Comments by "coolmodelguy" (@coolmodelguy6304) on "The Damage Report" channel.

  1. To the horror of my wife, I told her that if we get a centrist democrat like Joe Bidon or Kamalla Harris on the 2020 Democratic Presidential ticket . . . . I would be voting third party. She is rightfully horrified that a split vote will bring us another four years of Trump. However, there is no lessor of two evils . . . there is only evil if another centrist democrat becomes president. Unless we can get a progressive on the democratic ticket for president, all we will get is more evil. It is time to hold our ground. Sanders 2020.
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  2. Chase Musqkwanto - Ok, back from lunch. I would like to impart two main items, one simple and the second requiring some elaboration. First: It was because of the Justice Democrats and their campaign platform that I switched my voter registration from Independent to Democrat. JD's are very appealing and they are in the main on the correct track. However, reform is not enough. Reforms are always undermined and then removed by the oligarchs and their minions. That leads to my second item. I live in California and my eldest daughter (29) lives in Missouri with her husband. Over this past weekend I called her and we discussed my wealth cap proposal. She asked me to define a "life of luxury" so we could have a basis for discussion. Since "luxury" is defined differently by different folk, I provided this baseline for our discussion: "If a family lives can afford to live in a 29 room mansion and they are building an new mansion with 92 rooms, that is too much wealth." She told me that "mansions" in her area ran from 1.6 to 3 million dollars, so we started our "thought experiment" using the upper limit of 3 million dollars for housing and another 3 million for property taxes over a lifetime. I would ask her for the upper limit on what she considered "luxury" for transportation, food, clothing, entertainment, furniture, healthcare, travel and other lifestyle luxury amenities. Together we came to a total of 50 million dollars in accumulated wealth which would allow her and her family to live in the utmost of luxury and security. So if we break that down into an annual income over a 30 year working life, no one should really require more than 1.75 million dollars per year of total income after taxes. You see, there are only a small proportion of millionaires and billionaires who use their wealth to benefit mankind. Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, perhaps the Gates (though I don't actually see what they are doing, My Lady reminds me of their Foundation work) . . . and the guy who made his fortune making and selling those 5-Minute Energy drinks (Billions for Change). On the diabolical power hungry side of the ledger we have the Trump's, the Mercers, the Koch Brothers, Julian Sinclair Smith of Sinclair Broadcasting, Rupert Murdoch and family, the Bush family, the Dupont's, the Johnson family, plus countless others I cannot name without looking them up. Throw into the mix the lobbying cartels for every known corporation using their money to buy OUR government representatives. Put a wealth cap on all of them and big companies and corporations will have to break apart, ending monopolies. Co-operatives between many stakeholders will become the new norm instead of the exception. Large building projects will require the cooperation of many builders instead of a few Mega-Corps. Large companies owned by individuals will be forced into reinvesting into their employees and company infrastructure. Many of the things the Justice Democrats stand for will happen by default with one simple and sweeping change. I could go on, but if you are as intelligent as I believe, you will see the possibilities in this once you give it some thought. So many of societies ill's will get attention and even cures with the revenues generated by a wealth cap tax . . . and no one will suffer the deprivation of their chance to earn millions. With vastly increased tax revenue, funding the vast potential of technical and artistic talent among our population can be unleashed. With a Universal Basic Income people are no longer bound to the useless hamster wheel of human wastage the current capitalism economy creates. ALSO: There will no longer be an oligarchy with the means and tools to undermine these societal reforms. Just think about it.
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  3. Kelly Rellis - You are just ranting like a lunatic. Republicans and corporate democrats already gave our country away, so what is your point? It certainly was not the "pathetic socialists in Congress" who have damaged our country almost beyond repair, so you are just sounding like a crazed idiot.
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  4. Mycel - I voted for Hillary. That was before I really knew who Bernie was. You know who knew better than I . . . . who I should have voted for in 2016? My grown daughters, both of them. Learning from them was an eye opening experience for this old curmudgeon. We will not get anywhere in this country voting for milk-toast candidates. Voting third party is the only way we can protest the system of crony capitalism being foisted upon us. You can curse all you want, but voting for a centrist democrat for president dooms us all. The fact of the matter is, I am glad that Hillary lost. With Trump we now know exactly where we are lying down, which is in the dirt under the boot of corporations and the wealthy elite. We cannot change that by voting for another Hillary. If millions of people do a protest vote by selecting a third party candidate for president, then maybe the Democratic Party will finally learn not to run centrists and to support the people instead of money.
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  5. We have vote by mail here in California, works great and you can go online to verify your vote was received and even check your voting record. Simply no reason this cannot be done in every state.
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  6. Yes indeed, plus the Trump and Munchkin answer is to give even MORE loans to corporations who are already in debt up to their ears because they borrowed loads of cheap money over the past decade to buy back their own stocks. The death spiral is only going to get steeper because of the CARES Act.
