Trump_is_Mentally_fit Posted July 14 Posted July 14 4 minutes ago, B-Man said: Is he on the Epstein list? 1
All_Pro_Bills Posted July 14 Posted July 14 58 minutes ago, B-Man said: Enrolled at Columbia as a Freshman starting this fall. 1
ComradeKayAdams Posted July 14 Posted July 14 On 7/13/2025 at 1:50 AM, Buffarukus said: I used real world examples that represent progressive policies in our nation. Not curves or textbooks. You think neoliberal/republican policies are a big function of urban unaffordability, which is true. Im not denying it. Thats different then needing to go farther left with progressive policies to alleviate some of these problems in mythical ways. Is San Fransico more progressive then NY city? I think so. Are there any results showing this is making a difference. Lets google. *Housing costs are 161% higher than the national average. *Utilities are 58% higher than the national average. *Transportation costs (including gas and public transit) are 43% higher than the national average. *Grocery prices are 21% higher than the national average. Urban affordability. So when will we see the results at least tip in the other direction or is the area just neoprogressive and needs MORE left policies on top of the ones they have? Are we just adding a sidestep of human waste everyday and buying a car window once a month? " I take umbrage with the notion that “free money” and “closing down businesses” were distinctly progressive policies at that time." states were given their own choice of how to handle the pandemic and to suggest the progressive response was anything other then to advocate exactly what happened in democrat cities for years is disingenuous. Id suggest the effects would have been greater and more prolonged if progressives had their way. Thats what i see in progressives, a policy action that sounds good superficially and then shimmy all accountability on the negative effects. Shift to the next virtue signal fight to bask in. I wonder how long until small bodegas and corner stores are closed down around these gov controlled ones. Labled "for profit markets" and then get a rinse and repeat of the other damages done to examples i made in my last post. Next is the demand for more gov stores because there arent enough around for the urban people to go to. Just 5 more stores. "This problem predates and is not specific to progressive policy" coming soon to the problems it creates. "It was conventional epidemiological wisdom to shut down NYC" Yeah i was in the covid thread trying to have common sense discussions on what others saw as conventional wisdom from EXPERTS. Read some of them and the date they were written and then check out how long after dems and progressives alike were calling for extending lockdowns. Checkpoints for vax passposts erected kay! The epidemiological wisdom became the main factor in why all families including urban expenses became unaffordable to this day. The rest of us were busy killing grandmas. Consumer demand would have been normalised if real wisdom would have been the reaction. Instead it was funneled to huge corporations while progressives neos alike where chearing for the cops closing (radical) mom and pop shops in cities across the country and demanding more stimulus after catching their leaders break every new covid rule and forgiving them. I didnt even touch progressive views and measures on mass immigration that are now mainstream "neoliberal" that effect every point you say. Unless somewhere in a textbook millions of extra people fighting over limited resources lowers prices. Thats great that you got a chuckle for how capitalist have to "navigate" paid/family time. Guess how they do it. The same way they do everything. Pass the brunt of it on to everyone else or close shop. By close shop i mean open it where they dont have to navigate aggressively and stay rich. Be that in a new state or nation. People who dont abuse it are subject to carry the workload. Joe just used pfl for his wifes "anxiety" problem again. We need you to do another double tonight or we wont make quota. We dont make quota enough times we are moving the company. We move the company and progressives fight for gov to "support" the newly unemployed. A cycle that starts with a well intentioned progressive mandate that they give little care if abused. Then we talk about urban affordability in the area with no employment prospects. Im not for capitalist profits and low taxes at all but taxing them alot more or abuse of something like pfl has one of those trickle down effects that you speak of like reaganomics. Its not as easy a solution as its suggested repeatedly for a quick fix. Then demand more to address new problems created. On and on. I agree with this but I see the far lefts novel ambitious ideas. This thread has them. I live in NY. I named some of them. Im not seeing them resulting in much more then alot more empowerment to the largest corporation in the world. which is still ironic. Why dont progressives fund the things they claim to fight for? Give a couple bucks to bus fair united for free bus rides? Give a couple more to urban families so they