The next JFK...

I, too, know people quite well who must take what are now VERY expensive prescription drugs (I'm an old guy, and so I know a lot of 'old' people). I also have German friends who are absolutely appalled at how much we Americans are charged for drugs.

This is coming straight off the top of my head, Te, but would it be possible for you or your spouse to fly to Europe for a couple of days and get prescriptions filled there maybe three or four times a year (get the doctors to write the prescriptions in special ways to allow more quantity than usual)? I know it sounds stupid, but you might actually save a hell of a lot of money over and above the cost of the flights, hotels, etc.

I must admit that it is exactly this kind of obscene bullshit that makes us on the Right wither into silence in our debates with liberals. There is no (NO) excuse for these PREDATORY pricing practices. Big Pharma screws Americans to death, simply because they CAN. They should be able to make a reasonable profit, but what they've done to prescription prices in the past ten years is criminal! We Americans are forced to subsidize prescription drugs for the rest of the f*cking PLANET, and that is also criminal!

Honestly, if I were someone of power in the Democrat Party, I would make a very visible effort toward reaching out to both the Senate and President Trump and pushing toward a solution to the prescription drug horror that we have in this country instead of making an ass out of myself continuing to try to prove that "the Russians hacked the election for Trump".... You know... that "catch more flies with honey" thing....

 

I don't know why the forum software double-posted my last submission (it didn't do anything for a while....).

Another idea -- and maybe a lot better than flying to Europe -- to to MEXICO instead! Why didn't I think of that in the first place?! When I lived in El Paso, Tx., I knew a lot of people who saw Mexican doctors, Mexican dentists, and got their prescriptions filled in Mexican pharmacies. Of course, back then, the costs on both sides of the border were much, much less.

But you could go to a large city like Juarez (across from El Paso), or maybe a smaller city where it wouldn't be such a gigantic pain in the ass to get back and forth, like Del Rio, or Eagle Pass, or Laredo, Texas. You could fly into San Antonio pretty inexpensively on either Southwest Airlines, or Frontier, and then drive -- but make damn sure you have insurance for driving a rental car in Mexico before you go (if you go). You wouldn't believe the horror stories.

Anyway, I'm off topic. What would JFK do about stratospheric drug prices run by Big Pharma? We'll never know. And if any prominent Democrat candidate comes out as a strong advocate for busting Big Pharma, they'll turn on him or her and spend whatever it takes to crush their campaign(s)....

 

WRONG on ALL counts!

 

Been there, done that!

Yes, it is literally cheaper to fly overseas and have a prescription filled than it is to cover the cost of the copays. Fortunately there are also compassionate doctors who are willing to write prescriptions for up to a year's worth of medications that are not opioids.

I have no problem with the concept of reasonable profit and I am of the belief that since the government of We the People are both providing and protecting the patent that We the People should also be able to REGULATE said profit while the patent in still in effect.

This issue should be one of the primary factors in the 2020 election IMO.

 

Which is exactly why we now have ActBlue to stop that kind of greedy corporate purchasing of the outcome of elections. Literally all of the Progressives funded their campaigns via ActBlue and did not take any corporate donations at all. ActBlue actually OUTRAISED the corporate funds in 2018. It could do the same again in 2020.

 

Every Yang needs a Ying to keep things in proper balance. Of all the Democrat Candidates he seems to be the most thoughtful and certainly has laid out his positions in a very thoughtful way. He has many positions that I think most Americans can agree or at least compromise on. I do believe he has good points on Utilities Grid Modernization Race to the Top, Quantum Computing and Encryption Standards , Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices, Revive the Office of Technology Assessment , Extend Daylight Saving Time All Year ,Relocate Federal Agencies , Control The Cost of Higher Education, Teach Life Skills Education in ALL High Schools, Regulate Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies, Rebuild American Infrastructure and Tort Reform.