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  7. Agreed. The 1% plan to take it all. Drain the wealth, kill democracy and start the age of modern feudalism. The republicans are out to crush the working class, because that is what their end game requires. When you look at the math, wealthy people have so much money that their capital gains are taking bigger and bigger bites out of our GDP, consuming the host economy like lethal parasites. For business monopolies, Covid-19 is a great opportunity to buy up failing businesses and consolidate, preying on our distressed society. Congress made it easy for them to do this with trillions of dollars, passes by both parties. Until we realize how dangerous it is to let people control so much accumulated wealth, we will never have the opportunity to expect anything different. No reforms ever survives in the presence of accumulated wealth. Every reform dies, because wealth kills reform. We must start with that simple fact.
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  8. Chase Musqkwanto - Ok, that is fine. However that will not solve our greater, recurring problem. Hillary is the same as trump, money equals power. Unfortunately I did not discover that for myself until after the 2016 election. Some perspective is in order. I am 57 and a machinist by trade. All I ever wanted a secure job so I could support my family and pay my bills. That has never materialized in my entire lifetime, and like so many Americans I blamed myself. Now I don't work in the trades, been attempting the self employment route for over a decade. Patterns and processes are my life's work and it was clear something outside of my control was exerting influence over my personal economy. So I researched for two solid years and found the monkey wrench in the machinery. It is this: too much money equals the power to meddle in other peoples lives. If we as a society don't fix the problem, there will be more hillary's and more trump's to come. If we all sit around and saying what about isms . . . the problems we all face will never be solved. We must address the root cause, and that is not trump alone or hillary alone. We are required to look into the recent past and then yes . . . into the deeper past and compare to the present day. If we fail this, we all continue to suffer. That is fact. So instead of focusing all our attention on the idiot in chief, we must address the root causes and deal with that. I'll bring this to anyone's attention as I have time, but I lament that short sightedness seems to be the currency of our realm.
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  9. Chase Musqkwanto - I'm in agreement with your reasoning and intent. We will take care of this, either through our institutions or with our vote. This 2018 vote may be the last one we have if the republicans retain the House, however I feel the people of the USA have been jolted into awareness similar to yours. This is a good thing, let us take care of the business at hand. What happens after, the same thing again by another name? If we are to permanently solve the problem, we must take care of the present and also realize history cannot be ignored. No where do I see an awareness of this by our electorate, as illustrated by the majority of comments after the original post. I was not aware of the OP's history lesson and I will add it to the list. However your response to the OP is more dangerous than you realize, what happens in our yester years is of VITAL importance. By shrugging it off, you imperil all of us.
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  10. Fastestinthewest - We shall see good buddy, we shall see. If you call that idiot a winner, you are not as smart as you think.
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  11. The reason the idiot right fights the left is that they cannot stand the idea of everyone being . . . . ordinary.
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  12. John Quest - Venezuela is not socialist, that is a load of crap. The only problem Venezuela is having is the siege warfare of sanctions being carried out by the USA, so that their resources can be looted when the people are starved long enough. Yeah, lets burn all that Venezuelan oil and really heat things up. Get a grip man.
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  13. Democrats are simply put, republicans now. Nancy Pelosi is refusing to do the bidding of the 2018 electorate, we voted in the blue wave to hold Trump accountable and she is refusing outright. My new democrat representative is acting more like a republican every day. Joe Biden is Trump with a better smile. When Joe Biden becomes the nominee, I will write in Bernie or vote 3rd party for the first time in my 57 years.
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  14. Troll Alert!
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  15. Of course, why bother hiding the corruption now? The 1% plan to take it all. Drain the wealth, kill democracy and start the age of modern feudalism. The republicans are out to crush the working class, because that is what their end game requires. When you look at the math, wealthy people have so much money that their capital gains are taking bigger and bigger bites out of our GDP, consuming the host economy like lethal parasites. For business monopolies, Covid-19 is a great opportunity to buy up failing businesses and consolidate, preying on our distressed society. Congress made it easy for them to do this with trillions of dollars, passes by both parties. Until we realize how dangerous it is to let people control so much accumulated wealth, we will never have the opportunity to expect anything different. No reforms ever survives in the presence of accumulated wealth. Every reform dies, because wealth kills reform. We must start with that simple fact.
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  16. Trolls hate socialism because they have too few brain cells to understand . . . they think socialism comes in a single flavor.
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  17. So you really think something that happened 50 years ago is not important today? How about 100 years ago eh? Some of you have to get your heads out of your collective asses. Yes, of course it matters. We have a situation here people, where the Royals of the past have been reincarnated (not literally) into the oligarchs of the present. They care about nothing except wielding power, to the detriment of us all. Unless you have the time to look in depth at what is happening now, then have time to trace the roots back ten years, then twenty years, then fifty years, then 100 years . . . the bigger picture will never emerge for you. That ignorance is what the oligarchs count on, keep the masses ignorant and chasing their own tails. Until we place a cap on accumulated wealth, place a very high inheritance tax, and put in place a maximum annual income . . . the oligarchs and central banking systems will always undermine and undo any reforms we put in place. That is the real lesson of history. Just figure out how much is needed to live a lifetime in luxury without getting so much money that power becomes the hobby of choice . . . that level is where the caps on accumulated wealth and annual incomes needs to be. Until this is done, any "reform" that passes into law is completely useless.
