The Ron Paul Thread!

[Craig de Tering]

I'm pleased that people outside the US take such an interest in US politics.

I've had an interest in US politics since seeing Reagan on TV somewhere in 1985 or so. I was 9 years old. I followed the '88 election night with my dad. Followed the '96 '00 and '04 campaigns and elections too as much as could be expected from someone more interested in partying and being wasted back then.

Plus I didn't always live so far away from the States. I lived for 20+ years in the Caribbean just a 3 hour flight from Miami. I was brought up on CBS, ABC, NBC, WarnerBrothers, Hanna-Barbera and Disney cartoons, General Mills, Kellogg's, Post, Kraft, Hellman's, Kool-Ade, Tang, G.I.Joe, Play-Doh and Tony Little Ab-Isolator infomercials ....should I go on?

Another thing is: most people outside the US have an interest simply because if the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. (Be it whether out of empathy or hate). I really REALLY miss being stateside but with all the newfangled George Orwell-style laws passed by Bush&Co. I'm just following stuff keenly from over here instead.

I tell you guys, what Bush and his cronies have done with the personal liberties of the common American since 9/11 breaks my heart. It truly pains me.

Before I heard of Ron Paul I already knew I wouldn't want any of the Republicans in the White House because all they'd do is finish putting the nails into Lady Liberty's coffin where Bush left off. I also couldn't see a Democrat because they're all over the place with their incoherent ideas. They simply don't have a vision (beyond "toning down Bush's legacy and works").
Imagine my surprise at discovering the breath of fresh air, intelligence, and good old-fashioned COMMON SENSE that is Ron Paul. As far as I'm concerned it's either him in the White House or the eventual downfall of the US of A as we remember it pre-Y2K.

If anything, the USA is seriously going bankrupt and when that happens I'm afraid America's gonna realize humans can't eat "military", can't eat "Iraq", can't eat oil and can't eat their by-then worthless Dollar bills. How do you spell "bankruptcy"? Here's how (which I previously posted), plus the 600+ overseas military bases, the constant bombing (and simultaneous rebuilding) in Iraq to the tune of half a trillion $$ a year. The Dollar's value is evaporating by 10 to 15% a year (NOT the 2% the gov't wants you to believe, that's a dirty financial trick. They don't even consider "food" and "gas" important enough to weigh into that equation.)
Heh, already the bridges are collapsing. What'll be next?
I'm gonna stop now. I just wrote myself into a depressed mood.

[Craig de Tering]

it's strange how government is failing in the US.
When it's a great success in Scandinavia.
Low unemployment, stable and strong economy, a low gap between
rich and poor. It's not perfect, but no system of government is.

True, very true. But there just this ONE BIG ISSUE I have with scandinavian governments: they're all NANNY STATES. They friggin' tell everyone what to do, what not to do. There's no space left for any sort of own initiative. I consider them the ultimate in well-executed and well-implemented communism. Hell, a Norwegian state is even called a "Kommune" :lol:
I just think their insane levels of taxation is maddening. Keep your goddamn hands out my pocket fercrissakes!

Holland is also quickly turning into the same with the exception that over here there *is* no space left to build any more roads or homes. So our gov't keeps jacking up taxes everywhere they find a hole and people can only keep on paying through the fscking nose for their cramped little house, their tiny little econo-box car and all the while you're being terrorized in the cities and towns by the criminal youths of (largely) guest-worker parents who overstayed their welcome. Even the cops don't dare touch them.
Which begs the question: what the fsck is our gov't doing with the huge amounts of money it's reaping?

The don't build roads.
They own all the country's land but constantly allocate too little land for residential development. This makes houses in Holland some of the most expensive in the world. We already have the most expensive fuel in the world. Now they've raised the VAT (sales tax), raised fuel taxes yet again, raised taxes on cars (they're not the same, you pay all on top of eachother!), raised utility prices and they're even proposing taxing plane tickets by €25 per person under the guise of being "green".
People are calling it the "Holiday tax". That's right. Spend months enduring the rat race and when you eventually decide to treat yourself and the family to a vacation *BOOM* there's the gov't again lying in wait around the corner to shake you down by the ankles.
People in houses costing more than €1Million now have to pay an extra yearly real estate tax of €20000 on average. A small run-down shed in the middle of a ghetto might start at €200K so those million euro houses are well represented with the just the middle class.

Needless to say; in the long term, I'm not staying.
[rant over, thank you for your time] :-)

[Stargazer]

it's strange how government is failing in the US.
When it's a great success in Scandinavia.
Low unemployment, stable and strong economy, a low gap between
rich and poor. It's not perfect, but no system of government is.

True, very true. But there just this ONE BIG ISSUE I have with scandinavian governments: they're all NANNY STATES. They friggin' tell everyone what to do, what not to do. There's no space left for any sort of own initiative. I consider them the ultimate in well-executed and well-implemented communism. Hell, a Norwegian state is even called a "Kommune" :lol:
I just think their insane levels of taxation is maddening. Keep your goddamn hands out my pocket fercrissakes!

I you may call it a nanny state. but the fact is that free will, speech and freedom in general is there. you can listen to what the state is telling you, or you may disregard it. It may cost you, but true freedom is only in the hands of the rich anyway. I think that this liberalist notion about absolute freedom and initiative is a illution. it dons't help that you are alowed to do everything if you can't afford to do it anyway.
I don't really care that the taxes are so high (as long as they are cept at a
humane level, as it is now) becouse I know that most of that money will be used to the better of the country. More of it could arrive to the right place, the system is by no way perfect, no system is.