have affordability. Keep giving it all away to all the great things politicians promise will be tax funded and we will fund whatever we want to. Cut out the US corpratist middlemen who squander it on corruption. is worker cooperation progression? Why doesnt someone run on that? You choose off a list of where YOUR taxes go every year and see what gets funded and what dries up in the country. Want to throw in more? Go ahead, there will be no need to go into weeds on a football message board ever again. OH MY GOD. Your post length…we are the Spider-Man meme, except my Spider-Man is wearing a blue “Hot Girls for Zohran” t-shirt! I’ll try to address as much as I can: 1. Real world examples: You need to specify the progressive legislation if you want to assign blame. Whenever you vaguely point to the failings of dark blue cities, you’re actually attributing a lot of problems to a lot of different factors and politicians that have little to do with progressivism. Also, keep in mind that cost of living data is meaningless without the associated wage data for that geographic area. I’m definitely not arguing that progressive policies always turn out to be good, but most are worthwhile attempts to address blatant market failures like oligopolies (example: corporate housing ownership) and negative externalities (example: environmental pollution). 2. Bodega viability: It’s perfectly reasonable to be concerned that public grocery stores would economically endanger bodegas. I’ll remind everyone, though, that “food deserts” are a thing because many types of food products are otherwise simply unavailable to the consumers and, therefore, are not even in competition with what the bodega businesses are offering. Furthermore, Zohran is well aware of the bodega food products that would be in direct competition with the public grocery stores. This is a big reason why he's proposing to trim many of the city’s red tape regulations that hinder small businesses like bodegas, which already operate at super-slim profit margins. Finally, I want to remind everyone that nutritious and affordable food is a human right. The primary objective of capitalism should be to serve society and not capitalists. 3. COVID response: To clarify, actual progressives were unanimous in their condemnation of the stimulus packages that heavily favored large corporations and that led to further upward transfers of wealth. I think most progressives favored the lockdown policies of Western and Northern Europe. In all honesty, I’m completely fatigued with pandemic politics. Lockdowns too late? Too long? Stimulus checks too much? Too little? Whatever. Mistakes were made, and I still don’t see why progressives are to be uniquely blamed for policies that liberals and centrists also supported. The right-wing arguments are mostly incoherent and amount to little more than whining that we had a pandemic and had to do things that weren’t fun. 4. Illegal immigration: This turns out to be a highly nuanced topic and one that I don’t think any American political faction handles well. On the economic perspective, there is a balance between the demand-side boost to economic growth versus the societal drain on health, education, and transportation services. Illegal immigrants fulfill valuable roles in some occupations (example: agriculture industry) and suppress domestic labor force wages in others (example: construction). The human rights perspective of the debate is more cut and dried to a progressive. Undocumented workers are committing civil offenses, not criminal ones. Paths to citizenship should be made easier, while deportation procedures should be carried out humanely and with many of our Constitutionally protected rights considered universal (free speech, due process, no cruel/unusual punishment, etc.). Obtainment of documented worker visas should be encouraged simply because it helps prevent labor exploitation, and all forms of labor exploitation (domestic or international) are unethical. 5. Paid family and medical leave: The bottom line is that capitalists need to respect the regulations society has collectively deemed necessary for protecting human rights. If capitalists feel certain laws are unreasonable and overly punitive to business operations, then they need to present their cases to the public and change policy by way of our system of democracy. As always, I recommend comparing and contrasting international policies when formulating opinions. 6. Ambitious far-left ideas: The main reason why I’m to the political right of my market socialist comrades is because I generally don’t think bottom-up organizational structures can operate quite as optimally as top-down private ones currently do. For the time being, I’m fine with implementing progressive taxation policies (as supported by data-driven macroeconomics) to restore the stolen wealth from workers that socialism claims to obviate. For the time being, you may be surprised to know that Zohran’s rather anodyne platform is already considered mainstream and centrist at the national level (latest source: 6/26-6/30 Yahoo/YouGov survey of 1,597 American adults). The “socialism” label still scares people, but individual social democratic policies no longer do. This is the argument I believe Zohran will ultimately use to persuade Hochul and the neoliberals in Albany. << spills coffee, collapses to the floor from typing >> 1
