This has been the most turbulent election years in my life. I’m sure my elders would scoff at the assertion “in my life” and point out I am still too young to know better, but they’d be mistaken. We are right on course for this election to be a do-or-die moment for American politics no different than when Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt were candidates.
At the same time this has also been one of the most boring and predictable elections. Newscasters have turned the election into a reality T.V. freak show which is the most suitable pandering for their ratings-for-profits advertising model. The more controversial the candidate the less work they have to do to find their headlines and collect their advertising revenue.
They’ve become lazy because paying real journalists to find the truth and not being the first to report about where a candidate stopped to eat lunch before Buzzfeed or Huffington Post is too difficult. Meanwhile the people of this country suffer the consequences of lackluster journalism while the media is raking in big profits for little work.
With this premise it isn’t surprising to see a reality T.V. personality rising in the polls and making a mockery of the democratic process. It isn’t surprising to see the power hungry female villain storyline that made Disney a fortune when they ripped off centuries old fairy tales. It wasn’t long ago we saw Omarosa in every weekly preview of the Apprentice playing the female villain and butting heads with Donald Trump. The whole election has been stage directed from the beginning.
None of the candidates represent the American people and none of them know what is good for us as a country.
Trump is talking about building a wall and Hillary is talking about equal pay for women as if this is still a problem in American life. She’s too detached to realize there’s more pressing women’s issues than equal pay or abortion. Most women I know are more worried about rising child care costs, rising housing costs, and whether they will fall into the welfare queen trap because their hours at work and healthcare benefits have been reduced.
Donald Trump doesn’t seem to realize anybody desperate enough to find a way around a wall will exhaust every idea until they get around the wall. Just ask the many Germans that found a way around the Berlin Wall. In 20-30 years time we will be trying to convince someone to “tear down this wall” just as we’ve finish paying off the debt it took to build the wall in the first place.
And for every Trumpeteer I’d like to point out that walls don’t just keep people out, they also trap people inside the country and cripples their freedom to cross the border. Just realize when you are voting to build a wall you are also voting to build your own cage.
The American Paycheck-To-Paycheck Mentality
What has surprised me is the popular opinion of my own generation with “Feel the Bern” support for Sander’s democratic socialist views. As if we don’t have the deck stacked against enough many in my age group would like to continue this terrible fixed income idea.
The worse idea my parents, family, and community passed onto me was the paycheck-to-paycheck mentality. This idea supported many post-war families last century when economic conditions were drastically different. Today this model serves to trap the plebes of this country into corporate slavery. It’s been a very successful model in accomplishing its goal of restricting our economic freedoms.
Don’t believe me? Just observe how many elderly people are bitching about not getting a cost of living increase on their benefits. Go ahead and roll your eyes at another retail worker who claims their hourly wage isn’t enough to pay their inflated rent and bills. Or get self-righteous at another young college graduate who complains their education debt is too much to pay every month.
Every corporation has the exact payment and wage schedule. Americans get paid based on their corporate employer’s schedule and owe money based on their corporate collector’s schedule. This sets up every American to live hand-to-mouth someway or anther. It’s this financial mentality of every month that traps Americans in their crappy jobs and underwater mortgages that continues to make them fearful and submissive to the status quo.
For years I’ve seen political and financial websites continuously quoting Benjamin Franklin’s saying, “Those who give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” without understanding the irony. Most use the quote to defend gun rights while not even realizing safety can mean different things to different people.
In our era most Americans have given up their essential liberty for financial safety. The government loves when the govern depend on them to make sure they’re fed and have a roof over their heads. It’s even better when they depend on them for benefits that are scheduled to be paid out once a month.
Anger Can Be A Great Motivator When Used Correctly
The media has been touting Donald Trump’s “anger” as the uniting cause of his supporters. This claim is just laughable and straight bullshit. Donald Trump isn’t angry at all. He’s cocky and prideful. He’s not suffering nor is his family. He’s gloating at the American people and their eyes are too glazed over from their submissive training to realize it.
Donald Trump’s family started their business in the most traditional sense when it comes to American prosperity. That being his grandfather opened a hotel in Washington that profited off gold prospectors and prostitution. Even describing his own hotel in the Yukon Sun newspaper at the time as “”For single men the Arctic has excellent accommodations as well as the best restaurant in Bennett, but I would not advise respectable women to go there to sleep as they are liable to hear that which would be repugnant to their feelings – and uttered, too, by the depraved of their own sex”.
