March 28, 2012

If the law requiring you to buy private corporation health insurance is constitutional then

what's to stop the Government from telling you that you have to buy life insurance? After all, your burial costs would be passed onto taxpayers, unless they just leave you to rot on the spot.

And how about mandates to force you to buy certain foods? How is that any LESS constitutional?

March 28, 2012

When men tell sexist jokes and pass around negative stereotypes about men, it's still wrong.

Can someone explain the difference between:

A guy: "Guys are afraid of strong women and think with their dicks instead of their heads."

An Asian person: "Asian people are poor drivers, I know, I'm Asian."

A Muslim: "Most Muslims are potential terrorists. I know, I'm Muslim!"

What's the difference?

When are we ever going to look at making fun of men under the same harsh light as making jokes about women, no matter who tells the joke?

March 27, 2012

I want to reframe the debate about guns... what about non-lethal weapons?

Yes, I know, tasers can kill; however, bullets are more likely to kill.

Why aren't we talking about the development of more and better nonlethal weapons for police and for residents who wish to "stand their ground"? (Note: I count myself as one of those people.)

To own guns or not to own guns, that's not the question, at least not the whole question. If there is going to be a stupid mistake made at some point when someone feels they're defending their property or life, at least make it a mistake with a higher likelihood that someone won't needlessly die.

How about that?

March 27, 2012

Why are we even arguing about ObamaCare aka RomneyCare 2.0?

Why are we even letting the health care argument get framed this way? We Democrats seem to have a problem with letting the other side frame the debate for us. We should be ignoring these distractions and pushing for Medicare for All.

Let's re-frame the debate.

http://medicareforall.org

March 27, 2012

How to silence your friendly neighborhood free trader, quickly. Several times over, in fact.

Free traders come up with a lot of reasons for why we should discriminate against American workers for the good of America. Every time their arguments self-immolate it's natural to assume that another talking point will take its place.

However there are some aspects of reality to which they have no answer.

Here are a few that I've tested in real life and found that even economics professors get left stuttering like Porky Pig.

1. Ask them about their absolute contempt for American workers. Ask them why they ignore the plight of America's poor in their relentless propagandizing about the poor in other nations. Ask them about our jobless and homeless Americans who want for a job.

2. You might also want to point out the fact that globalism sends more jobs out of the country than it brings in. Even a basic study of the non-oil trade deficit shows that. America is the world's largest market for manufacturing exports and American workers have little to no stake in that. China's market is growing and American workers are flatly locked out of that market. Unless you're a chicken farmer, that is. Again, you can verify that by looking at the trade deficit: $245 billion in 2010 without factoring in oil imports. Free traders don't care about that. They believe that discriminating against American workers is somehow good for American workers. But you won't get them to say it.

3. Free traders claim that tariffs will raise the price of goods domestically. Yet they get silent real fast when you point out that the dollar is inherently being devalued by offshoring - which means the cost of imports is doomed to rise anyway. (And in many cases they already are.) Free traders won't have anything to say to this...why? Because even the reserve banks know it's true: http://www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/1999/9910.html

4. Not only are you already seeing this reality at the gas pump, but you will soon see it when you try to buy iPads - because workers in other nations are demanding higher wages. See, this is the death knell for globalism - for globalism to work, other nations' workers must remain dirt poor. When that is no longer true then you must find another sucker nation to provide dirt cheap labor. What happens when we run out of sources for cheap labor? Your prices go up, just like they would if we had tariffs. Free traders have nothing to say to that.

5. Free trade is inherently contributing to the national debt. Particularly, foreign-held debt, which no domestic budget cuts in the world can fix. Again, you are guaranteed silence on this from the free trader crowd. Why? Because it's pretty much a law of economics: http://industryweek.com/articles/u-s-_free_trade_policy_causes_trade_deficits_federal_debt_25366.aspx?ShowAll=1

For those who think foreign-held debt isn't all that big a problem - ask Greece, they can tell you otherwise.

6. And finally, globalism inherently discriminates against American workers by almost completely blocking them from access to the job market, to the point of companies hiring low paid H1B/J1 workers to displace Americans in America. (Case in point: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/foreign-students-walk-off-hershey-factory-job-protest-214310205.html)

How militantly is globalism blocking Americans out of the job market? Here's one example.

Ever notice how the free traders are totally silent about all of this?

It's because American workers don't matter to the pro-globalists. Everyone else matters, but not Americans. After all, we need to lower our standard of living. Perhaps we should all be diving in dumpsters before we get those outsourced jobs back?

Oh, I forgot. Outsourcing American jobs somehow brings us new, better paying jobs. Yet the only jobs it has brought us is Wal Mart cashiers and checkers. Which at some point soon we will be automating. Where are all those high-paying jobs that offshoring was supposed to bring us? Or was the whole point that we should be made poorer to help the third world? Ah, doesn't matter. Free trade arguments have no answer for that.