B-Man Posted July 15 Posted July 15 THE ABSURD DEMOCRAT POLITICS OF RACE: I wonder if I’m the only one who noticed that the “candidate of color,” Mamdani, in the NYC mayoral Democratic primary seems to be (from pics, haven’t seen them in person) significantly fairer-skinned than the “white candidate,” Andrew Cuomo? by David Bernstein https://instapundit.com/732094/#disqus_thread
B-Man Posted July 16 Posted July 16 Soros machine hands Mamdani millions for his socialist quest for control of New York City by Monica Showalter Investigative reporter Paul Sperry has uncovered an interesting fact about leftist mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani: BREAKING: Alex Soros has funneled $24 mil to the NYC mayoral campaign of Muslim Zohran Mamdani thru his fundraising arm Working Families, which means Soros' wife HUMA ABEDIN, whose parents are Muslim Brotherhood, "will control the mayor of NY," a lawyer investigating Abedin told me (Snip) Now the Soros plan is to take mayoralties, the better to finish off cities in ways district attorneys and secretaries of state cannot. Yet they present this boob as an independent. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/07/soros_machine_hands_mamdani_millions_for_his_socialist_quest_to_control_new_york_city.html . 1
Buffarukus Posted July 18 Posted July 18 (edited) On 7/14/2025 at 3:31 PM, ComradeKayAdams said: OH MY GOD. Your post length…we are the Spider-Man meme, except my Spider-Man is wearing a blue “Hot Girls for Zohran” t-shirt! I’ll try to address as much as I can: 1. Real world examples: You need to specify the progressive legislation if you want to assign blame. Whenever you vaguely point to the failings of dark blue cities, you’re actually attributing a lot of problems to a lot of different factors and politicians that have little to do with progressivism. Also, keep in mind that cost of living data is meaningless without the associated wage data for that geographic area. I’m definitely not arguing that progressive policies always turn out to be good, but most are worthwhile attempts to address blatant market failures like oligopolies (example: corporate housing ownership) and negative externalities (example: environmental pollution). 2. Bodega viability: It’s perfectly reasonable to be concerned that public grocery stores would economically endanger bodegas. I’ll remind everyone, though, that “food deserts” are a thing because many types of food products are otherwise simply unavailable to the consumers and, therefore, are not even in competition with what the bodega businesses are offering. Furthermore, Zohran is well aware of the bodega food products that would be in direct competition with the public grocery stores. This is a big reason why he's proposing to trim many of the city’s red tape regulations that hinder small businesses like bodegas, which already operate at super-slim profit margins. Finally, I want to remind everyone that nutritious and affordable food is a human right. The primary objective of capitalism should be to serve society and not capitalists. 3. COVID response: To clarify, actual progressives were unanimous in their condemnation of the stimulus packages that heavily favored large corporations and that led to further upward transfers of wealth. I think most progressives favored the lockdown policies of Western and Northern Europe. In all honesty, I’m completely fatigued with pandemic politics. Lockdowns too late? Too long? Stimulus checks too much? Too little? Whatever. Mistakes were made, and I still don’t see why progressives are to be uniquely blamed for policies that liberals and centrists also supported. The right-wing arguments are mostly incoherent and amount to little more than whining that we had a pandemic and had to do things that weren’t fun. 4. Illegal immigration: This turns out to be a highly nuanced topic and one that I don’t think any American political faction handles well. On the economic perspective, there is a balance between the demand-side boost to economic growth versus the societal drain on health, education, and transportation services. Illegal immigrants fulfill valuable roles in some occupations (example: agriculture industry) and suppress domestic labor force wages in others (example: construction). The human rights perspective of the debate is more cut and dried to a progressive. Undocumented workers are committing civil offenses, not criminal ones. Paths to citizenship should be made easier, while deportation procedures should be carried out humanely and with many of our Constitutionally protected rights considered universal (free speech, due process, no cruel/unusual punishment, etc.). Obtainment of documented worker visas should be encouraged simply because it helps prevent labor exploitation, and all forms of labor exploitation (domestic or international) are unethical. 