please. communist?

think about this: one of the cons of communism is if one person is getting all the benefits of working as not working - incentive is nixed.

w/all the mergers of segments of the business world - oil, media suppliers, etc - the effect mirrors communism. w/o serious competition, these companies have less incentive to improve products, increase efficiency, or reduce consumer costs.

to wit: most of the conservative policies are closer to communism than ideas like trust-busting, fair employee compensation, reasonable taxation for high earners, etc.

most of the 'progressive' ideas would spur capitalism, thus the blue is more about the green than the red is about keeping markets stable and healthy.

prefer the idea of regulated capitalism over death through fascism.

what led to '08?

anyway...if you're money is on Tesla*, good luck. good to see a body putting their money where their mouth is. and great to see you in favor of moving away from fossil fuels. investing in the future.

if we can get there.

FYI: interesting article about the marketing of tesla
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/tesla-masculinity-study?utm_source=digg
from the skinny on the CEO, it is an absolute match.


BTW: keeping up w/the Jan 6 spankings? hard to buy the love of a loon, versus the safety of a nation. shakes a person to the core. all those serene conservatives w/o one iota of spine. if this is your idea of quality leadership - no Tesla stock is gonna fill the void of losing a homeland


*what did E.M. do for Twitter? taught some folks the meaning of 'cozener'.

HEY! I think that's the vehicle from the SimpliSafe video!

No! Really! Was reading about this. Ironically it ended up in an Ash tree. Right next to a cemetery.

Guess what the name of the nearest headstone said?

Ralph Kramden.

No. Really.

Trust me.

1) what part of that is a joke?
2) not all Cons are racists, but almost all racists are Cons.
3) All cons may not be blatant racists, but they all are willing to stand with blatant lifelong racists and support them and are willing and eager to support blatantly racist policies if the racists will support their candidates. You know a man by the company he keeps.
4) I rented 1/3 of an acre with utilities in California for $250 for 7+ years, when estimated rent would be up to $1500+Utilities, in order to give a needy person a home. After 7 years I raised rent to $300, 1/5 market value. Keep in mind my wife and I have lived on $30k a year +- for decades so she can work at a non profit blood bank helping the community. We could have used the money. Kindness isn’t monopolized by any one side/group, but it’s more rare from cons., as this video demonstrates.
5) if your siblings can’t afford to be that generous, you certainly shouldn’t force them to sell at that discount, and you should not take a dime. You control the estate, but you have a responsibility to distribute it evenly and fully, not give it away, not donate it to an elderly couple. You will ruin your family and your father’s legacy and they will be right to be mad at you for stealing their inheritance. Maybe offer it for $75k and take nothing yourself if you want to make a gift of it, absolutely don’t sell it at a discount without everyone’s agreement in advance. Trust me, I’ve been there.
6) are elderly people who need discounted rent really going to have $55k to buy even a discounted house? No bank would loan them money, they can’t pay it back. Is that a real offer?

So we now have publicly available testimony under oath with corroborating evidence as proof that the “stop the steal” fraud was nothing but a plan to bilk poor donors into donating more to Trump, donations spent on himself, his family, and at his properties at exorbitant rates. He asked for donations to support the “election defense fund”, which did and does not exist.

He raised around $250 million, none of which was spent in court. Most was spent on Trump organizations and businesses, and paid to his family at $20000 per minute speaking rates at events where they asked for more donations.

For instance, Guilfoyle was paid $60K for one under 3 minute introduction of her boyfriend, Don jr.

I’m 100% certain that’s not the only outrageous appearance fee they paid themselves….ex presidents usually get over $200000 for a speaking fee, what do you bet Trump pays himself at least that for every rally, speech, or appearance at Maralago out of those funds that were supposed to be paying to fight in court. The problem being that Trump knew full well he had zero chance in court because he had zero evidence of his claims, every sober advisor in the White House and his children told him so.

Will any crime, lie, or theft ever be enough for you to see Trump as the steaming pile of shit that he is? He’s been caught committing school frauds, housing frauds, business frauds, bank frauds, tax frauds, charity frauds, and political frauds….mostly against people just like you who trust him.

For my understanding, the general meaning of the word "Zionism" is vastly changed throughout the eras. And there isn't a homogeneous kind of Zionism anyway. What kind of "Zionist agenda" the people/government living in the land of "Israel/Palestine" in the 30-50s to today had in mind and pushing for is totally different. Let's be concerned with today's general definition of Zionism, as mostly defined by the Likud and the other far-right/Nationalist parties in today's Israel shall we?

Also, I can't imagine there are a whole lot of countries that would deny Israel's right-to-exist (like, physically, wholeheartedly want to wipe them of the face of the earth kind, NOT the expedient, political rhetorics for their own domestic consumption kind). And those that could really be crazy enough, like Iran, I constantly (naively?) felt the Ayatollahs would rather opt for silent, staus-quo relations than go to war with Israel (they must see the Ukraine invaison and see Russia/Putin isolation as a lesson, they can't afford to put themselves in the same position as Putin's in a Israel/Iran war. The Ayatollahs don't have even Iranian people standing behind them).