Donald’s own father made money off of real estate except he didn’t do this in an honorable way. Instead he priced gouged government contracts and was even investigated by the U.S. Senate Committee in 1954 for “windfall profits”. He was later embroiled in a civil rights suit against him for refusing to rent to prospective black tenants.
Gives food for thought to Trump’s comments of getting “a small loan of a million dollars” from his father. But you won’t be reading extensively about the Trump family the same way the media picked apart the upbringing and wealth of the Bush or Romney families.
If anything the supporters of Donald Trump aren’t angry at all. They’re just gullible and looking to a fat cat to solve their problems as they sniff around the mouse trap for the block of cheese. Donald Trump isn’t going to do anything for the American people unless it benefits Donald Trump.
The American people don’t know how to be defiant. This is apparent from the lingering hippy love feast of the counter culture generation. Instead of learning how to feel anger and channel it into productive activities most Americans load up on self-help books, buy their crystals and lucky rabbits feet, and pray positive thinking will change their lives.
I haven’t mentioned the campaigns of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio for a reason. Neither one of them has enough gristle to be defiant against the political status quo. Both are too docile in their attempts to win over the American people.
Neither will be president this election season because they both need to fail in order to learn how to succeed. Both won their Senate elections but it’s not enough to build the momentum to become power hungry for the presidency. They’re both too go along to get along in their approach to politics.
It’s a shame to think Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul could’ve wiped the floor with their aging baby boomer counterparts if they’d employed defiance in their campaign approaches.
Yet another anti-Trump rant…..Let’s see, that makes about 5347 of them.
Just send another career politician to the WH, I’m sure the next one will change the status quo…
Vote for Trump. Or vote for the same.
“If anything the supporters of Donald Trump aren’t angry at all. They’re just gullible and looking to a fat cat to solve their problems as they sniff around the mouse trap for the block of cheese.”
I disagree with that. Look at all the people on TBP who will vote for Trump. No gullible free shitters here! I’m assuming the majority ARE angry, and going the route of the “fuck you” vote.
I do agree with this — “Donald Trump isn’t going to do anything for the American people unless it benefits Donald Trump.”
Steph, yer growing up right afore our very eyes. Yer syntaxes are still very clunky, and I couldn’t stay focused much beyond this sentence (which actually ain’t uh sentence) right here –
“As if we don’t have the deck stacked against enough many in my age group would like to continue this terrible fixed income idea.”
Good gawd Steph, edit yer shit. Er at least git someone that made it thru freshman English ter give it a oncet over.
Admenstruater, my vote would be not ter headline this er gawd ferbid post this stinky turd on zerohedge, but do whatcher whatcher whatcher want.
I am one pissed off voter. I wanna piss off the powers that be. Just like they pissed me off. The empire continues its collapse. Go Trump Go. Destroy both political parties. Split the country into a socialist utopia. The other into liberty loving freedom. Lest see who prospers.
We don’t need no stinking wall cuz’ freedom , she says.
Here’s a clue Queenie. Invasion trumps freedom every time. Not only will magic dirt make you free, it will not keep you free either. So put on you big girl panties Miss Freedom.The time for whining about what your elders did is past. The responsibility for securing the future of this Republic is on your shoulders now.
Here’s another clue.The future of America will not be secured by an increase in your bring home pay. Western Civilization is under attack and anyone that recognizes this fact is your ally.All that don’t are your enemy.
Got it?
This is your future with open borders.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=597_1452679537
Once in the hive the wax moth is in it grants no quarters.Believe it and understand ,there are more important issues at stake here than your personal comfort. Immigration has been weaponized. The fight is on whether you care to acknowledge it or not. No cavalry is coming to save you .The fight is yours.
Own it.
Anybody who thinks Trump is doing this for personal financial gain is nuts.
Just send another career politician to the WH, I’m sure the next one will change the status quo…
Just another “vote the lesser of the evils” lemming rant.
I think that was an excellent essay and you’ve definitely learned how to articulate your thoughts quite well since you first arrived. Congratulations on that growth and the mental discipline required to put your thoughts into a cogent post.
I certainly don’t agree with some of your points- how Donald Trump’s family earned their money has no bearing whatsoever on this campaign. Clutching your pearls at the thought of prospectors paying prostitutes for their services is so quaint I bet even you had a hard time writing that passage. You’re a millennial, your generation is singularly responsible for mainstreaming every sexual degeneracy known to mankind and proudly so. You don’t get to tut-tut at other folks century old plain vanilla indiscretions without coming off as hypocritical.
