birdog1960 Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 It's a standard populist claptrap by pandering impossible solutions to the electorate. Another hallmark of populists is the insistence to the voters that someone else is the problem for their woes. There's always the demagoguery of things being unfairly taken away from you, and only the great leader can right that wrong. So tell me exactly how Bernie and Trump are different? Yet you believe one, and not the other. Who's the greater fool? I believe thomas piketty's analysis http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts. it's the essence of Bernie's arguments. and it's the truth. wealth is being concentrated, unsustainably within a tiny group of people. it's not demagoguery. it's fact. and it must be stopped. exactly how it must be is debatable but we should agree that at least slowing this trend is necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TakeYouToTasker Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 I believe thomas piketty's analysis http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts. it's the essence of Bernie's arguments. and it's the truth. wealth is being concentrated, unsustainably within a tiny group of people. it's not demagoguery. it's fact. and it must be stopped. exactly how it must be is debatable but we should agree that at least slowing this trend is necessary. Why do you believe Piketty's analysis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azalin Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 (edited) As I've said before, it's the national Republican party - and especially the elected Republicans in Washington's fault that Trump has risen this far in the primary. For decades, they've paid only lip service to conservative and libertarian members of the party in order to garner their votes, while despising people like Cruz and any/all of the TEA Party organizations. Personally, I would have loved to see Cruz get the nomination, but it ain't happening this time around. Trump is a different animal than your typical politician. He's said some outrageously ridiculous (not to mention classless) things during his rise to the nomination, but he's very obviously appealing to the millions of people who are completely fed up with the noodle-spined resistance to the Obama agenda that Republicans have displayed over the last 7-plus years. The same for Cruz - he literally had the entire party lined up against him, only gaining meager party support once it became obvious that Trump was close to gaining the nomination. Compare today's run of the mill Washington Republican with John F. Kennedy - Kennedy was anti-soviet-communism, anti-socialism as a political system, pro-national defense, and pro-supply-side, in stark contrast with today's version of the American "right". I'm not a Trump supporter, but I will be voting against whichever socialist gets the nod from the Democrats. All anyone who sympathizes with Republicans and Libertarians can do at this point is cross their fingers and pray that there's substance to Trump aside from the bombast and bluster. Edited May 4, 2016 by Azalin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Why do you believe Piketty's analysis? He believes the early news reports of Picketty's thesis, and not Picketty's retraction of applying the data to the modern world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Kasich about to start a preser where he is expected to bow out. Trump is now the GOP Highlander. There can be only one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4merper4mer Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Kasich about to start a preser where he is expected to bow out. Trump is now the GOP Highlander. There can be only one... At the presser, somebody should notify Kasich that he never bowed in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meazza Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 At the presser, somebody should notify Kasich that he never bowed in. And yet he`s the only one who should have been nominated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4merper4mer Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 And yet he`s the only one who should have been nominated. In what universe? The just give it to Hillary universe or the complete pant waste for president universe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meazza Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 In what universe? The just give it to Hillary universe or the complete pant waste for president universe? The one in which he actually has a history of good governance including in Ohio. He also polled way better than HRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Trump changes mind on minimum wage. “I'm looking at that, I'm very different from most Republicans,” Trump told CNN Wednesday about the prospect of raising the minimum wage. Gee...ya think, Donald? He sure likes to change his position on things. If only someone saw this coming. Oh, well.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truth on hold Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 (edited) apparently they thought the plane was being diverted from landing in US after Trump was announced the presumptive nominee Edited May 4, 2016 by truth on hold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meazza Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 apparently they thought the plane was being diverted from landing in US after Trump was announced the presumptive nominee You're a jackass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4merper4mer Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 The one in which he actually has a history of good governance including in Ohio. He also polled way better than HRC. Are you a software guy? Because you are easily fooled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meazza Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Are you a software guy? Because you are easily fooled. You're right. Enjoy 8 years of Clinton. