Hello and good to know you know my home town so far Honestly ... First of all, I always have to laugh at this talk of socialism and communism in the US. Sure ... the cold war with the "Empire of Evil" as Reagan called it, apparently still sits deep in US society ... but what is often called socialist in the US is in reality "social" and that is something other. Our economic system, for example, which we have had since the re-establishment in 1949, is called "social market economy" and that is not socialist ... apart from the fact that it was developed by conservative politicians who were all but for 110% sure not socialist. Likewise ... health insurance, NHS, pensions, etc. are grouped under the term social system. When I explained this to someone in the USA in another context and said social system, he immediately looked skeptical because social smells like socialist to him. For you Americans, that means the welfare system ... You mentioned our health care system and yes, that is completely different from the one in the USA. Often here in the forum in connection with Obama Care I got a **** storm about how idiotic our system is ... well ... with Corona, we come off better than most of the others who do also has to be financed somehow. Roughly speaking, it works like this with us with health insurance: There is a statutory obligation to have health insurance for everyone. The citizen can choose the health insurance company, because sometimes there are some differences in costs and service etc. Half of the contribution is paid half by the employer and half by the employee. The system of solidarity applies to the unemployed and the state pays in full. Only if you have a certain high income (we're talking about middle management level and higher in terms of salary) you can insure yourself privately and then pay yourself. Since the benefits of the statutory insurance are limited (no, nobody has to die because of it or is treated worse), you can also take out private supplementary insurance. For example, with dentures, which are only covered with a lump sum and everything that costs more, you have to pay for yourself. You can make an additional private insurance for this, but paid by your own monthly, which is also recommended due to the common prices for dentures at us . Compared to the system in the USA, it is certainly a bit more expensive, but nobody falls through the network and has no health insurance (OK, a few always fail, but mostly it's your own fault). So in my opinion our system is better ... and it is anything but not socialist system! That the NHS in countries like Italy and Britain failed is due to the fact that there the system was target for state savings, which ruined the infrastructure and system itself and caused a collapse at COVID-19. At us it was not such a target Finally ... the 3 best German politicains we had are Konrad Adernauer, Hemut Schmidt and Franz - Josef Strauss. They were perfectly competentin their job! And funny is that they made for example statements in publich which are even for Donald Trump hard ... Konrad Adenauer (chancellor) was for example asked in an interview in TV about not fullfilled election promises. his answer was "Why shall I still care about my own chatter from yesterday? Or Helmut Schmidt (also cancellor) in and interview "Anyone who has visions in politics should go to the doctor!" ... or to a journalist in a press conference "Yes, that was a sloppy answer from me to a stupid question from you". Or Franz - Josef Strauss (election opponent to Schmidt and Gouvernor of Bavaria) where you can fill books with quotes of him ... for example "I would rather be a cold warrior than a warm brother (= gay)" ... and Strauss was more anti-communist than Reagan ever was! And during a state visit by Leonid Brezhnev once, Strauss said straight to him , "I am the son and successor of my father, you are only the successor of Stalin"
He let a criminal loose. How many lives did J. Edgar and Nixon affected, not to mention the integrity of their offices. Sorry, but Trump has made it an habit of skirting the laws and ****ing peoples up. Times to pay the piper.
When history is written, I suspect what Nixon did was going to be considered microscopic potatoes to the current occupant..... I certainly consider it so... Besides, Trump may soon be gone, but TrumpISM still needs to be exposed to his supporters... This isn't over with his removal...
Who was "cheering him on", bx4? I merely suggested that in a political world of TACTICS, such as the Democrats' laughably-failed 'impeach-and-remove' ploy during the last twelve months, a 'pardon' like the one your colleague, @FreshAir suggested is plausible. Whether we ever actually agree on anything is debatable, but I certainly have to give ol' Freshy credit for having an intelligently inventive mind that 'thinks outside the box'. A person who thinks in terms of plausible tactics, whether they are ever used or not, is head-and-shoulders above the usual masses of 'cattle'.... I 'liked' the post that @FreshAir wrote, not because I believe that Trump has even done anything that he needs to be 'pardoned' for, but because @FreshAir obviously has a working mind! . "Yeah, well, whatever... so, when's somebody gonna come and FEED us...?"
