I was talking about a time when trade was freer, money was sounder, taxes were lower, the government was much smaller, and when women were respected. That was way before the advent of public bathrooms without borders. Again with the revisionist, magical thinking of a time that never existed. Trade was never free and we dominated the game board, setting the rules. I think that's what you miss. Reagan ushered in the destruction of the middle class, slashing top marginal taxes from 70% to 50% and then, in ’86, to 28%. No one was complaining about taxes except for the industrialists/anarchists on the right who wanted it all for themselves. For the love of god, give me the tax rates before that fool became president. We were doing just fine, thank you. This country wasn’t founded on the principles of aristocracies yet now we have them. Meat companies tell governors and the CDC what they can do. Just like China with their "little princes", we have our own fiefdoms and power centers acting independently of the federal government. Let’s face it folks, we’re already Balkanized and a failed state. Reagan nearly tripled the debt of all presidents combined before him and put it on a credit card. Bush added over 800,000 to the government payroll. And women, were considered second class citizens who were to get pregnant and do the cooking. Ah, the good old days of white, male privilege. All the best, Nonoise |
Oligarchs around the world are laughing their asses off reading this thread.
Especially the "patriotic" ones.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Colonial Americans were denied the ability to manufacture lots of things which had to be bought from England. When Washington went to his inauguration, he had to seek out a German tailor who immigrated here since we weren't allowed to make fancy clothes for ourselves.
The Boston Tea Party, which ignited The Revolutionary War for our independence, was our first act of protest against a corporation- The Biritsh East India Trading Company. It went into an exclusive contract with the King of England. Kind of like exclusive, no bid contracts that are done today.
We were forbidden to procure our own tea and the only option was to buy from British East India and they got to sell it tax free while what we had on hand was assessed a higher tax than before.. Privateers and merchants were considered pirates and buccaneers, scoundrels to be hunted and stopped.
Not much has changed as we tend to forget the whys and hows of our history. It's gotten so bad that some think they can buy their patriotism just like sinners think they can buy their way into heaven.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Thank You everyone for your replies and this discussion. I feel like this site has many very knowledgable and smart people; far more knowledgable than I.
Really what concerns me is the Chinese Government and their military and economic strength; it’s somewhat scary. I wonder how much of their strength is due to Americans buying and supporting them economically. Again, I am pretty ignorant to all of this and was looking for insight from many knowledgable people With differing views, which I think I got here.
I think it would be nice if someday we drop the “Chinese” Americans, or “African” Americans or whatever and just say Americans. If you are here in America, and you are a citizen or applying for citizenship, you are American, plain and simple. Anything else causes division in my opinion. The racism against Americans with Chinese ethnic backgrounds is disgusting and there is no room for it in OUR country. We are all Americans and we are in this together. Should be the United, not Divided, States of America, and unless you are Indian, all of our ancestors were immigrants.
I think it’s time for Americans to do their best to support small and local business. Maybe Americans could do with less and be willing to pay a little more in order to not empower the Chinese government.
I’m not sure what the answer is or if there is one. Scary times we are in. +1 Until we can divest from and destroy the stranglehold American companies have on our politicians, we won't be able to bring back our manufacturing base. As far as they're concerned, we're now a money laundering country for the well-to-do. They take and hide their earnings overseas to avoid taxes and using SWFs, reinvest back in our country buying Treasury notes, bonds, etc. And, we dummies pay them the interest. What a racket. Funny thing to say since it’s the US, not China, currently engaged in unilateral and illegal wars with 7 countries, and has a spy agency that has been actively orchestrating regime change in dozens of countries, including China, for decades. You should worry about the US imperialism, that is draining our wealth dry, while neglecting our infrastructures. Haven’t you heard that two dams in Michigan just collapsed in the last 48 hours? Is that China’s fault? Our government is addicted to destruction. It has forgotten how to build.
Unlike the US imperialism, China’s rise has been peaceful, while sharing its wealth to lift up poorer nations by helping them modernize and becoming self-sustained, which are keys to peace and prosperity. The US literally invaded China and burned down their palace, and yet, many Americans look up to the US gov as the standard bearer of humanitarianism. Decades of corporate media brainwashing is powerful.
Newsflash, the International Criminal Court has approved the war crimes investigation against the US gov. We seem to perfect the worse kinds of ourselves. All the best, Nonoise |
The problem with capitalism is that at some time, you're gonna run out of your parents money. 😄
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Like I said: a lotta rich people are having a good laugh.
Take away your "ologies' and "isms" and you find a class of oligarchs in every nation on earth. They are never going away. We happen to have somewhat beneficent ones here but really that's all there is to it.
Right before our very eyes we are bearing witness to the end of the great American Experiment. We are well on our way to being Russia Lite: less fulfilling but half the accountability! Right now there is a cult of anarchists masquerading as a political party hell bent on doing just that and it's almost working.
Tell me more about the commies if it makes you feel better. I need a good laugh too.
All the best,
Nonoise |
As has been noted, thanks @ghasley , for that wonderful post and thanks @b_limo ,for starting this thread.