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdog1960 Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 (edited) He believes the early news reports of Picketty's thesis, and not Picketty's retraction of applying the data to the modern world. from the wsj: Mr. Piketty doesn’t retract his central thesis that there is both income and wealth inequality, and that affirmative steps, including increasing taxes on the wealthy, must be taken to address those inequalities. Are there sentient people who disagree? Does Mr. Rosenkranz? Indeed, as Bill Gates noted in his review of Mr. Piketty’s book: “High levels of inequality are a problem—messing up economic incentives, tilting democracies in favor of powerful interests, and undercutting the ideal that all people are created equal.” Mr. Piketty notes, moreover, that his equation r>g has less applicability for explaining inequality in the 20th and 21st centuries. Furthermore, Mr. Piketty explains, that’s because there are alternative reasons to that calculation for increasing inequality in modern times. As the French would say, “tant pis.” Mr. Rosenkranz conflates the efficacy of certain of Mr. Piketty’s equations with Mr. Piketty’s conclusions; that’s throwing the baby out with the bath. I was curious what Mr. Piketty thought about Mr. Rosenkranz’s opinion and decided to ask him. Here’s Mr. Piketty’s response: “This paper seems to suggest that I have changed my mind, which is clearly wrong.” Marc Chafetz the first five of the graphs i linked are based on tax data. i'm not aware that they have been disputed or at least the conclusions: wealth disparity on a national and global basis is reaching historical highs at an historic pace. that's what bernie's running on. and it is correct. Edited May 5, 2016 by birdog1960 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 (edited) You're using a letter to the editor to defend your point? Why did you pick that on and not this one : Robert Rosenkranz’s “Piketty Corrects the Inequality Crowd” (op-ed, March 9) is much too charitable to Thomas Piketty. The inequality crowd didn’t get him wrong. Far from it. On page one of his 685-page book he states that, “when the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.” This basic theme and the now famous r>g inequality, (that the return on capital “r” outpaces the growth rate of the economy “g” over time) are stressed throughout the book and summarized in the concluding chapter where he states that “the entrepreneur inevitably tends to become a rentier, more and more dominant over those who own nothing but their labor. Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future.” The difficulty with Mr. Piketty’s often-repeated thesis isn’t that it is misunderstood, but rather that it is totally and unequivocally wrong. It is wrong on logical grounds because he seems to think that the rate of return on capital is the same thing as the rate of growth of wealth. It is not. Wealth holders pay federal and state income taxes not to mention estate taxes, engage in consumption and make donations. All of these activities reduce the actual rate of growth of wealth far below the rate of return on capital. Once this correction is made, the broad range of empirical evidence clearly shows that “rentier” wealth hasn’t grown faster than national output or income in the past and isn’t likely to do so in the future. Em, Prof. Thomas H. Mayor University of Houston Houston -------------- Bernie is campaigning on a classic Soviet socialist platform that assume that because there are rich people in the world, they must have accumulated that wealth by exploiting others and have to pay the price for their past sins. Edited May 5, 2016 by GG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Trump changes mind on minimum wage. Gee...ya think, Donald? He sure likes to change his position on things. If only someone saw this coming. Oh, well.... But wait, there's more. Donald Trump Won’t Self-Fund General-Election Campaign ... That plan represents a shift for Mr. Trump, who has for months portrayed his Republican opponents as “puppets” for relying on super PACs and taking contributions from wealthy donors that he said came with strings attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdnlng Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 As I've said before, it's the national Republican party - and especially the elected Republicans in Washington's fault that Trump has risen this far in the primary. For decades, they've paid only lip service to conservative and libertarian members of the party in order to garner their votes, while despising people like Cruz and any/all of the TEA Party organizations. Personally, I would have loved to see Cruz get the nomination, but it ain't happening this time around. Trump is a different animal than your typical politician. He's said some outrageously ridiculous (not to mention classless) things during his rise to the nomination, but he's very obviously appealing to the millions of people who are completely fed up with the noodle-spined resistance to the Obama agenda that Republicans have displayed over the last 7-plus years. The same for Cruz - he literally had the entire party lined up against him, only gaining meager party support once it became obvious that Trump was close to gaining the nomination. Compare today's run of the mill Washington Republican with John F. Kennedy - Kennedy was anti-soviet-communism, anti-socialism as a political system, pro-national defense, and pro-supply-side, in stark contrast with today's version of the American "right". I'm not a Trump supporter, but I will be voting against whichever socialist gets the nod from the Democrats. All anyone who sympathizes with Republicans and Libertarians can do at this point is cross their fingers and pray that there's substance to Trump aside from the bombast and bluster. My sentiments exactly. The Republican establishment fought like hell against the real conservatives and alienated them enough to ensure that an anti-establishment guy was going to get the nomination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 But wait, there's more. Donald Trump Wont Self-Fund General-Election Campaign ... That plan represents a shift for Mr. Trump, who has for months portrayed his Republican opponents as puppets for relying on super PACs and taking contributions from wealthy donors that he said came with strings attached.[/size] He's JUST the right person to send in to teach the political parties a lesson. Believe me. People tell me all the time. He's the smartest person he knows. This is going to be amazing. Best you ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azalin Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 (edited) My sentiments exactly. The Republican establishment fought like hell against the real conservatives and alienated them enough to ensure that an anti-establishment guy was going to get the nomination. And the more they fight him, the less relevant they will become. They're the ones that are splitting the party, but they're going to blame him for it. He's JUST the right person to send in to teach the political parties a lesson. If both parties aren't learning a lesson right now, they'll never learn it. And it isn't Trump or Bernie teaching them the lesson - it's the voters. Edited May 5, 2016 by Azalin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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