I have made suggestions to you in the past about the exact same issue you so eloquently described when you wrote-
“Every corporation has the exact payment and wage schedule. Americans get paid based on their corporate employer’s schedule and owe money based on their corporate collector’s schedule. This sets up every American to live hand-to-mouth someway or anther. It’s this financial mentality of every month that traps Americans in their crappy jobs and underwater mortgages that continues to make them fearful and submissive to the status quo.”
Real liberty cannot exist when your financial dependence relies on “a job”. I believe that in the future, should we ever emerge from this dark period in history, people will look back on the concept of a job the same way they think about slavery today. It is an anachronistic vestige of the Industrial era and it will vanish just the same.
Excellent work, really. Please continue posting these types of pieces they are very important.
“In 20-30 years time we will be trying to convince someone to “tear down this wall” just as we’ve finish paying off the debt it took to build the wall in the first place.”
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. This invasion needs to be stopped now or it’s all over. Just the savings in free everything will pay for the wall. If this invasion is not stopped now, there will never be another conservative President ever again. And if they do get through the wall, deport their asses. This is the issue of our lifetimes, and apparently critically thinking millenials want open borders? Naive indeed.
Heres how to solve the illegal immigration problem without a wall, and at zero cost to the tax payer. Simply allow the local militias to patrol. Weapons free rules of engagement. Kill all you want, but eat all you kill.
fine essay in my view, your writing skills will only improve. HSF. i was exposed to new views exactly why i enjoy this site. HSF critique hopefully gives you confidence to continue to voice the views of your generation.
Thanks Steph, appreciate the effort.
For those of us who are Anti-NWO, Trump is the first and only Candidate to gain any traction in our lifetime. What say you to this?
I actually read this as a pro Trump piece, though with certain criticisms.
I also thought her dismissal of Cruz as lacking “gristle” was simply uninformed. He is disliked in the Senate for very publicly NOT going along to get along!
But I agree with HSF (good company) that her writing is worth the read, and her insights have validity. Yes, she needs to be a tad more careful in her editing.
I don’t have confidence that Trump would affect the changes his supporters imagine should he win the presidency. Yes, the border will be better enforced by both Trump & Cruz, but the wall is not a singular solution. It will work in some places, but not in others.
Strict enforcement of immigration laws, including deportation tied to permanent loss of future immigration privileges, is far more effective. Tie that to a genuine e-verify for employment system. Lastly, change the law regarding “anchor babies” to only convey citizenship to children of parent(s) who are in the country legally. All others retain the nationality of the parent.
Nice essay Steph, your thoughts so powerful you bounced Stucky back on the Trump train. I hardly find Cruz (bank owned) and Rubio (part of the Jeb Bush crime family cocaine cabal) worthy of your. last sentence but I respect your opinion.
We almost all struggled when we were young, it is part of living a real life. Few of us were born with a silver spoon in our mouths like The Donald.
Great to see you post.
Here’s a legitimate question I have about The Wall. Trump proclaims he’s going to build it and make Mexico pay for it.
People cheer. People rant. People rave. They love it, or they hate it, everyone has an opinion about The Wall.
My question is this: How many of these people, Trump included, have been to Big Bend or other parts of rural Texas. Actually, rural doesn’t begin to describe it. Rural is like a nice Southern town in Alabama somewhere. Remote, isolated, god-forsaken, & deserted are far better descriptors.
I’ve know guys who have worked on construction projects out there. Everything has to be trucked in. And when I say everything, I mean “everything.” From the smallest piece of electrical conduit to the concrete plant, nothing is here. Nothing. Unless Trump plans to build a giant wall from adobe bricks, it’s a soundbite, but not feasible from a cost & constructibility standpoint.
The US/Mexico border is about 1,00 miles long. The Texas/Mexico border makes up most of the border at a little over 1,200 miles. Most of that is largely inaccessible. It’s not like building a wall across a flat farm field next to I-70 in Kansas.
I brought this up previously on this blog, and someone replied something about “funnel points.” Clearly, I don’t understand. 1,200 miles of border to seal up with a wall? And the Government is going to do what? Post more patrols in these funnel points? Do the Trump supporters know that? Do they know about the funnel points?
Here’s a photo of the fence near El Paso.
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How does that look to you? Pretty secure? Because that’s what it looks like. Has Trump provided any pictures or details of the wall he’s going to build? Something like the gates of Mordor, no doubt. Only for 1,200 miles. And get Mexico to pay for it? I don’t see it happening.
Final thoughts: Here’s a photo from Big Bend National Park.
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Santa Elena Canyon. Beautiful, if you ever get a chance to go. I swam across it, in the opposite direction once, just to see what it was like.
But as far as constructing an impenetrable wall across the entire border, I say it’ll never happen. Don’t be fooled.