Thank goodness it hasn't ran off the rails but I do see some spikes and ties coming loose. 😄
And thanks, @ebm for what I see as the funniest thing you've posted.
Buying from good people is about as succinct as needs be.
All the best,
Nonoise |
“I don't really mind anyone's distrust of China and the men who run it, but they are no different than what we do here,”
Audiogon is an American based enterprise isn’t it? Anyway,
we are free in America to say things like this but it couldn’t be more wrong. This is truly offensive. Did you feel the same way when Trump said it of our country? That we're not innocent and kill people like Russia and China? I doubt it. And again, +1 @ghasley on your thoughts on Saudi Arabia. They attacked us on 9/11 and shoot up our military bases here, in America, and butcher an American resident and journalist and Trump and Pompeo bypass Congress to send them $8 Billion in arms in what looks like a modern day Iran/Contra affair. Considering their atrocious human rights record, should we stop buying their oil? Or would that be too much an inconvenience for the winter patriots around here? All the best, Nonoise |
I never said they had the means to test it early on. I said they found out it came from Europe. Google is your friend. You do have friends, right? Keep up, stay current.
All the best,
Nonoise
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A fully informed public is essential for any democracy.
Darn those founding fathers for believing that!
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Analysis of the infections show that we got the virus from Europe. It may be a virus but it's been broken down to it's constituent parts and those parts show where it has traveled. New York was a major depository for the incoming virus from Europe.
Some of it came directly from China but it wasn't the lions share. It seems a lot of this China bashing is being done to deflect blame from the way it was handled here.
I firmly believe that investigations and panels need to be empowered to get to the bottom of this negligence, blame assigned, and prison sentences meted out to those who willfully ignored this, played it down, profited off it, and killed tens of thousand who need not have died. Kind of like a modern day Nuremberg trial.
I also believe that the death sentence be a viable option for the worst offenders. Before any snowflakes lose their sh*t over this, bear in mind just what they did, to us.
All the best,
Nonoise
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The actual count has been under reported. Use your head. We've only tested 5-15% of the country. Epidemiologists are trained in the discipline of forecasting and can model somewhat accurate models that usually turn out to be under valued. It's why they always model a spread (low to high) and the high estimate is that it's 50% under reported.
As to what reason they would have to down-play the numbers, just ask Jared Kushner. He believed it would spook the markets, putting the brakes on the way he and his kind make money. Also, Trump felt it would hurt his chances at reelection.
Ironically, both were right. The stock market crashed to pre 2008 levels and Trump's favorables are now in the 37-39 point range. You can't win the presidency unless you're about 49%.
You can start discounting my posts as well. Some here think they're overvalued anyway.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Snowflake alert!
Deletions have started. |
One gets a email notification from Admin that one's post was removed for one of the 4 only reasons that turns out not to apply to the removal.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Since 96% of a great ape's genome is similar to humans, are they a failed bio weapon, or an improvement gone unrecognized?
Oh, and populating your rant with the word "fact" doesn't make them facts.
All the best,
Nonoise |
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>>>>>This thread certainly brings the US haters out of the woodwork. Canadian, per chance? 🤗
Au contraire mon frère. I love my country. I love it so much that I hate it when some try to subvert it and destroy it from within. All the best, Nonoise |
Looking at the number of posts this morning, is it safe to assume it is raining in most of your localities? Naw, it's beautiful here, in L.A. I'm just stuck indoors taking it easy from my vitrectomy/cataract surgery. Funny thing is, my vision is almost 100% recovered the second day after while my first one, which was just the cataract surgery, took a good 6 weeks before my vision was crystal clear. Because of this stupid virus, I had to wait 3 months between surgeries and it was a PITA to get around with just one good eye, especially when using the stairs as my depth of field was off. All the best, Nonoise |
We really don't have a say in the matter.
China's rise was foresaw decades ago. The Pentagon, DOD, and many think tanks predicted they would be the next big thing. It's why industrialists here, in America, started the transition of moving manufacturing overseas. 2.5 billion new customers in a virgin market was too tempting to pass up on.
Meanwhile, here, we were told workers made too much and unions were a bad thing. Pollution controls were cutting into profits along with the benefits and medical coverage they had to pay.
The truth is, it's easier to make and sell in the same place. They'd make even bigger profits by paying slave wages to underdeveloped people who were easily trained and better educated than back home in the states. With no pollution controls, they could despoil huge regions of China and not pay a penalty. And they'd still rake it in. And so they do.
Meanwhile, they spin the tale of jobs being stolen, Commies encroaching on our turf, and how we need to buy American when these industrialist can give a rat's ass about it all. They'll do business with anyone. Remember, it was Phil Knight of Nike who moved operations to Cambodia and contracted with the Khymer Rouge, starting the normalization of relations of one of the biggest butchers in modern history, just to make a buck. Until then, they were off limits.
You see, workers in the Philippines were catching on and wanted better wages. They also didn't like having their women laborers getting raped for organizing and being fired for getting pregnant. Operations were moved to China and when that got too expensive, they moved further east to Cambodia.
And don't forget NBC owner Jack Welch, who while on vacation in India, noticed that they all spoke English and again, were better educated, and would work for a lot less. So he abandoned operations in American and moved all phone operations there.