The good is that for Israel vs. the Arab countries, trust building is possible, but incredibly slow -- it only takes one wrong step to negate a mile of trust building -- but still, the past few years have seen some Arab countries opening up bilateral embassies with Israel along wiht increased trades & direct flights, etc.

The no good, very bad news of the statehood issues, daily IvP conflict, land grabs and from low-level militray incursions to the occasional missiles trading military operations, are happening far too often. Thus making hard-core Zionism, support of Hamas, the isolation of the Palestinian people & economy, etc. all the more severe. None of these are paths towards peace and/or creating the conditions for mutually agreeable settlement. All the flashpoints needs to be addressed in an even-handed way. But we just don't see balance in the media and/or the world political arena.

Well put. But what's the % of Western (or the whole World in general except the Middle Eastern region) population who can make the distinction? It's really depressing.

Here in Canada, IMO the political landscape is very much the same as in the US. It is firmly drilled into people's mind that anyone criticizing the government of Israel's constant harrasement, military action, and land grabs in Palestinian territories are automatically branded as Anti-semitism by the likes of the JDOs (Jewish Defense Organizations). There are many legit Anti-Semitism incidents in Canada that need to be condemned, true, but there are also real over-reaction and subpression of objective opinions by the JDOs. These "false branding" hurts people's lives. And we almost NEVER hear the word Zionist (or anti-Zionist) in the media, mostly isolated to academic circles only.

Nobody would be offended hearing someone criticize any country's policy and military incursion (say, you don't like Trump/Biden? No one will say you're anti-American), but any negative comment involving Israel? Damn it boy, you're begging for trouble. As if Isreal, Likud, Netanyahu and the Jewish people are one and the same. Criticize one, you criticize all. But why is that? What makes Isreal, above all other countries, well above any reproach?

Now, I'm not pro- or anti-Semite nor pro- or anti-Zionist. Such generalised sentiment is wrong to me. I'm just pro-peace, the history of that land is way too complex and the blood spilled between its peoples ran for generations and gone on for centuries. It's unrealistic for any leaders to settle anything between their peoples in a political term or two (and not even factoring outside influences that DON'T want them to settle). There are too many hate and zero trust between the peoples right now. Just let peace reigns for a decade then it'll be time to talk settlement of statehood. Give Isrealites & Palestinians some peaoce & prosperity first. Everyone, including the media, politicians inside and outside of that land, the UN, etc. just need to recognize that and not be just so lopsided in their support.

1. Never trust anyone who says "basically" too much about things that aren't basic at all.

2. I don't see Taco Bells, Walmarts, and other terrible elements of suburban life. I don't know how that'll float (ho ho!) in South Korea, but it'd never hold water (ho ho!) in the US.

3. I agree with newtboy. I'd like to know what sort of people are on their payroll or board of directors. Do they have all the sorts of scientists ad engineers you'd want for a project like this or just a handful of pie-in-the-sky Silicon Valley-ish types?

If you want to convince me, you’re going to have to do one hell of a lot better than that silliness. He clearly went to the right wing propagandist school of YouTube even though he seems to imply he’s a liberal.

I’ll tackle one…the bread price fixing claim. He worked for a consulting company, the companies that are hired by failing and struggling businesses to suggest solutions and often that means cut their staffs in half to try to save the company…bad ones then sell all the assets, bankrupt the companies intentionally, and escape any obligations to the employees. There’s no indication the company he worked for did that (that I know of). They did apparently consult for a grocery store chain that, also apparently, was involved in bread price fixing at or near the same time his company was being consulted. It’s ridiculous to believe they REPORTED that crime to the outside consulting firm they hired.
Trying to tie one corporate customer’s unrelated crimes to Pete because you can string a tenuous thread between them (with many pegs between) is pretty damn dishonest. So is saying Pete never answered questions about it, he absolutely did…it was in the video.

Massive layoffs….I didn’t get that far, stopped around 7 min in…but that’s what consulting firms often do. If companies are failing because they’re way over staffed, they suggest layoffs to save at least 1/2 the jobs. Not always successfully.

I don’t know what ICE is if it’s not immigration cops, and I don’t know what he would have to do with it, but I’m not going to keep listening to these convenient edits and hyperbolic claims in the video. I can’t stand the narrator, nor can I trust him.

I’m not claiming Pete is perfection incarnate. I’m saying it would be nice to have a president who’s driven to public service, is insanely intelligent, is well spoken and polite, likeable, and young enough to have to live with the consequences of their own leadership, and that those are all positive traits we’ve been lacking of late.

If this wasn’t Stossel, I might upvote, but because it is him, I’m feeling relatively certain that his eventual conclusion is faulty and many facts are just wrong. Remember, he’s the person who sued Facebook when he claimed the 2020 forest fires were primarily caused by forest mismanagement not climate change and Facebook labeled it “Missing Context. Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.”