BTW, Kudos to you, Steph, for writing and posting. Well done!
“Most women I know are more worried about rising child care costs, rising housing costs, and whether they will fall into the welfare queen trap because their hours at work and healthcare benefits have been reduced.”
Evidently you only know single mothers….THIS is one of the biggest ‘entitlement’ issues AND moral issues we now have in America.
If women want to have children, be MATURE. Maturity will enable a responsible woman to understand the virtues and the economic reasons to be married to a responsible male partner. Additionally, maturity will also lead a woman to understand that if wants to be a good, responsible parent, she needs to stay home with her wonderful child(ren) so that SHE can be the care-giver and instill her values and her principles to her offspring.
Edit:
US/Mexico border is about 1,900 miles long.
Texas/Mexico border is about 1,200 miles long.
I hate this keyboard.
Curtmilr, “The wall is not a singular solution” . Who said it was? Just because it’s necessary doesn’t mean it’s sufficient. There are lots of other things that should be done – some of which you noted, but a wall is step #1. You don’t install flood lights and a security system at your house if you’re going to leave your front door wide open.
“the border will be better enforced by both Trump & Cruz”. I knew Cruz was 100% full of shit when he kept crowing about how his solution is to “quadruple the funding for fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft”. If he means airplanes & helicopters, why not just say so instead of fancy-dancing around? Besides, there is zero chance of Cruz getting the nomination. ZERO. If Trump can’t get 1,237 delegates on the first ballot, they’re ging to nominate one of these four assholes: Rubio (unlikely), Jeb, ROMNEY (seriously) or Paul Ryan.
Tim- I am not sure Trump even believs he will build the ‘Wall’, its not clear, he is not clear, especially after his last debate. I think most take away he will direct his minions to do something, and lets face it, if the executive office does ANYTHING it will be a 180 degree pivot from the last…40..years.
Before we build the wall, can we move some of our factories back first? I mean the Mexicans can keep the Meth factories if they want no problem, but it would be nice to have ours back.
“If anything the supporters of Donald Trump aren’t angry at all. They’re just gullible and looking to a fat cat to solve their problems as they sniff around the mouse trap for the block of cheese. Donald Trump isn’t going to do anything for the American people unless it benefits Donald Trump.”
So you decide to lump all of us into a tidy rhetorical sentence or two?
Well, fuck you, Steph. Go find some other place to peddle your bullshit while you try to build your nom de plume and street creds.
Most of us Trump supporters are either angry or beyond angry. We aren’t gullible, either. Most of us have been screwed over, lied to, bossed, and cheated by a corporatocracy that we have no means to control. We have played the American game, lived the American dream, followed the rules, and got screwed.
That game is over. Trump knows it. He has the pulse-beat of America right in those hands of his.
And Trump ain’t offering a block of cheese, you dumbass. Trump will force all of that factory cheese to come back to America and make it all here again. Trump is a worker. Trump WILL bring jobs back and it will be through punitive taxation and through repatriation of the USD.
Trump is like many of us — we have been fed a bag of lies and are forced to watch a government rule without following the laws or our Constitution. It isn’t about ‘free cheese’, it’s about why that cheese was ever given away free in the first place. Trump voters aren’t part of the Free Shit Army. Trump voters rebel AGAINST the FSA. Get RID of the free cheese, the Obamaphones, the Obamacare, the Section 8 housing and the other 51 free programs, the generational welfare, and the illegal teat-suckers.
Go peddle your shit over at Salon.
The problem is not those in power, the problem is right between your ears.
Great video if you truly want to see yourself.
It’s 20 minutes long and most people can’t get though 3 minutes before suffering severe cognitive dissonance because of their life long indoctrination programming.
Carry on…
Tim, We can’t build a wall because parts of Texas are remote? I’ll tell you what’s remote. The moon. We put a man on the moon 47 fucking years ago. We can build a wall for fuck’s sake. We build highways across remote deserts. We can build a wall in the desert. We could use part of Santa Elena canyon AS the wall – as long as we don’t leave gaps around the ends. And yeah that little fence you showed is worthless. We need something at least 30 feet high and probably more like 50 feet high. No, Trump hasn’t release the specs. But he knows that for a project like this you need: enabling legislation superceding all tribal, environmental and park laws and establishing a commission to compensate ranchers who will lose 200 feet through eminent domain. Then you need specs & legislated procedures for procuring bids, etc. This is just a question of will. The federal government spends $12 billion PER DAY. Trump estimates $12-14 billion for his wall, but if it costs 4 times that it’d be money well spent.