5. Paid family and medical leave: The bottom line is that capitalists need to respect the regulations society has collectively deemed necessary for protecting human rights. If capitalists feel certain laws are unreasonable and overly punitive to business operations, then they need to present their cases to the public and change policy by way of our system of democracy. As always, I recommend comparing and contrasting international policies when formulating opinions. 6. Ambitious far-left ideas: The main reason why I’m to the political right of my market socialist comrades is because I generally don’t think bottom-up organizational structures can operate quite as optimally as top-down private ones currently do. For the time being, I’m fine with implementing progressive taxation policies (as supported by data-driven macroeconomics) to restore the stolen wealth from workers that socialism claims to obviate. For the time being, you may be surprised to know that Zohran’s rather anodyne platform is already considered mainstream and centrist at the national level (latest source: 6/26-6/30 Yahoo/YouGov survey of 1,597 American adults). The “socialism” label still scares people, but individual social democratic policies no longer do. This is the argument I believe Zohran will ultimately use to persuade Hochul and the neoliberals in Albany. << spills coffee, collapses to the floor from typing >> <<Puts eyedrops in. Throws back a handful of raw coffee beans. Cracks knuckles. Twists head back and forth 180 degrees.>> Lets do this. Why? Judging by our novels we both have free time but do i have to go through legislation and say item 141 b that was passed and that had this negative effect. You asked for examples. I gave them. I gave you the most progressive places in America. Places that lean heavily progressive in all segments of its leadership. Being so controlled by a particular ideology should yield the results to convince me and every city in america that this is a tremendous way to legislate. Obviously particular bills will have positive and negative outcomes but that does nothing to suggest voting in a self identified socialist or going any further left is this factor that is going to change things for the better. If it did then San Fran and Portland would be beaming examples in a republican/ neoliberal cesspool of a country everyone would be clammoring for. Its not and presents ALOT of unique issues to add to the ones already existing in every other major city. Instead we have these same progressive places reversing some of the policies because they have been so destructive. Hmm maybe homeless encampments next to kids jungle gyms is a societal problem...This is where im at. Pick anyone else just to avoid going down deeper on the same path of lunacy with progressive experiments. We talk about different food availability in the exact same time progressive policies force entire stores to place items under lock and key. Some NY stores wont let you ENTER without swiping a credit card first. This is now normalized because of progressive legislation. Their hand in criminal justice, covid, blm, gentrification have all effected availability of stores but another one, a extremely radical one, to give gov more power will fix it. If he is trying to cut the red tape to start a new buisness that alone is a valid platform. Unfortunately its negated with socialism when you want them to compete with gov owned ones. Im very sure people on a certain side are tired of arguing about covid. The funny part is people hand wave that the richest country with hundreds of BILLIONS that go into scientific research, have access to the best minds on the PLANET, could make the "mistakes" it did repeatedly? Really? All our research and we have no clue if glovebox masks are a necessity? top medical professionals claim with full certainty that a vaccine will stop transmission when it did not. Years of the bat soup theory? I dont think its a conspiracy to say that alot of this was intentional but naiveté certainly plays a role in denying it as a series of whoopsies. Anyone involved on that side needs to own that as its a big example of their lack of critical thinking, judgments and leadership. The other side was not flaunting virology degrees, just common sense. Whatever direction progressives wanted more free cash to move into was the driver of too many dollars not enough products. Demanding longer lockdowns as they asked for it. they were on the front lines of it. They took a problem of urban affordability and made it now completely unattainable standard of living for millions. Lets place more trust into the same people who made the issue to get us out of it. Sounds logical. Your right. it is nuanced but i made it extremely straight forward. Millions of people now fighting for limited resources will make things harder to attain and more expensive. Thats all. Long term effects if they pay into the system, work hard ect may change things but progressives champion unimpeded boarder crossing, sanctuary, tax funded living expenses, housing, medical care and schooling all while americans were already suffering from the largest spike in inflation and