I disagree with Yang on some of the following issues as they erode States Rights. I know many many believe that the Federal Government's power should exceed the States power. I believe the States should have control over who gets Restoration of Voting Rights., Selection of how Electors are appointed to the Electoral College, Voter Registration, Gerrymandering of Districts, Ranked Voting, Teacher's Salaries, LBGTQ Rights, Abortion Rights, Incarceration of Criminals, Regulation of All State Public Servants and any other positions that would infringe on States Rights. We may not all agree on how States may be run, but, it seems to work for what the citizens of that State have voted for.

Seeing that the Democrat Party is leaning more and more towards Socialism and Communism it would only make sense that a nice Chinese person like Andrew Yang would have the prescription for undermining our countries values. Pandering to certain groups and feeding the masses the opioid's of FREE stuff seems like a very dangerous path to be headed down. Without going into great depth here are a few positions I disagree with him on.

Contraception and Abortion for all - The government will have the right to dispense birth control and if a woman goes off the reservation then the government can control weather a woman should be or shouldn't receive a free abortion.

If a woman has a child it will be covered by Medicare for all. Already a system that is barely on life support.

Paid Family Leave - I guess ALL employers will be required to pay for 9 months of family bonding time. I wonder how the start-up and small companies feel about this. It would make me not want to hire any woman who still was young enough to be in her child bearing years.

Assistance for Single Mothers - Should be called The Reward for Bad or Stupid Behavior Act.

Early Childhood Education for All - we can color code their uniforms, so that all will know, at what stage of indoctrination they are at.

Increase Teachers Salary's - Here we have a case of "if I get you more money you will teach what we want you to teach". All good socialists believe in the indoctrination of its teachers from pre-school through college.

I find Andrews views on Statehood for a corrupt, mismanaged and dependent welfare state as Puerto Rico as classic case of pandering to a heavy Democrat base. The same can be said for Washington D.C.. Couple that with voting age 16 year olds, who are altruistic, and you have a solid case for gerrymandering.

I prefer Trumps plan for illegal immigration and reform to be far superior to Yang's.

So that's the Ying of things. Good topic though.

 

You said you wanted another JFK but when I pointed out all his policy that democrats of today would recoil at you shifted to saying you want someone with JFK appeal not policy so in essence you are saying you want a demagogue to get excited about and blindly follow. You are about enthusiasm not policy.

 

Mmm. I remain very suspicious of "advocacy groups", Te. To a Conservative, an org like "ActBlue" seems to be a bit out in "the wild blue yonder", but to liberals, a lot of Right-wing groups are met with the same skepticism.... I am trying to apply a litmus test of, "What would JFK do?" But, that's futile because the United States is not (NOT) the country we were in the 1960's. Too bad....

We do appear to be solidly agreed on Big Pharma, however! Here's another example of how we get screwed not only by Big Pharma but also by these damned health insurance companies. JUST YESTERDAY, I was having a dentist's prescription for a pain pill called "Flurbiprofen" filled at Walgreen's -- and guess what? "Oh, we're sorry, sir, but Flurbiprofen isn't included in your supplemental insurance company's FORMULARY... so you'll have to pay full price...." So, not only do these insurance companies take your money for the cost of medicine itself, and impose "deductibles", but there's an amazing number of medicines that they simply refuse to cover at all -- for NO reason that I can discover!

Makes me madder than hell... Flurbiprofen is an IMPROVED form of Ibuprofen, commonly prescribed for inflammation associated with dental problems. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flurbiprofen . My German friends cannot believe it! "A Zahnartzt (dentist) prescribed this and your medicine prescription insurance does not cover it -- AT ALL?!" And my meek reply is something like, "Yeah, it's because I'm a dumb-ass American that they can get away with doing this...."

You may make a liberal out of me yet, but until I CAN see Andrew Yang rise in the Democrat Party's ranks, I must remain skeptical.

 

You are entitled to your vacuous and misinformed opinion but you do not get to dictate what you erroneously believe to be the thread topic. However you are welcome to start your own thread and make it about what you want it be.

Have a nice day!

 

Ouch squared! Not only did you have the dental pain but the GREED OBSESSED health insurers DOUBLED DOWN on your pain by making you pay for it out of pocket!

That seriously sucks!