It’s a near certainty that salient facts are being hidden to make it seem local government is stealing houses over $8 bills. That is how Stossel “reports”. For instance, any loans, mortgages, judgements, fines, outstanding bills in collections, overdue taxes, the cost of seizure, the cost of the sale, the cost to bring the home into sellable condition, etc are all paid from the proceeds before the “owner” would have any claims….and the government gets to estimate the value at seizure and set the starting auction bid accordingly.

The IRS seizes homes around 300 times per year, most are worth less than the debt owed.

Asset forfeiture is wrong. It’s legalized theft. I wish I could trust the source enough to support this video.

Ever try to trick a dog w/the fake stick toss? Even they stop and scan to find evidence. (ours learned the ruse quickly)

spins my gourd that folks are SO EASILY misled by these fairy tales of teachers indoctrinating kids (yet, they can't get them to sit still, stop talking, or return materials on time); fears of giving citizens PSTD with known history (but explaining why 'person. woman. man. camera. tv' is NOT unsettling); or libraries can't be trusted to be run by librarians but the by the government (what were Ben Franklin and Andrew Carnegie thinking?)

look, boy! go get the stick! (no wonder all the anger. can't find it. but it has to be here!)

BTW: Roy and Silo thing is nuts. (not mentioned but peripheral involved) rather listen to John Oliver analyze "Air Bud". a lot less loopy.

Vanta is available as a sprayable "coating" but I don't think you'd consider it a paint.

I wouldn't trust Musou to be non-toxic. It contains material that the toxicity is unknown. Lets just say I wouldn't mess with it unless I already had cancer.

I should have checked the "jokingly" box on previous, because both are soooo black you wouldn't notice the difference by looking at it.

Sweet Zombie Jesus….Tennessee Republicans are trying to erase age limits for marriage so they can marry and legally have sex with preteen children in the name of outrage over legal gay marriage.
The alternative marriage bill, hb 233. No age limits. “Trust us” they say. “It’s ok to not put limits on it, no one will abuse it.”

So many prominent Republicans are going down this SEX WITH CHILDREN route in the last 5 years, Roy Moore, Matt Gates, Jim Jorden, Trump, I could go on… now entire Republican state legislatures are trying to make child “marriage” legal….wtf happened to you guys? Are tax cuts for the rich really worth literally everything else, including your children?

Mr engineer, when there are two parties, sentence structure demands you use plurals….both sides have THEIR share of undesirables. An engineer should see grammar as a clearly defined structure that follows simple rules and just get it. Spelling is different, but grammar should be a no brainer….why is it so hard for you? Have you never seen it that way, or was engineering incredibly difficult for you too?

The difference being one side is all undesirables, and the level of undesirability. One side openly calls for an end to American democracy, death for their political rivals, death for anyone who disagrees with today’s talking point. One side has no party platform, no stated goals, and exists solely to stop any legislation the other side puts forth, even when it was something they want or that would benefit them. They are the same side.

We found another point of agreement.

Term limits are a must, and will never happen because our system does put the regulatory onus on those who need regulating….absolute insanity. It also lets them set their own salaries, ethics, and benefits.

Divestment is another must. Perhaps a bigger must. Total divestment across the board. Not just blind trusts that aren’t really blind, and absolutely not what we have now…the “honor” system run by the honorless. Allowing legislatures to write horrific laws because they can personally financially benefit is a recipe for disaster. That should (but never will) change.

Campaign finance is a third must. Corporations should have the same donation limits individuals have, which should be more like $100 each so every person can afford to have a voice, and we should return to an equal time on broadcast tv for free situation and deny the media as a political platform to give candidates a boost….no more Fox News interviews indistinguishable from campaign commercials, no more media smear campaigns, with severe penalties for violations, like $10 mil the first time, $25 mil the second, loss of fcc license the third. Another non starter….but needed badly.

PACs should be outlawed, or regulated into obscurity.

Some reasons often brought up in opposition to term limits can be traced back to Maddison who wrote "[A] few of the members of Congress will possess superior talents; will by frequent re-elections, become members of long standing; will be thoroughly masters of the public business, and perhaps not unwilling to avail themselves of those advantages. The greater the proportion of new members of Congress, and the less the information of the bulk of the members, the more apt they be to fall into the snares that may be laid before them,"

I think we have proven at this point the cons of self serving representatives legislating for personal gains outweigh the benefits of professional legislators, especially seeing as we have the internet and huge staffs to ostensibly level the playing field of knowledge.

One fix would be the creation of an ethics branch, completely non partisan, not self regulatory, with rules against former candidates (winners and losers) and lobbyists too from serving and strict rules about how they operate, and bans from running for office or being a lobbyist afterwards so it doesn’t become a campaign platform or tool for industry. Maybe even ban close family members from the same. Won’t happen, only the best people intentionally limit their powers, and they are few and far between in Congress….all but absent on your side.

yep thats it. trust me you dont want to go trying to prove me wrong on this one.