And lett me have it said, it has very little to do with communism.
I actully take some offence by that. You can't compare soviet russia with Sweden or Norway.

[Craig de Tering]

That was a joke dude. I even put the smiley there. I didn't mean to offend.
I was getting carried away a bit. Read the last line...

[Zero]

I'm gonna stop now. I just wrote myself into a depressed mood.

tell me about it... I routinely curse my insatiable curiosity with history, politics, and economics. It's the worst era of all time to have such curiosity because the result of new information is always produces an even more profound sense of ultimate doom. Even worse, trying to discuss the truth results quite often in mediaeval-style backlashes - denial, anger, and practically persecution. Just look at Fox News and what it's done to people. Things are turning ugly. Probably why it's such an unpopular topic these days.

[Stargazer]

I tought you where joking, but you can never be sure.
ironi is hard on the internet.
But I share your admiration for the man, I have seen several of his promo videos on the web, and I'm impressed.

I seems to be a honest and straight forward man, a rare thing in politics, in any country.
And he has som well thought throu plans on how to repare a battered US economy.
I might not agree with him in everything he says.
but I whould happily see him becoume the next president in america.

everything is better than Bush

[llewelynt]

I think that this liberalist notion about absolute freedom and initiative is a illution.

Agreed. The neo-con idea of no-tax corporate and financial freedom is actually anarcho-capitalism. It's a sham. Conservatism in general seems to think the individual works in a vacuum. "I made MY money."
No, not by yourself you most certainly did not.

And lett me have it said, it has very little to do with communism. I actully take some offence by that. You can't compare soviet russia with Sweden or Norway.

You can't actually compare Soviet or Chinese communism with theoretical communism. Neither communism is good in my opinion, but it is a lack of understanding of Marx to say the Soviets were following his ideals exactly.

[llewelynt]

Probably why it's such an unpopular topic these days.

My father would have said that it is always an unpopular topic in polite society. Perhaps that is why he rarely mingled in polite society.

[Subtilo]

^ :lol:

I've reached a point where I simply do not wish to deal with politics (or at least keep to a minimum, fx. drunk conversations). In my late teens I was pretty active though - as a member of the now long gone youth organisation 'Rebel'. Guess the name says it all :wink:

[Zero]

:lol: I'm the complete opposite. I've reached a point where "polite conversation" can, quite frankly, kiss my bony white ass. Gangsters and criminals are taking over the world and the only thing that's letting them get away with it is all the "polite" people in the world who care more about image than the world they'll be leaving their children and mine.

Consider the following snippets and tell me what decade they belong to :

The economic, political, and social changes of the past half-century manifested themselves in a widespread clash of cultures. In an increasingly consumer-based society, leisure and pleasure were now prized over hard work and self-denial.

"Old" Culture
Emphasized Production
Character
Scarcity
Religion
Idealized the Past
Local Culture
Substance

"New" Culture
Emphasized Consumption
Personality
Abundunce
Science
Looked to the Future
Mass Culture
Image


As the average (person) in the (XXXX)s became more enamored of wealth and everyday luxuries, some began satirizing the hypocrisy and greed they observed.


Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution finds its way into the courtroom under pressure from the American South to have it banished from the classroom

Beginning in the late (xxxx), changes among working-class women filtered into middle-class society, via (xxxx) and other types of performances, so that by the (xxxx)s and (xxxx)s, young middle-class women were wearing styles and engaging in behaviours objectionable to their parents' generation. Part of the paradox of the new woman was that she flouted conventions while adhering to new standards of conformity within a rising peer culture.

The United States became more xenophobic or, at least, anti-immigrant.



Any guesses?




Click for your answer.




Now think what happened in the two decades following... economic collapse followed by the rise of Fascism. I think we need to stop being polite a little bit, perhaps, and meet reality head-on this time around, rather than repeat the mistakes made by our great, great, grandparents.

[llewelynt]

I've reached a point where "polite conversation" can, quite frankly, kiss my bony white ass.

Ewww. :lol: But thanks for the best laugh of an otherwise dreary Friday.

Indeed, the idea of civility can be noble. But, like you, I think it may no longer be warranted in the struggle against what may aptly be called the New Fascism. What is very sad to me is that someone can hear of PNAC and not smell the lingering stench of the late 1930s.

[Stargazer]

I think that this liberalist notion about absolute freedom and initiative is a illution.

Agreed. The neo-con idea of no-tax corporate and financial freedom is actually anarcho-capitalism. It's a sham. Conservatism in general seems to think the individual works in a vacuum. "I made MY money."
No, not by yourself you most certainly did not.

And lett me have it said, it has very little to do with communism. I actully take some offence by that. You can't compare soviet russia with Sweden or Norway.

You can't actually compare Soviet or Chinese communism with theoretical communism. Neither communism is good in my opinion, but it is a lack of understanding of Marx to say the Soviets were following his ideals exactly.

the total emphasis on the individual and it's "freedoms is a source to a lot of problems in modern society. Freedom is in the hands of the man who can afford it.

And , you are speaking to a man who tried to read das capital at the age of 14, and got a bad conscience when he failed to understand.
I know neither soviet or china has ever been communist.
I just made the comparison to make myself understood.

[llewelynt]

Freedom is in the hands of the man who can afford it.

And even then, that man is a slave to maintaining the ability to afford the perceived freedom!

[Stargazer]

/\
true

[Zero]

I look at it like this - if we were born savage, in the wild, we would still be slaves to having to feed and shelter ourselves, take care of our families, etc, so saying one is a "slave" to their work is really something that is built into nature. What matters is that people who do that work in a collective society get their fair share.