FTR ActBlue is NOT an advocacy group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActBlue

Essentially ActBlue is a nonprofit ALTERNATIVE means of campaign fundraising WITHOUT the candidate needing to compromise any integrity by obtaining endorsements from Special Interests that come with strings attached to the funding.

It won't be me that is turning you into a liberal, it will be those German friends of yours.

But to put this into perspective being a fiscal conservative does NOT mean that you believe that corporations should be entitled to GOUGE hardworking Americans. Upholding the right of corporations to make a reasonable profit is something that everyone can agree upon. Only the extremists believe that corporations can do no wrong. Anyone who has ever worked in Corporate America knows that corporations REQUIRE regulations BECAUSE of things that they have done wrong in the past. We would be choking on our air and being poisoned by our water if corporations were not regulated in this regard. Now they are RIPPING us off and need to have REGULATIONS that impose reasonable profits to prevent this greed obsessed gouging. Since that is what is best for America as a whole that is something that all fiscal conservatives can support without compromising any of their principles or beliefs.

 

Problem with a person like JFK is that FDR and TRuman exposed themselves by making public their tax returns.

JFK called BS on that and never turned his in.

So we have the hypocrite factor if a person is like JFK.

Oh, I voted for JFK

To be blunt with posters, as a still living president he was not impressive. And as a loyal Democrat he scared the hell out of me and other democrats since it looked like we would have a nuclear war with him as president. HE was not killed for creating a good impression.

 

Mr.Seresto,

Democrats have poisoned the minds of American. It clearly is expressed on this forum with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Trump.

Say if you can get rid of the man, and I mean actually get rid of him, keep this up. This is the purpose of the resistance. But you know 100 percent certainty the Senate will block each move made by Democrats. Give it up and see who you actually can elect. See I gave great advice.

 

1. Yes
2. Yes

When my sister and I were little and mum tore a stick of gum in half and gave half to each of us, "His half is bigger than mine". Mum would say, "Give her your half". I didn't understand why it mattered because she did the best she could, but I complied so I didn't get in trouble. After trading her pieces she'd exclaim, "His piece is still bigger".

You have grown up in a world of this type of equality. It's not equality. It's some twisted idea of equality at any cost. Theories like this only bog down the whole system with complaints and tie up the courts for nothing.

Someone has to make the money to make it worth their time and investment. If that was you, would you give all the profit, or most of it to the few remaining employees or spend it on those who did no work for you? I think, if you consider your stance, you will see that you would likely complain that you are losing money and would close down the business and get into something else to make money.

That's why socialism doesn't work. The rich can get out of a destructive country and move into one where folks welcome them because they want a job, a roof over their head, and food on the table. We have no right to anything. That's why we work for our money.

Oh, and don't bother saying the business owners are the greedy ones. If they are, two wrongs don't make a right, so there is no sense in using force on them.

There are other ways that don't destroy a nation. And, yes, I'd like to see things change some, but this isn't the way.

 

Right now the GREED OBSESSED Wall Street Casino Bosses are DESTROYING our nation!

That is an INDISPUTABLE FACT!

The existing system is BROKEN and causing massive harm to We the People.

Tens of millions of hardworking Americans like myself are sick and tired of the FAILURE of the GREED OBSESSED Wall Street Casino Bosses and what they have done to our nation. We the People want to TAKE BACK our nation and ENSURE that LIVING WAGES are paid to everyone who works and NO ONE is denied the opportunities that they deserve.

There is no justification for this GREED OBSESSION and those who support it WITHOUT being the BENEFICIARIES of that greed are just fooling themselves that they will "get their turn" because that is NEVER going to happen for them.

You have NO viable alternatives to offer. NONE whatsoever!

Andrew Yang does!

I will stick with Yang until someone else comes up with something better.

We have seen how SOCIAL DEMOCRACIES are thriving in the rest of the civilized nations. That is where Yang is heading. Hundreds of millions of people are a lot happier living in those nations than we are here under the OPPRESSIVE YOKE of the GREED OBSESSED Wall Street Casino Bosses.

Social Democracies are the FUTURE and nobody has come up with a better viable alternative.