Nice post Steph
Get a lesson on a real wall that keeps them out. Search for a border wall in Jordan and look for the details.
That is the wall we need on our Southern Border, not that chintzy dog fence posted by Tim.
Tax Western Union money sent out of country at 50%. That will pay for it, and will also go a ways to de-Incentivize more to come here.
HSF- Thanks for your encouragement. I appreciate it.
“I certainly don’t agree with some of your points- how Donald Trump’s family earned their money has no bearing whatsoever on this campaign. Clutching your pearls at the thought of prospectors paying prostitutes for their services is so quaint I bet even you had a hard time writing that passage. You’re a millennial, your generation is singularly responsible for mainstreaming every sexual degeneracy known to mankind and proudly so. You don’t get to tut-tut at other folks century old plain vanilla indiscretions without coming off as hypocritical.”
I was just pointing out how the media isn’t doing it’s real job of investigating and reporting. In past elections they dug up the skeletons in the closet in regards to their family wealth. I really don’t care about how his grandfather made money, but I was interested in how his father was investigated by the U.S. Senate Committee over gouging government contract. Alas, we won’t see any real journalism in regards to how Trump’s father started the Trump real estate empire.
Building a wall.
No roads? Send 3 D8s side by side along the border, and you have an instant construction road.
Have the USGS find all the gravel deposits (aggregate) along the river. Send in mobile concrete plants and set up along the gravel pits. Flat cast the wall sections on the ground. Transport the panels to the wall and tip them up. Probably use traveling slip casting for the footings. Give bonuses to the plant that erects the most number of miles per day.
Trump may indeed build a wall, after all, his background is building big things.
However, the easiest way to “build a wall” is to cut off all the free shit. No more public assistance in any way, shape or form, no more free health care, ESL, press 1 for English, driver’s licensing, and so on. Cut out Every Single Thing that makes an illegal’s life here possible or easier.
Then enforce the immigration laws 100%—here illegally and caught? Outta here. No trials, no pleas, no second chances, no time at Club Fed, just out. Put ’em on a bus/plane/train and take them out. (I recognize the impossibility of rounding up millions and sending them back.) Fine the crap out of anyone who is caught hiring them.
Mexico would “pay” for this “wall” when they get back all their citizens that they’d have to support.
Was that your first article? Well done!
Warning: long! (tl:dr ; Trump is a symptom of systems failure, and without reform / reset all major American systems (Federal government, State government, Local government, Cities, Society, and so forth) will suffer collapse from massive intersecting dysfunctional downward spiral.
/rant on!
Mankind lives by systems, more or less. Systems are (sometimes) designed, evolve (more often) and continue or fail depending on people, those who design, operate, maintain and support them. Our systems are breaking down, probably because the greedy, ignorant and well-intentioned (separate groups) are destroying, warping, taking advantage of and failing to support them.
Schools reinforced ideas through education when I was growing up. Along with readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic, schools taught civics (how many counties are in the state? Who is the highest official in the county? If the city and county disagree on something, how is the dispute settled? What is the difference between voting in a party primary and voting in the general election? And so forth.) Schools taught patriotism through history (sometimes sanitized, but not always; my high school history teacher was a wargaming buff, and gave gory details on various battles, while criticizing the commanders and explaining how the results influenced the overall war, the societies afterwards, and the soldiers who went home). I was lucky enough to learn music from a real music man and both sang and played from elementary school through high school. THIS is what schools were supposed to do, not lecture endlessly about diversity and race and sexuality and pop-psychology. I was far luckier than today’s public schoolchildren, who are being GYPPED of a real education by social justice warriors, environmental activists, minority-rights grievance peddlers and other delayed-maturity types.
Schools worked because parents supported them, and their children, and their children’s activities. I got my first library card at six, because I demanded one of my own and the public librarian was sympathetic.My Dad went on Boy Scout campouts with us, mainly for some outdoors time I think; he was there to haul my brother back inside the time he floated out of the tent in his sleeping bag atop an air mattress in a rainstorm. Mom & Dad both went to junior high band & chorus concerts, Girl Scout activities, Band Boosters concession stand staffing at football games (the Boy Scouts raised the flag and sold programs), PTA and various other extracurriculars. They picked us up at the school after returning from night games on the band bus, bought magazine subscriptions, chocolate bars (appalling quality chocolate), oranges and grapefruit and every other fundraiser to finance our activities. Similar commitment came from cheerleader parents, football / basketball parents, track & field parents, you name it. The FAMILY support system reinforced and enhanced the SCHOOL system, the COMMUNITY system and the STATE (as in fifty states) system, eventually. Now single-parent families are much more prevalent, and if supporting us stretched my parents back then, how can a single parent HOPE to support their children to the same level? The failure (or deliberate neglect / obstruction) of the FAMILY system by the FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL and COMMUNITY systems is causing a reciprocal breakdown of the SOCIETY system, since societies are made up of families.