supply limitations in modern history. Now they are interested in affordability? creating problems just to run on saving us next voter cycle? He is for blocking ICE so i guess its a good problem to have. I see where progressives think these ideas are good. Its fundamentally based on empathy and that is a very good trait as long as its not out of control. Who wants to watch the baby zebra get snatched by a lion? We need to stop this! But you have to keep watching and not overreact because if you demand lions are a threat then what about the part where the lion cubs starve to death. Over and over i see progressives make these decisions and not care to reevaluate outcomes and add standards to prevent abuse or consequences. Who doesnt want to see a person get paid time off to care for a sick member of a family. Keep watching and you will see another person forced to cover doubles and never see THEIR family. Abuse is rampant as with alot of these policies. I know from where i work. Every friday in the summer issues. So people are put in a position where they abuse the system or they are the fools that only get punished. Capitalist dont need to feel anything about the laws progressives make. Over regulate them they close down and open elsewhere. We pay. Give workers time off and they mandatory overtime on the rest. We pay. Raise their wages and they raise prices on us to maintain profit while reducing the wage of everyone not getting minimum. We pay. The theme is unintended outcomes on the same people progressives are "saving" over and over. Edited July 19 by Buffarukus 1
B-Man Posted July 20 Posted July 20 Mamdani Is the Mayor New York Democrats Deserve. That people get the government they deserve is a cruel adage, too cruel if you live in dark places where a small minority with guns terrorizes an unarmed population—see “Cuba, socialist state of.” But in a democracy, the maxim holds firmly. Which means that if the citizens of New York City vote in Zohran Mamdani as their mayor come November, and things go badly, then Gotham really can’t ask for our sympathy. That Democrats voted him as their candidate in the primary on June 24 is one thing, but if voters of all parties ratify that decision on Election Day, that’s another. Then it’s Pottery Barn rules: If you break it, you own it. Sure, it’s only natural to spare an initial thought for our compatriots from the Bronx to Staten Island if things go south, but after that, sit back and get the popcorn. I plan to do so wearing my threadbare Yankee cap. https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/07/20/mamdani-is-mayor-new-york-democrats-deserve/ .
ComradeKayAdams Posted July 21 Posted July 21 On 7/18/2025 at 11:59 AM, Buffarukus said: <<Puts eyedrops in. Throws back a handful of raw coffee beans. Cracks knuckles. Twists head back and forth 180 degrees.>> Lets do this. Why? Judging by our novels we both have free time but do i have to go through legislation and say item 141 b that was passed and that had this negative effect. You asked for examples. I gave them. I gave you the most progressive places in America. Places that lean heavily progressive in all segments of its leadership. Being so controlled by a particular ideology should yield the results to convince me and every city in america that this is a tremendous way to legislate. Obviously particular bills will have positive and negative outcomes but that does nothing to suggest voting in a self identified socialist or going any further left is this factor that is going to change things for the better. If it did then San Fran and Portland would be beaming examples in a republican/ neoliberal cesspool of a country everyone would be clammoring for. Its not and presents ALOT of unique issues to add to the ones already existing in every other major city. Instead we have these same progressive places reversing some of the policies because they have been so destructive. Hmm maybe homeless encampments next to kids jungle gyms is a societal problem...This is where im at. Pick anyone else just to avoid going down deeper on the same path of lunacy with progressive experiments. We talk about different food availability in the exact same time progressive policies force entire stores to place items under lock and key. Some NY stores wont let you ENTER without swiping a credit card first. This is now normalized because of progressive legislation. Their hand in criminal justice, covid, blm, gentrification have all effected availability of stores but another one, a extremely radical one, to give gov more power will fix it. If he is trying to cut the red tape to start a new buisness that alone is a valid platform. Unfortunately its negated with socialism when you want them to compete with gov owned ones. Im very sure people on a certain side are tired of arguing about covid. The funny part is people hand wave that the richest country with hundreds of BILLIONS that go into scientific research, have access to the best minds on the PLANET, could make the "mistakes" it did repeatedly? Really? All our research and we have no clue if glovebox masks are a necessity? top medical professionals