 

You are the one that said democrats need another JFK. I merely pointed out the fact that JFK the original would not be welcome in today's democratic party. Sorry that upsets you so but it's fact and you may want to look for another leader from the past to emulate. Che perhaps?

 

I wasn't nearly old enough to vote in 1960, but I remember JFK's presidency well, even as a twelve year-old.

I am guilty of speculating and conjecturing about JFK, I suppose, but in the decades since, it is clear to me that he would not have committed the kind of deceptive, devious fraud that Lyndon Johnson was guilty of by ramming through his "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution to get us up to our earlobes in Vietnam. JFK knew a lot about war, obviously, from having commanded an attack vessel in WWII... Johnson was little more than a desk-driving bureaucrat, with his nose up Frankie Roosevelt's ass, given the rank of Lt. Commander in the Navy Reserve in 1940, and later given a Silver Star for being on a 'reconnoiter' flight over the Pacific Ocean... JFK, however, fought and damn near died in it.... Guess it's fairly clear what I thought about Johnson.

As far as 'nuclear war'... well. You will remember that Khrushchev and Castro thought JFK was just a rich punk who would do NOTHING if the USSR installed missile bases in Cuba, "90 miles away" from the U. S. Yeah, things were REALLY tense for a while as you know, but as I remember it, JFK was not belligerant and not 'saber-rattling' at anyone... but he stood his ground and demanded the removal of the Russian missiles. The rest is history, and I cannot fault JFK for his momentous stance against those entrenched opponents. Really, can you?

Now, I hate to think of what today's radical Democrat candidates would do if confronted with the same situation, and we're damned lucky that it didn't happen while we were saddled with Comrade Obama or else we'd probably be having to read and write Russian by this point. But I'm bloviating now... suffice to say, I admired JFK, and in my gut, I would dearly love to see another president like him -- Republican or Democrat.

The Silver Star Medal, unofficially the Silver Star, is the United States Armed Forces's third-highest personal decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.

 

JFKs policies would not be acceptable to the democrat party today.

 

Your insipid and vacuous posts have disqualified you from any further meaningful interaction on the topic as far as I am concerned.

Have a nice day!

 

You are disparaging Obama WITHOUT any reasonable basis for doing so, Cy, while you are IGNORING the mountain of hard evidence that the BLOTUS is doing EXACTLY what Putin wants that is in the best interests of RUSSIA and directly HARMS America.

Why the double standard?

As a fiscal conservative the MATH speaks for itself. Clinton lead the nation to a historic period of peace and prosperity that actually REDUCED the deficit. Then along came the Bush/Cheney regime whose illegal warmongering and fiscal MALFEASANCE effectively drove the national debt through the roof and then WRECKED the economy. Obama managed to RESCUE the economy and put it back on the positive track that it is on today.

What I hold against Obama was his FAILURE to rollback the Republican/Libertarian fiscal malfeasance policies that are causing so much pain to hardworking Americans today that we have discussed in earlier posts.

So yes, we NEED a LEADER who can clearly understand these fiscal policies and knows what to do to reverse them and put us ALL back on the road to peace and prosperity. Right now Andrew Yang is the best candidate to make that happen IMO.

 

In other words I handed you your ass and your running from the room in tears.
"When debate is lost slander becomes the tool of the loser"

 

Kindly refrain from projecting your own shortcomings onto others.

 

Doesn't EVERYONE want what is best for their nation?

 

Did I miss it, or did you not actually say who the guy is?

 

(*Sigh!*) I loathe and despise Barack Hussein Obama, Te, for many reasons -- and the hard, sharp, glaring contrast between a NOTHINGNESS like Obama and a man like John F. Kennedy is part of why I yearn so much for another American president like Kennedy!

I suppose we'll never agree on this, but if you are objective and factual, eventually you confront the unavoidable truth that it was neither Idiot "W" Bush, nor Idiot "Messiah" Obama, but the Federal Reserve banking cartel that rescued the economy (as you put it). The same 'guiding hand' TOLD both Bush and Obama what to do concering the economy -- mainly -- to stay the hell out of it and let the almighty-god Federal Reserve System run ALL of it.