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  18. Chase Musqkwanto - Can you hum and jump in circles at the same time? Nailing trum(PP)utin is short term, the next one will be worse if we cannot evolve our thinking. That means taking in the wide field of view, then engineering solutions that will endure. What would you have us do if not address the problem at its roots?
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  19. Chase Musqkwanto - Good points, and they underscore that we cannot count on the corporate or "mainstream news media" to keep us informed. Just imagine how I felt as a 55 year old, learning for the first time after doing my own research . . . that wages have not gone up in respect to productivity for forty years! That information was never contained in any "business report or economic reports" that I had been listening to for all my adult life. So we have to connect with each other in places like this and hope that we can "unionize" society at the grass roots. The JD have a lot going for them but even they are woefully short of understanding where our peril lies.
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  20. Chase Musqkwanto - Agreed, as a really good initial step. Please feel free to expound on you own ideas, I am curious. But for now . . . My Lady just arrived and I have to take my lunch break!
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  21. calichef1962 - Exactly, you nailed it. I'm also a Californian and I am happy that our primary has been moved up. As one of the most heavily populated states, we should be steering the national narrative instead of following everyone else. My wife and I vote by mail, which is something I encourage every Californian to sign up for. Interesting note, at the time of the 2016 California primary, I was registered as an Independent. I had no problem getting a Democratic Party ballot. Since 2016, I have joined the Justice Democrats movement to support all progressives and move the party to the left. If your moniker is an indication of your birth year, then we are very close to the same age. I was born in 1961 and have two grown daughters who are now schooling me in modern progressive politics. We need to listen to the children . . . . hear that Diane Feinstein?
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  22. People need to know what "communism" was from your perspective, so we can figure out what is real and what is not. Can you tell us about the communism you experienced?
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  23. Kelly Rellis - U R stupid.
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  24. As many as needed, clearly there have not yet been enough.
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  25.  @dinard38  - What I learned from the 2016 election is that we have had too many elections where we picked the lessor of two evils . . . and that got us Trump. So what are you going to do, the same thing again and expect different results this time? Have you learned nothing from the past 30 to 40 years? If Joe Biden gets elected this time, just because people want to get rid of Trump, the next republican president is going to end the Republic and give us a full blown fascist dictatorship. We are very nearly there right now, why do you think Mitch McConnell is packing the courts with pro corporate/anti consumer/anti citizen justices? These people are anti-Constitution, they are out to end the USA as we know it and finish installing a corporate run dystopia. Your response is typical of those who simply look at the surface qualities only, not the underlying facts or history. Bad call.
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  26.  @dinard38  - Most of what you wrote, I am in agreement with . . . especially your second paragraph. The problem I have is with your first and third paragraphs. I have been voting for nearly forty years. The arc of my political alignment is this: Republican for the first four years (I was impressed by Reagan), Independent from 1992 to 2016, Democrat from 2016 to present. After the 2016 election, I took on a self-motivated research project into our economy. There were a mix of mystifying facts and beliefs regarding the economy I wanted clarity about. Turns out both the facts and the beliefs were false. There is a mythological propaganda narrative embroidered into Americans view the economy and it is conjoined with our politics. Biden, Harris, Booker, Buttigieg and several others are firmly in the American mythology camp. We cannot win anything if one of those candidates gets the nomination. I am now in a strange position since I have uncovered the ugly truth behind the American economic and political mythology. On the right hand is Trump, we don't want him. Three fingers and the thumb of the left hand will deliver us another Trump like figure in a future election. I will vote for the finger on the left hand which actually changes our future prospects, and if I cannot do that because the nomination goes to water carriers for the American mythology . . . should I just turn a blind eye toward the truth of our situation for the short term gain of getting rid of Trump? What good does that do? The answer is that we will be worse off with a democrat who is aligned with the current American myth than we would be with Trump for another term as president. He cannot work with anyone, which means nothing will get done . . . Trump is actually the lessor of two evils here. The core of the American myth is that we are a democracy and that we are exceptional. Neither is true. We are a hairs breath away from losing what little democracy we have and Trump is a symptom of this problem . . . not the cause. The real issue is that all of us are slaves, shackled to an economy where we spend most of our adult lives and we have no democratic input into what happens to the wealth we create. Until that singular fact is changed, we stay slaves. I will no longer support any candidate that supports the status-quo. If we are going to have change for the better, we have to make it happen. Half measures and platitudes are no longer a currency that I will spend, we either vote in change or we sink with the ship. Your choice.
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  27. Kelly Rellis - Your profile is as empty as your brain, so whatever you have to say counts just about as much as a goldfish's opinion.
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  28. John Smith - Nice sarcasm! Really had me going there, wow! What a hoot!!! Do you do standup?
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