claim with full certainty that a vaccine will stop transmission when it did not. Years of the bat soup theory? I dont think its a conspiracy to say that alot of this was intentional but naiveté certainly plays a role in denying it as a series of whoopsies. Anyone involved on that side needs to own that as its a big example of their lack of critical thinking, judgments and leadership. The other side was not flaunting virology degrees, just common sense. Whatever direction progressives wanted more free cash to move into was the driver of too many dollars not enough products. Demanding longer lockdowns as they asked for it. they were on the front lines of it. They took a problem of urban affordability and made it now completely unattainable standard of living for millions. Lets place more trust into the same people who made the issue to get us out of it. Sounds logical. Your right. it is nuanced but i made it extremely straight forward. Millions of people now fighting for limited resources will make things harder to attain and more expensive. Thats all. Long term effects if they pay into the system, work hard ect may change things but progressives champion unimpeded boarder crossing, sanctuary, tax funded living expenses, housing, medical care and schooling all while americans were already suffering from the largest spike in inflation and supply limitations in modern history. Now they are interested in affordability? creating problems just to run on saving us next voter cycle? He is for blocking ICE so i guess its a good problem to have. I see where progressives think these ideas are good. Its fundamentally based on empathy and that is a very good trait as long as its not out of control. Who wants to watch the baby zebra get snatched by a lion? We need to stop this! But you have to keep watching and not overreact because if you demand lions are a threat then what about the part where the lion cubs starve to death. Over and over i see progressives make these decisions and not care to reevaluate outcomes and add standards to prevent abuse or consequences. Who doesnt want to see a person get paid time off to care for a sick member of a family. Keep watching and you will see another person forced to cover doubles and never see THEIR family. Abuse is rampant as with alot of these policies. I know from where i work. Every friday in the summer issues. So people are put in a position where they abuse the system or they are the fools that only get punished. Capitalist dont need to feel anything about the laws progressives make. Over regulate them they close down and open elsewhere. We pay. Give workers time off and they mandatory overtime on the rest. We pay. Raise their wages and they raise prices on us to maintain profit while reducing the wage of everyone not getting minimum. We pay. The theme is unintended outcomes on the same people progressives are "saving" over and over. It’s not that I normally have much free time; with coffee as my “upper” of choice, I’m quite capable of producing rapid-fire novellas! Since Bills training camp begins this week and since I don’t think anyone’s political views are changing, I suppose we should strive to wrap up this conversation? I’ll summarize my final thoughts and then you can choose a final rebuttal, if you’d like. Your commentary on the law of unintended economic consequences is duly noted. The American political milieu needs to demand greater quality control over legislation, and that certainly doesn’t exclude progressive legislation. We don’t need to analyze here the details of meaningful policies, but I would like to quickly revisit my 9-factor outline of the urban cost of living. The core message of the Mamdani campaign is mitigating urban unaffordability via downward redistribution of stolen wealth. To that effect, here are some of the main progressive policies I’d personally like to see implemented: 1. Wages: laws and regulations favoring unions, protectionism, and pretty much anything that helps reverse the deindustrialization and financialization of our national economy. 2. Health care: socialized healthcare (including eye, dental, maybe also pharmaceutical, maybe also biomed devices), systematic dismantlement of private health insurance companies, and full erasure of all personal/family medical debt. 3. Education: affordable childcare/pre-primary school programs, government stipend programs for colleges/trade schools, and laws limiting administrative expenses in public universities. Anything that could restrain the colossal market failure of spiraling college tuition costs (which is sort of a pseudo-Veblen/pseudo-Giffen good) should be on the table. 4. Housing: more public housing options, laws curtailing corporate housing ownership, targeted/conditional rent control policies, and just a general awareness of how other countries (example: Finland) address homelessness and housing anxiety. 