woman with similar values. Which means she didn't overspend by nature.

Sigh. If there is one thing I detest, it is people playing victim. No, I'm no victim. I find people pulling out replies like you just did rather unbecoming. and really, like uno reverse victim claims.

I hear people working very very hard to cast me as the mortal enemy. If you noted, I support the social programs we have her to help the poor people in teh country - but kind sir, I see this all the time. You need an enemy, someone to be everything that you believe is wrong. Your hatred noted, may it serve you and your narrative well.

I know, right? Success for me is having enough money to do the things that make life worthwhile. Money in and of itself is very boring. And many people on both sides of what was once classed as class warfare are consumed with money.

I even enjoy paying it forward. Success is living well, So I take vacations pretty often. I live in a decent but not ostentatious house. Now to paying it forward. When I go out to eat with the wife or friends, I tip 75 to 100 percent. My woodworking "hobby" allows me to donate a lot of rather fine bowls and flatwork to various charities that have auctions and they generate a lot of money for them. I’ve been the CEO of two 501(c)3 charitable organizations, one youth sports oriented, and the most recent one a public education and public service organization. Wife and I contribute to food banks. Do I have money? Sure. But my definition of success isn't just the number of dollars in my checking savings, and investment accounts.

In stark reality, all of the eat the rich people are just practicing their own version of hatred. And your narrative is just an attempt to cast me as that privileged class, who leech off of society, while stomping everyone else.

Regardless, since you have already accused me of lying, you. are likely just going to be saying all the other things I say do that don't align with your narrative are just some rich person lying.

I thought we might have a fruitful conversation. I was completely wrong about that part.

I do not know that what I have posted qualifies as any "least" situation. What is your solution, tovarisch? A real solution, just not more of the incitement to eat the rich.

Never said it was, you just saw something you didn't like, and stopped taking input. to clarify, I'll repeat - I wrote:

"Well, to clarify, since we're. worried about communism versus capitalism, the US is in no way shape or form capitalism. It is a mixture of corporatism and (cover the kid's ears folks!!) socialism."

We have quite a few socialism based benefits for people of low income. I already pointed that out, but by that time, you were freaking out.

There is a reason why section 8 exists. That reason is the failure of the so called "projects", where apartment buildings were built for low income people. Ironically, one of the reasons they failed was that they would not take working class families, but only the poorest, most needy, and oftentimes most troubled. They were also built in the poorest urban areas. They also had rent control caps, so maintenance often couldn't be made - there was no money for it.

Section 8 is not perfect and has its issues, but it does a couple things the projects did not. Section 8 has mixed income housing, the poor are living in the same places as middle income people not on section 8, and mixed social integration.

People make the decisions. Money indeed does play into it.

That said, with your apparent desire for the poor to make decisions, we do have to deal with some unfortunate truths. Wealth, or the lack of it, does not translate to worth. Some people are born to wealth, some achieve it via hard work, some achieve it through unethical means. It is a mix.

And the poor - it is very similar, some is bad luck - think the handicapped, some of the mentally challenged. Some is drive - not all people have drive. This is also a mix.

We have other things in the mix. Wealthy people who believe all poor are deserving of it, and poor people who believe that worthiness and ethics are inversely proportional to the amount of money a person has. Both are abysmally brain dead ideas, and leave the believer in a highly manipulable state.

I might have a viewpoint based on my personal experience of starting out in poverty, and working my way many rungs up the social and wealth ladder.

Asshats and good people are on each level.

And I do judge. I do it based on character, not the contents of the wallet or amount of melanin in the skin, or country of origin.

Pissed off a comrade, did I?

I know of no one who uttered the word that "capitalism is the root of all problems"

However, is that an actual point making the many posts speaking of end stage capitalism, or is from OP "With capitalism we are rushing off the side of a cliff."

not If you demand specific wording, no - I saw no such exact wording. But unless you are new here, there is a lot of hate heaped on "capitalism" Especially towards one particular country where there is a narrative that said country is run by capitalism. It isn't

Well, let's look at the country in question. Here in the USA we are not living under capitalism. We have a combination of corporatism, with a lot of socialism effects tossed in.

There are many benefits for people of low economic means. Free phones, free laptops, Heating oil assistance, low cost internet, section 8 housing (if you are not an American, Section 8 is a program where a low income person pays a small amount, perhaps a couple hundred dollars a month for their apartment and the Government picks up the rest) WIC- Women, Infants, & Children program giving free food. Medicaid for children and many adults. Medicare, Social Security disabled benefits for adults, and children, even Social Security benefits for children of older parents. We have food Stamp programs, we have free transportation for poor and retired people, including personal pickup and delivery for people living in areas not served by regular public transportation.

This does not sound to me like Capitalism in any shape or form.

These are things that don't get mentioned much. At one point in the past, I provided cites and links to all of this. It varies by state, but even deep red states have these programs.

You tell me. Should there be a maximum allowable salary? How do we make a completely level playing field? Force the driven not to work?

I have to note, I was born in poverty, and worked myself up to around top 10 percent. Zero help. Put myself through college, built a salable skillset. Doing 6 figures in retirement. So I'm probably in the group who need penalized for success.

So how do we deal with the driven vs the non-driven? How do we deal with those who build something? I built my money through frugal living and saving while young and then at around 50, really hit my stride. Waited until interest rates were down, then bought a house that's below what I was approved for, and paid it off in less than 15 years. Kept saving and investing. Don't want to turn this into Ol's financial classes though.

And I'm astute enough to know that not everyone is going to do that. But in the modern parlance, I am the bad person, and they must have the same economic resources as I do. So yes, I've been told I was part of the problem.

Now I might not be the brightest person in the room, but my experience has been that while some are whining about how bad it is that only some people have money, that the proper gestalt is a level playing field, I would propose that it really isn't possible to make that level playing field. Mainly because of different abilities and individual drives.

What do we do with the "obscene" rich, and the poor that are not driven or mentally capable on the other end. I've personally shown that with drive, a very poor person can work their way up that ladder. Takes hard work and financial smarts. No, not everyone has that combo. And here in the land people love to hate we have a way to help the people that might be stuck on the lower end of the economic scale, and don't really care about rising any further. I support such a system.

Now your solution for a level playing field?

Well, to clarify, since we're. worried about communism versus capitalism, the US is in no way shape or form capitalism. It is a mixture of corporatism and (cover the kid's ears folks!!) socialism. Don't believe it? Tax dollars, quite a few of them in fact, go to things like free laptops and smartphones for the low income, subsidized fuel oil, medicare, medicaid, free food for Women, Infants and Children as well as Food stamps, Section 8 housing, where low income people pay a very small amount per month, while the Government pays the rest. When you are in a 2000 dollar apartment and paying 200 dollars a month, government is picking up the tab. Free or very reduced internet. Free buses for the poor and retired people. If you live in an area without bus service, you can call and get a free ride and return. May older and poor use this service to get back and forth to doctors and other appointments. This even in some very red states.

Doesn't sound much like capitalism to me. I am not opposed to such things. I am not claiming that there are not some economic issues we have. But it creates cognitive dissonance in people that get their facts from our adversaries.

But yeah - there is a middle ground. Collective ownership can work as long as people understand there has a be a group of business savvy people running the business. That said, what I have seen in life is that many to most people don't actually have that savvy.

Well, how bow the communist revolution? Howbow Chairman Mao, Uncle Joe Stalin, Pol Pot. The revolution of the proletariat. Ha's that workin out for ya Comrade? The were some of teh best humanitarians amirite?