March 25, 2012

Dear globalists, allow me to explain why Americans are rebelling en masse against you

Those of you who know someone who extols globalism... feel free to tell 'em this.

Attitudes about free trade are all turning for the worse - among Democrats, Independents and Republicans, support is literally dying, rotting off the bone no less. And the more opposition grows, the louder the globalist-supporting minority gets. Problem is, reality is closing in like quicksand, and the more globalists struggle, the worse their standing is getting.

So... why is this happening? It should be obvious.

Every change that is brought about by globalism, every new industry, every move by global corporations, results in more discrimination against American workers. Far more jobs are leaving the country than are coming in. Americans are being systematically locked out of the global job market. Few if any companies ever say, "We're moving jobs to America". (I'm sure there's 1 or 2 out there, of course.)

When America was (well, still is) the world's market for goods, they sent jobs out of the country to produce goods for America.

Yet now that China is becoming a rising market for goods, American workers are still being excluded from jobs that cater to that market. (That is, unless you're a chicken farmer.)

H1B programs are being abused to bring in foreign workers specifically to replace American workers.

And globalists wonder why they're doing double overtime to defend free trade?

Those who argue that American workers are not being outright excluded from the global market should stop for a moment to ask themselves why America's trade deficit is so high. How high?

http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/Trade_Deficit.htm

$497 billion, of which $252 billion was oil. That's a $245 billion trade deficit if you factor out oil.

Globalists continue to try to lecture America about the evils of tariffs. Prices will go up. Trade will go down. Aside from the fact that trade went down only a little more than the nation's GDP went down during the years of Smoot-Hawley, there is another problem with this phobia against tariffs:

Prices will go up, as a direct result of globalism. Not only that, but globalism is responsible for the continued devaluation of the dollar. This much is understood by the experts: http://www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/1999/9910.html

Globalism also contributes to the national debt. Particularly, the foreign-held portion. This is all known facts among those who know economics:
http://industryweek.com/articles/u-s-_free_trade_policy_causes_trade_deficits_federal_debt_25366.aspx?ShowAll=1

The global economy is rigged to discriminate against Americans. The trade deficit screams that fact quite loudly. The H1B scandals scream that quite loudly.

This is why America is rebelling against globalism. It is human nature to rebel against that which discriminates against you.

Welcome to reality.

March 22, 2012

At what point does America decide it has no more use for the ongoing plague of police gangs?

It seems the police are more interested in going after Occupy protesters or journalists than protecting us from criminals.

In fact, one man died in Berkeley at the hands of an intruder because the police wouldn't answer his 911 call for help... because the police were guarding a bank from Occupy protesters.

The police are taking possession of military grade hardware (http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-05/news/30476833_1_armored-vehicles-military-equipment-police-forces) to fight against... what?

We need to come up with a different model for law enforcement that doesn't have American citizens getting their asses kicked by a police force that makes the Soviet Union's firepower look laughable in comparison.

March 21, 2012

Offshoring, and how it's making the third world a better place.

http://www.ecouterre.com/did-jcpenney-renege-on-promise-to-compensate-bangladesh-factory-fire-victims/

Did JCPenney Renege on Promise to Compensate Bangladesh Factory Fire Victims?

JCPenney has allegedly backed out of negotiations to compensate the families of victims killed at a Bangladesh factory fire in December, according to the International Labor Rights Forum. The big-box retailer is one of eight U.S. brands—including Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, Calvin Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger—that manufactures its products at That’s It Sportswear, a garment factory just north of the capital of Dhaka. The fire, which broke out on the ninth and 10th floors of the multistory complex, killed 30 people and injured dozens—a result of blocked exits meant to control workers’ movements. It’s a situation eerily reminiscent of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy in New York City a century ago.

March 21, 2012

WOAH!! Someone please help me understand how this got hidden by a jury?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002443782#post3 (the one by akentrepreneur)

I didn't see any spam there, just a reference to a Firefox plugin. I saw advice on how to beat ISP censorship. I didn't see any personal attacks or Republican trolling. (Although, I can't get to <website deleted> for some reason, so I dunno what's on there.)

What am I missing here? How did this post violate DU's rules? I would have posted almost the same thing.

March 20, 2012

Men's Rights Advocate (MRA) groups and the recent GOP madness?

Any idea on how they're taking this? I for one am a lone wolf MRA'er and I hope nobody in the MRA movement respects the GOP after this.

I would question the motives of any MRA'er who does not despise the GOP after what Limbaugh lit off this last month. Of course the GOP has been building up to this for decades, but all remnants of excuses died in February. Any MRAer who supports the GOP isn't in it for equality. Which is why I'm still a lone wolf: I don't trust them as a group to stop and say "Keep your war against women out of my clubhouse."