5-7. Food, Transportation, and Utilities: civil infrastructure upgrades should be the primary focus. Since energy-related supply shocks can drive much of the pricing with these three cost-of-living factors, progressives might nitpick over various energy taxes and subsidies. Health and environmental regulations raise costs (in the short term), but they are necessary far more often than not. 8. Taxes: I’d focus less on corporate taxes, property taxes, and the various types of sales taxes. The main focus should be income taxes and Wall Street speculation taxes. I’d make the income tax structure a lot more progressive, with more brackets and a marginal tax rate of at least 50% on the highest bracket. At the exclusively federal level, I’d chop off ~33% of the bloated military budget and most of Trump’s ICE budget to help fund my progressive goodies! 9. Inflation: Standard worker-friendly progressive boilerplate here...an anti-austerity fiscal policy based on Keynesian stimulus spending to promote the growth of good jobs, but within reason so to control demand-pull inflationary effects. An emphasis on combating price gouging, busting trusts, and employing limited price controls during extreme circumstances. No draconian monetary policy measures (namely interest rate hikes). COMMIE KAY’S CONCLUSION: Neoliberal policies since the 1980’s have made cities unaffordable, not progressive policies. It’s practically canonical at this point to those who follow economics research literature instead of Fox News propaganda. Zohran’s policy platform is reasonable Euro-style social democracy with a 5-store flare of grocery socialism. Either accept our affable Muslim politicians, America, or deal with our HAWT Italian “activists” (note: obvious reference to Luigi Mangione)!! 1
Buffarukus Posted July 23 Posted July 23 (edited) On 7/21/2025 at 8:04 AM, ComradeKayAdams said: It’s not that I normally have much free time; with coffee as my “upper” of choice, I’m quite capable of producing rapid-fire novellas! Since Bills training camp begins this week and since I don’t think anyone’s political views are changing, I suppose we should strive to wrap up this conversation? I’ll summarize my final thoughts and then you can choose a final rebuttal, if you’d like. Your commentary on the law of unintended economic consequences is duly noted. The American political milieu needs to demand greater quality control over legislation, and that certainly doesn’t exclude progressive legislation. We don’t need to analyze here the details of meaningful policies, but I would like to quickly revisit my 9-factor outline of the urban cost of living. The core message of the Mamdani campaign is mitigating urban unaffordability via downward redistribution of stolen wealth. To that effect, here are some of the main progressive policies I’d personally like to see implemented: 1. Wages: laws and regulations favoring unions, protectionism, and pretty much anything that helps reverse the deindustrialization and financialization of our national economy. 2. Health care: socialized healthcare (including eye, dental, maybe also pharmaceutical, maybe also biomed devices), systematic dismantlement of private health insurance companies, and full erasure of all personal/family medical debt. 3. Education: affordable childcare/pre-primary school programs, government stipend programs for colleges/trade schools, and laws limiting administrative expenses in public universities. Anything that could restrain the colossal market failure of spiraling college tuition costs (which is sort of a pseudo-Veblen/pseudo-Giffen good) should be on the table. 4. Housing: more public housing options, laws curtailing corporate housing ownership, targeted/conditional rent control policies, and just a general awareness of how other countries (example: Finland) address homelessness and housing anxiety. 5-7. Food, Transportation, and Utilities: civil infrastructure upgrades should be the primary focus. Since energy-related supply shocks can drive much of the pricing with these three cost-of-living factors, progressives might nitpick over various energy taxes and subsidies. Health and environmental regulations raise costs (in the short term), but they are necessary far more often than not. 8. Taxes: I’d focus less on corporate taxes, property taxes, and the various types of sales taxes. The main focus should be income taxes and Wall Street speculation taxes. I’d make the income tax structure a lot more progressive, with more brackets and a marginal tax rate of at least 50% on the highest bracket. At the exclusively federal level, I’d chop off ~33% of the bloated military budget and most of Trump’s ICE budget to help fund my progressive goodies! 