Who are you voting for?

[dpgillam]

David Eddings, in his series The Mallorian (hope I spelled that right) wrote of an interesting system:

The day you were sworn into office, all your worldly possessions were confiscated, sold, and the money added to the general treasury. You were provided all your needs as an upper class citizen, but it was free; you owned nothing and got paid nothing. You served your term, with an option of one re-election (iirc). When you finished your term, they looked at the percent growth in (I cant remember if it was economy, GDP, or treasury) and used that as the set interest they owed you per year served in addition to your funds held in escrow when you took office. If the govt didnt make a profit, neither did you; if it deficit spent, you lost money.

And you couldnt use accounting tricks or just raise taxes. You had to guide the government to a real surplus to get paid.

 

In his book, most people worked their entire lived to make enough money to buy their way out of being forced to serve as politicians in that government.

[Eckss]

Interestingly, the US system was set up originally to a cry of "no taxation without representation", yet if I work in the US, I have to pay US taxes and get no representation at all in return for those taxes. I don't expect any polititian to do anything about that, not that I'd be allowed to vote for them, even if they said they would. Just saying. :devil:

[WursWaldo]

JFK tells it like it is. Ignore the inflammatory YouTube title and listen to what he says. We are so far away from what he lays out it it is sickening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8HTr-F-FVM

[sunshinenbrick]

So back to the killing of kings...

[Deleted54170User]

JFK tells it like it is. Ignore the inflammatory YouTube title and listen to what he says. We are so far away from what he lays out it it is sickening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8HTr-F-FVM

 

Thank you for posting that speech. Now I understand, when we heard over the class rooms loudspeaker the radio report of his assassination, why all the children my age cried and became aware I was unaware of why. No one told me, no one befriended me, and I went back to my chores at the home I thought I was a member of the family there. It's odd too, because my Mom was a devote Democrat.

[WursWaldo]

Killing the king is right. Sanders mopped the floor with Clinton and yet she gets the majority DNC sponsored super delegates. Basically it is the DNC telling democrat voters 'Shut up, we already decided who the candidate will be. Your vote doesn't matter.'

 

And 'killing of kings' is right on the part of Sanders anyway. He talks about the 1% of the 1% and driving them into the ground with taxes. The 1% of the 1% he's talking about are the people who rule the planet; all of that 'conspiracy' talk about the Rothschilds, etc. If he holds true to taxing American billionaires (there are about 530 of them and most of them are related by blood somewhere) there is no way he will get elected. The super secret alien lizard Illuminati who live in the center of the Earth will never allow it, that or the DNC will just steal the nomination and give it to Hillary. Disclaimer: I don't believe in alien Lizard people but Sanders and his '1% of the 1%' mirrors what conspiracy types say.

 

As a conservative I like Sanders. He scares me but I like that he is genuine and has conviction. He believes what he's saying and he isn't trying to bilk the system (looking at you DNC/Hillary). I think he really does want everyone to be equal. Too bad human nature doesn't work that way.

 

One thing I will call 'BS' on is his stance that global warming is man-made. That plays to his base but it is patently untrue. Humans can't control climate change, only lessen its effects. The northern ice cap on Mars is shrinking, the moons around Jupiter are warming up and the outer planets are brighter. Climate change is solar system wide and not caused by humans. Coal fired power plants and SUVs are not the 'problem' since those things don't exist anywhere but Earth.

Realistically, if liberals want to slow down climate change they need to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. where it can be regulated and not let Chinese and Indian companies pump 20 times the amount of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere as a U.S. plant does. In other words, stop regulating American industry into extinction while selling tones of high sulfur brown coal to India and China, you hypocrites.

[Deleted54170User]

I retract my statements and questions, because I have learned much today.

[HeyYou]

The 'average' person's vote has been meaningless for decades. It is the folk with the money that decide who runs. Not the voters.

[Beriallord]

I'm liking the way things are looking this election cycle. Both parties have anti-establishment candidates in Trump and Sanders, both of which are very popular. This might sound crazy coming from me, but I'd prefer Sanders over Bush, Rubio, Cruz or Clinton. Sanders should grab Ralph Nader as VP, another anti-establishment guy. Some of his policies are too extreme to come into fruition, so that's not a concern of mine, but on the other hand Sanders would shake up the establishment, and I'm voting anti-establishment this election. But if Trump is on the ballot for the general election, he gets my vote even if he runs 3rd party; especially if he runs 3rd party. What Trump has going for him is he's already a billionaire, which makes it much less likely special interests could buy him off. If anything has been made clear, its that people are sick of the status quo, Republicans are sick of neoconservatives, and Democrats are sick of neoliberals. If rumors are true and Bloomberg decides to run 3rd party, he's gonna take votes away from mostly Democrats due to his anti-gun positions and being in favor of using government to regulate the size of sodas.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Beriallord

[milogrim]

I love how Trump constantly points out that the King is wearing no pants. He doesn't kowtow to the media or his constituency. I love love how Sanders is true to his convictions and unyielding in his principles. It cost him much in money and votes but he keeps pushing forward.

 

I am strongly against socialism and marxism. So, I could never vote for Sanders, I am way too libertarian and right. I still respect him and Obama. What you have to ask yourself is when I give government more control what happens when the next guy gets in and abuses it? The answer for me is always less government, even if it hurts a little. It's like the first amendment. Sure, there is lots of stuff I wish people wouldn't say but outlawing free speech, of any kind, would soon result in a nightmare world.

 

As far as I'm concerned Hilary is a felon who should be in federal prison, and Cruz is not an natural born American citizens. Both are slime-balls, two faced, liars, out to milk the presidency for all the power and money they can. The other candidates might be nice or smart or genuine but they are losers. I'm a loser, trust me you don't want me running the country.