Now the FEDERAL system has been co-opted by thieves, liars and opportunist power-mongers. It’s breakdown is all but assured, since the failure of the SCHOOL systems to teach and the failures of the FAMILY system to generate competent, capable children / future adults means that the various system interactions are dysfunctional (police shoot kid with broomstick and kill him, a local incident here; not one of those over-steroided, muscle-bound bodybuilder types could recognize a broomstick and simply take it away?) and are creating hate, fear and distrust among the COMMUNITY system. Failures of the CORPORATE system have massively increased unemployment and sent capital overseas instead of investing it here; some of this is driven by bad policies from the FEDERAL system, some it opportunistic greed in the CORPORATE system, some is just incompetence and short-term thinking.
The interactions among the various systems have evolved into a downward spiral; bad FEDERAL policy and power-lust / greed drives CORPORATE system decisions that cause unemployment and capital flight, while bad social policy at all levels drives single-parent household formation (can’t collect welfare if there’s a man in the house!) while bad immigration policy drives fragmentation and dissociation of COMMUNITY systems as overzealous policing drives distrust of LOCAL police departments, turning a force for order and peace into a cause of conflict. Bad LEGAL rulings drive bad societal results, such as increased pointless surveillance and secretive proceedings instead of public trials; bad ACTIVISM (NIMBY) activities drive useful and productive industries overseas, further depressing the economy and increased unemployment; poor LOCAL planning makes for McMansions and suburbs instead of viable, vibrant smaller cities.
In the interest of offending no one and valuing everyone we now say nothing intelligent and value no one. Certainly we no longer value the unborn (especially black unborn), the elderly (defined as anyone over twenty-five), the young (since we fail to educate them properly), any minorities (since they murder each other far more often than they murder whites or whites murder them [per capita]), or anyone.else. Nothing is said that might lead to substantive discussion on how to rebuild / reform the existing systems; partisan considerations prevent ethics from being enforced, economic interests prevent reform of the banking systems (TBTF, anyone?), and political interests prevent new people and ideas from entering the public arena. Given how thick-skinned Trump has been vilified, would YOU be willing to jump in and run for President, given access to the needed resources? How can we reform the political systems so that people who might have valid ideas, good intelligence and honest motives actually run for office? Where are the systems engineers who can make our systems resilient, flexible and responsive to the needs of the societies who operate, maintain and support them?
This has gone on far longer than I intended. Trump is a symptom of system failure, not as a candidate, but as a manifestation that a growing number of citizens recognize the FEDERAL system is broken, unmanageable and in great need of total revamp and reform. Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Rubio and Cruz (Cruz to a slightly lesser extent) are symptoms that the FEDERAL system has a self, and that self is acting to defend its own self-perceived interests, most of which conflict and oppose the interests of ordinary Americans. One part of the FEDERAL system will run an avowed Socialist and an obvious felon to protect its self-perceived interests of business as usual (including corruption, theft, lies and protecting the protected class, thanks Peggy Noonan) and the other is bending over backwards to avoid running an outsider, preferring to run RINOs with no chance to win rather than risk its own self-perceived interests.
Only a reset will avoid failure / collapse, and both POLITICAL systems are determined to avoid reforms that would prevent reset! Oh well, it was nice while it lasted, and once the ignorant and delusional are reformed or removed perhaps the survivors will systems-engineer something that will actually work, be relatively unintrusive, and serve the society instead of destroying it.
/rant off
Teri has it, spot on. That’s the only thing that will work.
However, if Teri sees it, and I can see it, and I’m certainly not the smartest guy in the room, then THEY can see it.
That’s the whole rub of this situation. They know the problem and they know the solution. They could implement changes if they wanted to.
Ergo, we must assume they don’t want to. There’s a reason for this.
Mark my words: No wall will ever get built. No wall will solve our immigration problems.
Trump has a soundbite, and you guys that believe it have fallen for it.