9. Inflation: Standard worker-friendly progressive boilerplate here...an anti-austerity fiscal policy based on Keynesian stimulus spending to promote the growth of good jobs, but within reason so to control demand-pull inflationary effects. An emphasis on combating price gouging, busting trusts, and employing limited price controls during extreme circumstances. No draconian monetary policy measures (namely interest rate hikes). COMMIE KAY’S CONCLUSION: Neoliberal policies since the 1980’s have made cities unaffordable, not progressive policies. It’s practically canonical at this point to those who follow economics research literature instead of Fox News propaganda. Zohran’s policy platform is reasonable Euro-style social democracy with a 5-store flare of grocery socialism. Either accept our affable Muslim politicians, America, or deal with our HAWT Italian “activists” (note: obvious reference to Luigi Mangione)!! I dont post much here anymore because i also feel its extremely rare that someones political ideology changes at all regardless what points are brought up. Ill have loooooong form conversations and try to stay away from the bickering and insults or popular twitter copy paste but i dont think it does much in any meaningful way. Minds are made up so what is the point. I actually remember a conversation with you on abortion. I guess thats where the energy came to strap my rubber boots on and step back into the swamp of political posting. It was another marathon but i thought it was a bit more productive then the average back and forth. I wouldnt say that your thoughts on how to address the problems are insane. Id say they come wrapped in what i fought against my entire life. Progressive leadership is connected to woke bs. Im not sure how old you are but if you were ever just a liberal like i was then im not sure how this progressive ideology would go on to supercede the core beliefs that you once had. I always thought judging others on color of skin was racism. Progressives take that as the only thing that matters to people. I always fought for freedom of speech. Progressives want to silence and jail those they disagree with. Im for everyone paying there fair share but not in the same breath offering free rides void of any skepticism to the abuse of what is given out. Im for womens rights. they only exists in the mind according to them. Criminal justice, homelessness on and on, every topic i just see destruction and zero reflection on the damage they cause. Im sure you feel the same about republicans being radical but if you are constantly forcing the pendulum far left it will inevitably swing just as hard to the right. Want abortion on demand well Rs are going to get just as radical. I dont think it would have been reversed if it stayed rational. Want unfettered illegals ? well your going to see americans cheering for ICE grabbing everyone that is in the country illegally in all walks of life as a reaction. Championing anti bully campaigns and classes might be a bit less divisive instead of indoctrinating children until it has to be outlawed in public schools. Book burning!! facism!! Back and forth but the progressive left seem to push it too far first and become confused by reactions of people who genuinely werent engaged until left hit the extreme. Back when i was younger it was the opposite. Strange days i tells ya. I hear what your saying about neoliberal/ republican politics. I dont like the direction this country is going so trying new ideas and fresh leadership is not the issue. Bring em on! The issue is how much progressivism has caused extreme damage in a VERY short amount of time. As i said, experimenting on society and ignoring the results. They deserve no trust in their ability to yield only positive results. while neoliberals and republicans have certainly played their roles to get us to where we are i feel those were slow decents where as progressivism has had tastes of total power in small pockets, i named cities where it has overtaken and has done immense damage in a extremely short amount of time. I didnt hear a dispute on them, besides covid just wanted money to go elsewhere. Nothing about crime or the consequences that we all now pay for the soft policies. Nothing about the out of control homeless issues in progressive states. Nothing about how progressives want nothing more then to empower the largest corporation on the planet. Ect. its called a track record. They are used to judge future events from people. So either you look past all this or somehow think progressivism hasnt played a major role in exaserbating them into major issues. As you bring up his "moderate" plans in your posts everyone else can see his radical history of walking in lock step with the same progressive ideas that i mentioned up to this point. There is no reason to trust he would keep any of his ideas moderate after a election win. 5 stores turns to 10. More closures makes 10 turn into 20. His history on police and definition of what "violence" is has already been in effect and is current in NY. It is a FAILURE. It causes more victims then one can count. His thoughts on taxing whites more just concludes to the racism all progressives are regardless how it was "meant". Ive ranted long enough on my thoughts. Your right the season is starting and i have a horrable addicition to eating whole coffee beans now. Bags a day. Hopefully the withdrawls subside before the opening kickoff and i can live my life free of all this. All i can really say at this point is GO BILLS. Edited July 23 by Buffarukus 1 1
Wolfgang Posted July 23 Posted July 23 I'm glad I left NY... What a colossal mess... It will only get worse... I'm surprised Mamdani hasn't been linked to the Arab Spring yet... 1 1 1
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