The 'track' the economy on today is the 'track' of a gigantic fraud-balloon, floating along aimlessly after years of 'rescues' given to the too-big-to-fail, 'QE's, squashed interest rates, an 'Operation Twist', and running up a 'balance sheet' of toxic, corporate CRAP that has towered to almost FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS! You call that a "rescue"...?! Unless you're a stock market gambler, uh, not so much....

What have recent presidents done for somebody like me? "W" Bush's 2008 Tax Rebate thing gave me about six hundred bucks. Trump's tax 'reform' last year gave me about a grand. Rabbit turds.... But Obama? He gave me nothing but the sickening reminder that a person can be a worthless parasite collecting free stuff from the government in many kinds of subsidies and welfare handouts -- and still be able to VOTE!

Back to JFK.... I'm delusional in thinking that we'll ever have a leader again of his calibre in what's left of my lifetime, and I pity all the Millennials and Gen Z people because of that! I look at this sickening rout of wanna-be socialist idiots that have wrecked the Democrat Party today and, yes, at this point, we can agree, it certainly looks like Andrew Yang is the very best of a very bad lot.

Reality? The Democrats will put up a ticket of two pandering politicians who offer clueless American parasites the most 'free stuff'... and that surely won't include Andrew Yang. So, I'll probably end up voting for Trump again, but I won't be doing cheers and handsprings....

 

This is a very interesting discussion.

It's heartening to see people on the Left and the Right who are trying to think for themselves, and not just taking a reflexive my-side-good-your-side-bad stance.

Several people have expressed despair at the state the of the US. "Nothing will change ..." ... with the reasons given variously as 'the establishment won't let it happen' or 'your side's voters are too stupid' ...

I believe this is not necessarily so. There is no Divine Providence overlooking the human race, not even the US. So we may be headed for some sort of disaster, or compounded complex of disasters.

But ... the reality is that there is widespread unhappiness, and not just in the US, with the state of politics to day. Trump's winning the Republican nomination was a slap in the face to the Republican established leadership. Bernie's popularity is the symmetric development on the other side. In Britain, a majority of the population voted to reject their political leaders' advice with respect to staying in the EU -- throughout Europe 'populist' parties are forging ahead.

I'm not saying this is all good. There are worrying signs of the 1930s in some European countries. BUT ... what is clear is that large numbers of ordinary people are willing to think outside the box. We should not despair, but try to take advantage of the opportunities for new thinking.

Accident plays a big role in human history. A different kind of man than Trump -- one with Trump's virtues but not his egregious faults -- COULD have existed. It's just accident that he didn't.

There may be someone in the wings -- maybe one of the candidates mentioned above -- who will turn politics upside down, and in a good way.

What can people like us do? The people who post here are obviously unusual -- political obsessives, to a degree. Probably more informed than most. To start with, we all need to keep open minds, and not automatically reject an emerging candidate because he or she doesn't match all of our political requirements.

Although I've generally supported Republicans for the last few decades, I'm definitely going to be open to a non-Republican candidate in the future ... especially if they show they're not captive to the loonies who now seem to taking over parts of the Democratic Party. My deceased parents, who were rock-solid FDR Democrats, would be happy.

One note: I believe there is defnitely the basis for a new, realistic, constrained consensus on foreign policy, which would be embraced by ordinary people on both Left and Right, along these lines: it is NOT in the interests of the US to try to continue to play world policeman. My one bit of optimism about Mr Trump when he was elected was that he seemed to understand this, insofar as you can use the word 'understand' to describe what goes on in his head. Well, fooled again. But his good-sense observations at the time didn't do him a bit of harm among the Republican base -- whom liberals see as gung-ho militarists, when in reality -- as the people whose sons have to face the IEDs -- they are not.

Another idea for the hypothetical emerging candidate or his/her movement to think about: we cannot have de facto Open Borders. On the other hand, all decent people are uneasy about the idea of just turning our backs on the desperate people trying to escape the Central American death squads. Surely there should be some way to use American power to deal with this situation? A few billion dollars and the 82nd Airborne and a co operative government in a decent country like Costa Rica, might crafted into some sort of a solution?