• Shawn
    13.2k
    Beyond criticism?Banno

    Don't think so. I suppose it's a greater danger hereabouts is to deviate from a document that has provided a high standard of living, and ensures that through its defense and upholding. The rest is politics, no?

    What's the alternative?
  • Banno
    25k
    a high standard of living,Shawn

    :rofl:
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    Yeah, I'm surprised too man. At least I get my Cybertruck, when I can afford it:

    jheKdRy.png
    cybertruck13.jpg

    Just kidding, I want a Tesla Model Y.
  • frank
    15.8k

    The federal government's power grew over time with a sequence of crises.

    It's you who is creating myths.
  • Baden
    16.3k
    that has provided a high standard of living,Shawn

    What's the alternative?Shawn

    A high quality of living? All that working and running around buying stuff so you can live in fear of a medical emergency bankrupting you. Not for me.
  • frank
    15.8k
    The summer grass!
    ’Tis all that’s left
    Of ancient warriors’ dreams

    -Matsuo Basho
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    A high quality of living? All that working and running around buying stuff so you can live in fear of a medical emergency bankrupting you. Not for me.Baden

    So, you get a comprehensive health insurance. What else you going to do?

    I'm not the biggest fan of the US; but, where else can I move to or would it make sense to move to Europe just for health insurance?

    As I understand it, the two biggest differentiating things between Europe or Canada and the United States are essentially two things:

    1. Healthcare
    2. Education

    If the US supplied both of those without strings attached, most of the nay-sayers wouldn't have much to criticize the US about anymore, perhaps apart from starting wars.
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    Like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of the US.

    And, yes... we even have private prisons! A shitstain that will always remain on our national identity in a hundred years from now.

    All those southern states wen't loony. (Never going there)

    Private prisons in the United States incarcerated 121,718 people in 2017, representing 8.2% of the total state and federal prison population. Since 2000, the number of people housed in private prisons has increased 39%.www.sentencingproject.org

    Private-Prison-State-Map-transparent.png

    We definitely need some oversight over this kind of shit.
  • Baden
    16.3k


    Coincidentally, I had a debate with a student on this topic today. Unfortunately, I needed to argue for private prisons, which was difficult.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    Coincidentally, I had a debate with a student on this topic today. Unfortunately, I needed to argue for private prisons, which was difficult.Baden

    Who won?
  • Banno
    25k
    Coronavirus is hurting America's place as a world leader while China appears to rise

    In a matter of weeks, the pandemic has relentlessly exploited America's weak spots.

    Inadequate health care, rampant inequality, cumbersome bureaucracy, all-pervasive politics and millions of people who trust shock jocks and preachers more than scientists.
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    Oh my fucking God!

    ySGe4h3.jpg
  • frank
    15.8k


    The Chinese Communist Party
    Will soon be
    Your master
  • Banno
    25k
    SO would those prison inmates be from a private prison? IS the prison netting a profit by selling their services?

    It's gotta make one proud to see that odd old American business sense at work.
  • Banno
    25k
    From that same article...\
    "We have this incredible logistics capability for deploying [military] forces abroad but it's all dependent on the help of the Chinese Communist Party."

    Already.
  • Shawn
    13.2k


    I don't know; but, if I was a journalist it would sure be a firecracker.

    America wen't nuts. But, wait, the Chinese virus insanity, the shithole countries downright racism will continue for 4 more years, and the DNC allowed it to happen because they think a demented man can handle the country better than a paranoid guy.

    The patriotism is oozing out of me.
  • creativesoul
    11.9k


    There is a fair amount of oversight within the constitution... the separation of powers... in addition to all of the different oversight committees within both houses of congress.

    Unfortunately, there are too many bad actors in play, as well as too many that are quite simply not doing their job. They are untrustworthy, and nowadays they are not even hiding the fact that they are not performing the duties that they took a sworn oath to be personally responsible for performing.

    The problem is that there is no real way to fire them or hold them accountable. In theory it(the framework of American government) works. Unfortunately, the success of any given methodology is only as successful as it's implementation, including how a representative democracy with democratic traditions ought to work while retaining the failsafes necessary to avoid too much concentration of power.

    :worry:
  • frank
    15.8k

    This is the sort of thing your country has to look forward to.
  • Banno
    25k


    Maybe. Australia has a history, which of course we will not claim, of belligerently invading other people's homes at the behest of a great and dear ally - we replaced the Empire with the USA in that roll.

    But to become a guard dog for China we would have to overcome our inherent racism; the fear of the yellow peril.
  • Banno
    25k


    “And do you think that unto such as you
    A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew
    God gave a secret, and denied it me?
    Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!”

    ― Omar Khayyâm, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

    :wink:
  • creativesoul
    11.9k


    In addition...

    Look at what Trump has done - every time he could get away with it - to each and every individual who did their job when it concerned being in a position to enact oversight on Trump.

    He fired them for doing their job, for performing the duties that they took an oath to perform. He fired them for keeping their word, because it involved investigating him.

    That's a big big problem when not enough congressional members perform their own sworn duties.
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    Lol The US Constitution is a bunch of shit and the US is a shitty country that has forcefully exported its shitty oligarchic ideology to the detriment of most of the world. The universe is a worse place because the US exists as it does.

    And the OP is simply talking about democracy, which, of course, the US barely has; or has in a degraded, utterly stilted form.
  • frank
    15.8k
    But to become a guard dog for China we would have to overcome our inherent racism; the fear of the yellow peril.Banno

    Aren't you already part Asian? We are (I am).

    With no flowers
    You are free
    as a willow.

    --Kaga no Chiyo
  • creativesoul
    11.9k
    The universe is a worse place because the US exists as it does.StreetlightX

    So, what changes need to be in the US so that both are better places?
  • creativesoul
    11.9k


    What reason do you have to believe that we are?
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