Teri has it spot off, not spot on. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for cutting off public assistance for illegals, e-Verify, visa tracking, etc etc. All of the other non-Wall solutions aren’t adequate replacements for The Wall, though, because they require continual effort and the will of a political Uniparty that has demonstrated not merely indifference to illegal immigration but complete support FOR it. Two years ago the Obama administration was actively SEEKING Central American “refugees” to come into the US. Currently Obama has ordered Border Patrol to “stand down” from interdicting encroachers. Giving Border Patrol more helicopters or drones doesn’t mean anything if they’ve been ordered by the president to welcome illegals not stop them. Laws punishing employers for hiring illegals are worthless when the Department of Justice is threatening employers whose vetting of would-be employees results in “disparate impact” against Hispanics. Of course The Wall isn’t the sole solution, but it’s a big part of the solution. Maybe I’m not cynical enough, but I don’t think even a tyrant like Obama would have the gall to command the destruction of an already-built wall, whereas Obama’s already shown the willingness to subvert any and all laws that purport to stop illegal immigration.
First, I think you may want to look into the family businesses and dealings of JFK’s father. He may have well been a great president had they not offed him.
Second, I fence my farm as do my neighbors not because we think it is impenetrable but because it is a deterrent and an obstacle. We try to keep our livestock in and predators out. Some creatures go over and other go under and when they do we lose livestock and crops. If we can reduce the loss via a fence it is well worth it. When we observe a breaching we typically deport the predator without its pulse.
Third, I find it funny how you disregard a steady paycheck and mock anyone as a slave who engages in the practice while those fence jumpers are traveling thousands of miles to take part in it. The actual problem with a livable wage is due to the debt based money system we have lived in since 1971 when the gold standard was temporarily(yeah right) suspended. Prior to that an appliance salesman at Sears could raise a family and buy a house and retire with a decent pension.
I do not believe Trump or any of the other candidate can really change our disastrous course as all of our problems stem from the system/body they are trying to get elected to. I do however look forward to reading any future post from you.
“Mark my words: No wall will ever get built.” If Trump is not elected, you are correct. If Trump is elected (and not assassinated by the globalists), you will be proven wrong.
Tim -I’ve know guys who have worked on construction projects out there. Everything has to be trucked in. And when I say everything, I mean “everything.”
Let’s see, Hoover damn , US interstate system and the Alaska Highway. Just three examples ( there are many more) that render your attempted point mute and invalid. Thanks for playing though.
“None of the candidates represent the American people and none of them know what is good for us as a country.”
Interesting to post this on a Saturday, the same day as “People of WalMart”. 🙂
Don’t need a wall. Just pull the business license of any company that hires illegals. Cancel the building permits of those who hire illegals in building houses.
Naw, Trump might be screwy in what he says, some of the time, but he’s Joe Sixpack’s version of the Symbol of the Rigid Digit to the Establishment, to the Ineptocracy.
Good job, Steph. I don’t agree with all your viewpoints, but getting them out there is what’s important. You’re right about Trump; Bernie understands your generation much better than any of the other candidates, so vote in your own best interests.
Westcoaster- A vote for Bernie Sanders would not be in my best interest. A government that governs least, governs best. Voting for Sanders is just voting for more socialist programs that already don’t work. My initial vote was for economic freedom and the only candidate that represented my views on that sentiment was Rand Paul.
Iska Waran says: “Mark my words: No wall will ever get built.” If Trump is not elected, you are correct. If Trump is elected (and not assassinated by the globalists), you will be proven wrong.
Iska, when you die, many years form now, if you wake up in a prison yard with high walls, you can be assured that you are in heaven.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.
Therefore hell hath enlarged her desire, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth among them, descend into it.
Well I just got back off the road and checked my mailbox and guess what ? Another Bill from the IRS enlightening me that I owe more taxes from 2014 .Never fails .The company during my taxes told me I was probably being audited by the IRS.Just found out they don’t have to tell you you are being audited. Kinda like taking your bank accounts. They just do it.
At this point I would vote for just about anyone guaranteeing me tax relief.
“Every corporation has the exact payment and wage schedule. Americans get paid based on their corporate employer’s schedule and owe money based on their corporate collector’s schedule. This sets up every American to live hand-to-mouth someway or anther. It’s this financial mentality of every month that traps Americans in their crappy jobs and underwater mortgages that continues to make them fearful and submissive to the status quo.”
Nothing sets anybody up to live in any particular way, that is thinking like a victim. Now, there may be a certain structure to how things are done, like when you get paid, but the key is, work within that structure. Corporations work within a structure and they manage, so a single person or a simple household certainly can too. If you know when you’ll be paid, and you know when your bills will be due, there is really no reason to be caught unprepared.
Before you set up independent housekeeping, get married or cohabitate, have a kid, whatever, you must set aside a nest egg. If you have a few months worth of living expenses saved up you will almost never need to worry about paycheck to paycheck living (unless utter tragedy strikes, and in those cases, that’s why you keep your lines of credit open but empty so that you have an utter emergency backup).