We were behind the arming of Germany before WWII and China before the Korean War (Lend-Lease). A good read would be Eddie Rickenbacker's autobiography. He was the ambassador to both countries, saw what was going on, reported back what was going to happen, and was told that he was wrong and to back off. Can't get in the way of making money.
All the best,
Nonoise
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Thanks for that. I've always been lousy with directions.
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T o return to the original question. I am not buying anything unless I must.
As far as I am concerned the era of consumerism is over. If not over, it will be very tamped down. The longer people follow common sense and isolate, the more apparent it will be that it's not that big a deal to go out and buy something every 15 minutes. Talk about Pavlovian conditioning. No one in the 18th century needed an adman to tell them what to buy. All the best, Nonoise |
It's one of the tenets of American Exceptionalism.
It's okay if we do it.
Might makes right.
History is written by the winners (or is it now okay to say whiners?)
We're white, they're not.
We're christian, they're not.
Really, just pick any reason nowadays and it will suffice to the addle brained masses.
If we can eventually unwrap our heads of this gang banger mentality, things would improve and the beatings would stop. Looks like we have a long ways to go. One look at some of these posts shows how conditioned some are to their foxholes and bunker mentalities.
All the best,
Nonoise |
Someone is pushing almost 100000 dead in a matter of a few months (the largest death toll in their history) and some call it a hoax and others want to pretend the threat no longer exists.
Hint: it is not China I’m referring to. Kind of like with our incarceration rate, we’re 4% of world population and have nearly 20% of reported infections, worldwide. Please, tell me how we’re handling this better than others. All the best, Nonoise |
If we used those same algorithms for Covid-19 how many do we have? 300K? 350K? More? According to the recent study by Columbia University, that’s about where they figure the actual count is. On a lighter note, Reuters just published studies that show that due to the rampant idiocy of the American public, fully 25% will refuse to take a vaccine for this should one be made. You can’t make this stuff up. All the best, Nonoise |
@mapman , sounds like you got the same one that kicked my butt for five straight days. I've been getting flu shots for over 16 years and they always worked, except for that second to last one. I felt like a kid getting it for the first time.
Like you, if proven safe, I'm taking it. This is no ordinary flu, but something new and after seeing how it attacks not just the lungs but major organs, the blood supply, etc., I'm not taking any chances.
All the best,
Nonoise
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For the 16+ years I've been taking flu vaccine shots, only once did I get the flu. All the other times nothing more than a runny nose for half a day or a very slight cough. That was the extent of it. Incredibly efficacious save for the one flu I got two years ago.
Turns out it was that strain that couldn't be reproduced in a lab cheaply. Unlike most vaccines that could be produced in an egg, this one had to be done with actual human tissue. which is very costly and time consuming. They passed on it.
But hey, if you're into conspiracy theories, join MC Yammer 'cause every post of his is Yammer Time!
Da da da da, wah--wah
Da da da da, wah--wah
Can't touch this
All the best,
Nonoise |
Frank is showing himself to be the poster child for the need for better mental health care. Radical, right wing propaganda is all he reads and knows. He's the old guy shaking his fist at the passing clouds.
Really folks, it was correctly pointed out that fat cat capitalists moved our industries overseas and joined forces with the communists, who use slave labor tactics. Save your diatribes for children and the knuckle draggers over at 4chan and reddit. That's more your speed and style.
And uberwaltz hit the nail on the head. On another forum site I noted that all that Rump is doing will go a long way towards an insanity defense once he's arrested after losing the election. He'll try it and will flip on everyone to get a reduced sentence.
Look at his past, public record. It's what he does. He's ratted out others for better treatment. He has a rap sheet that would make real criminals blush. And some here worship the ground he walks on. Like Howard Stern said: he despises you. He wouldn't let you into his country club, or touch his car.
I sincerely hope he dies in prison while the courts and his family fight over his crumbling, crooked empire. Anyone associated with him will be fair game and it will be most entertaining to watch. Tons of his "loyal" followers will abandon him and move on to the next idiot that speaks their language.
All the best,
Nonoise |
How many times must one be reminded that this is not a both sides issue? It’s not both sides at all when there’s about 75% of Americans on one side and an utterly insane, anti science, anti math, anti American faction on the other.
And faction is the correct word/term. Our founding fathers warned us of when a political party develops self interest above the needs of the country and becomes a "faction", and ceases to be a representative party.
Don’t fall for it folks.
All the best,
Nonoise |
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We need to stop worrying about China and concentrate on our own. In Pennsylvania, Republicans who contracted Covid-19 only told their own party members and for over week sat on committees to reopen businesses. They flat out refused to inform any Democratic members until after they passed legislation.
That's patently insane behavior but hey, it's just both sides and clickbait, right?
As for a war with China, we'd get our asses kicked badly. We might win but the losses would be astronomical.
All the best,Nonoise |
At least they look human. Back here, in the states, some just use their livestock. |
Now I know why mullets are so popular back there. It's for when someone is taking too long and you need it to yank them away. |
Too bad I missed out on the deleted threads. They can be quite revealing of the person who penned them. |