I didn’t talk about arresting him. I predicted he would try to pardon himself and his supporters would cheer him on for doing so. Do you think it would be ok for a president to either pardon himself or step down shortly before he leaves office to get his VP to pardon him?
I understand why Ford did it. The fundamental difference is that Nixon resigned in disgrace after having been caught in a crime. Ford wanted the nation to move on from that. Trump is just being voted out. No need for a pardon. Is there?
I certainly understand the feeling that Trump nor anyone should be allowed to escape the consequences of any crime they committed. But lately, I feel there's different types of punishment. The one everyone knows is incarceration of course. But I feel that living with shame and disgrace is another, much more longer lasting type of punishment. One can't easily remove shame and disgrace. When one's imprisoned, eventually you're forgotten about. But no one forgot Nixon and Watergate. If Trump's imprisoned, there would be a spectacle at first but then he would be forgotten about. Instead, living in shame(or if he fled the country for example) would be the ultimate proof of his guilt and everyone including Trump supporters would know of his guilt. I just think we overuse the incarceration system as the end-all, be-all way of punishing people.
So is it over yet? Because for the past few days, I've kinda felt like a kid in divorce court with both parents arguing over who got custody of me.
Oh. She is actually real !? Are there many like that in America? Are some Americans convinced by that kind of claptrap? Could've sworn it was a piece of improvised experimental Theatre.
All of that is fine. But do you think it is OK for a president to pardon himself, or cut a deal with the VP so the VP pardons him before he leaves office? To me that is corrupt. It is an abuse of public office for personal benefit. But his supporters not only think it is ok, we have had one actively cheering him on.
An abuse of power is never okay. Power is entrusted to a person because they believe that person is capable of wielding that power to the benefit of others, not himself.(Though realistically, every person is self preservative and thus using power within its legal bounds for one's own benefit is not only expected, but rational.). I would say it should be a collective decision for the nation. Do we want to make Trump a spectacle, or do we want him to live in disgrace for the rest of his days? People like Bannon, Stone, etc are making themselves to be complete asses and everyone sees that. Prison IMO should be left only to the most violent and deprived of criminals. Someone combatting addictions for example, or harmful substances, etc before we put them in a prison system, we should first try treating them or helping them. Or finding a middle ground where, we as a society might not approve of a behavior but if done privately doesn't affect a single person.
Do you honestly think Trump will care of being disgraced? He'll cash in the favors he sprinkled around while president and move elsewhere. Beside giving himself a pardon won't help him at the state level. NY can still prosecute him for his state taxes evasion and other state level crimes.
I can't speak for him, but for myself personally whenever I felt disgraced either by my own actions or thoughts of my own actions, the feeling of guilt was deprivation itself. And I accept this guilt upon myself for things that I've ever done. Accepting guilt is the first step to redemption. I feel that every human going through this journey is a great spiritual liberation.
Just reported NBC will wait to see Joe up by 35K in Pa to call it... Still only up 9700... Personally, I'd like to see Joe break 50% in the state, over whatever the eventual margin... That 5 leading number just looks SO much better than 49.8%...
What figures are you talking about, specifically, that lead you to believe something's unusually disproportionate? You mention "city" so I presume you mean City of Milwaukee. Historically, everything's pretty much in line with outcomes dating back to 2008.
PA is really split between two parts of the State. There's the country side of Pennsylvania that really represents the rust belt, and then there's the 'industrial' city(Philly) and its surrounding areas. The Country side of PA clearly and obviously went for Trump, and the industrial part of the state clearly went for Biden. It's not unexpected, though disappointing because despite decades of liberal leadership, Philadelphia hadn't really improved.