That might mean maybe living with mom and dad for a while after college (paying them, with cash or with labor, for the privilege, of course) or rooming with others, no eating out, thrift store clothing, living in a cheapo small apartment, whatever, so that you are earning more than you spend. It might (gasp) even mean giving up your cell phone and streaming video services for a while.
Any unexpected money, like gifts, rebates, work bonuses, whatever, go into the emergency pot. Hubs and I just pretend that we never even got the extra money and live only on what we’ve budgeted (and we include additional money to set aside for savings in our budget). We are far from high income earners and yet by living frugally and forgoing much of what modern society tells us we must have, we are quite stable financially.
The place where most people go off the rails is this: you need to let your budget, not society, not your wants, dictate how you live. If you are making a low wage, then you cannot afford to eat out, have cable or dish, have a cell phone, etc. Period. Those things are out of your league. People buy them anyways and then wonder why they are broke. If you are low wage, then you buy your jeans at Goodwill, not a department store, and if you want a treat, it means homemade brownies (not from a box) and not something from a bakery. An indulgence today means a headache tomorrow and it isn’t worth it. Live tight for a while and save up, and, coupled with working to advance yourself in your chosen profession, you’ll have fun money later.
Stupid financial decisions, poor choice of mate and producing kids they cannot afford are the destroyers of most people, not the economy. Most people are done in by stupid and its twin sibling, greed.
A steady paycheck is slavery? Nonsense. Quite the opposite. It’s how, families, communities and free countries are built. Economic freedom and single motherhood are mutually exclusive concepts. You can’t have both.
Steph calls Trump votes gullible. Bullshit and indicative that she is not in tune.
I believe that folks know what Trump is. They also know what the opposition is – lying, bought and paid for shills. So they are giving a giant middle finger to the grand old GOP.
It is long overdue.
And by the way, Steph, the media has not ever scrutinised candidates. Man, what rocks they could have turned over with Kennedy, for instance. But no, nada.
They scrutinise who they do not like. How often do you see a hit piece on her Hillaryness in the MSM? Trump gets hit constantly but nary a word on the witch.
The choices are clear: Combover or Cankles, there both fat fucks from New Jack City
Nice article Clammy! Huge improvement on the past!
You’ve got the politics figured out.
The paycheck to paycheck mentality is the result/symptom of the entirely unsustainable idea that a large, prosperous middle class can exist under our “debt is money” system. The middle class, as American’s envision it, was a fallacy from the start built on our ability to print money out of thin air. History teaches us that unlimited money printing is unsustainable so it naturally follows that anything built with such money is unsustainable. However, humans as a group are greedy and those getting what they deem to be “their piece of the pie” are content to never question such things during good times or even bad times.
“With liberty come great responsibility.”
For several generations Americans have abdicated their responsibility. Now we assign blame to others for our predicament while simultaneously screaming for MOAR free shit. Good luck with that!
It’s been my experience that many Americans living paycheck to paycheck could easily avoid or break that cycle and I and many TPB regulars are living proof of that. It requires living below your means, being responsible enough to delay instant gratification and requiring our government to do exactly the same………..which explains why it will never happen. 🙂
End the fed and restore sound money. Everything else will fall into place on its own shortly thereafter. The need for tRumps wall goes away. All the crap Bernie advocates is nothing more than applying band-aids to the wounds caused by unlimited money printing.
The only candidate that *might* deserve our vote is the one advocating an end to the Federal Reserve Banking system. That candidate has not emerged yet.
“This has been the most turbulent election years in my life.”
Poorly worded first sentence, and the title is a good summation of the rest.
Keep trying, Clammy.
I want to throw in with Hardscrabble on the job idea.
I work 7 to 4 every day for a paycheck on the 15th and the 30th and as long as I do so I will never move beyond where I am in life. Passing each day eight hours at a time in the hope I live long enough to retire.
Retire? Not much hole of that. The options as one of the employeed zombies is a 401K, the stock market or savings. The stock market is too volitile to my taste, savings with our current system is a joke so the only real option is the 401K and hope my few stocks don’t crash.
The days of working for a company for your career and retiring with a pension are over. The only way to succeed is to take the skills you have at your 9 to 5 job and go freelance. It’s a lot of stress to make sure you make the mortgage every month, but it’s your best bet to succeed (or fail). Regardless you get to do it on your terms.
I don’t see this generation getting the idea of self reliance which I why so many “Feel the Bern”.