MegaMind

I pointed to my own post with a quote in it. The disruption was started by you not I.

I feel your posts are much greater violations of the rule you instituted when you were an Admin, than anything I said. A non issue was made into a major issue for no good reason other than perhaps just to cause a problem. In the future I would like to ask you either not reply at all to my posts, or to create a separate topic to prevent derailing threads. Thanks.

I've gone back and edited my posts because somehow it offends you. I feel what you posted in response is far more offensive than saying we are hecked over with a big red white and blue baseball bat by our government. My intention was to convey we as a country are being exploited, and the Nordic countries have a much higher quality of life.

My friend in Norway works 4 days a week delivering mail and earns $50,000 USD a year, and manages to have $1,500 of discretionary income left over to save after all his bills and expenses are paid. Nordic countries have the least corrupt governments and highest standard of living. Norway and Iceland produce almost all their electricity from renewable sources. Nordic countries offer socialized higher education and healthcare. Nordic countries provide gracious paternity leave. Nordic countries provide gracious unemployment benefits. You would never have to worry about being homeless in most Nordic countries. You don't have to hire a lawyer to appeal your denied disability if you become disabled. Compare that to the USA. Most people can't work 4 days at a low skilled job and earn 50,000 USD a year, much less save $1,500 USD a month after their bills are paid. The majority of bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. People dying of cancer without insurance are given pain medicine at the emergency room and sent home to die unless they can fund raise enough for treatment. People are refused disability even when their kidneys shut down, and have to hire lawyers to appeal their case at a major expense. Going to college requires going into sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The price of tuition at my local university is $30,000 USD per year. Most people live pay-check to pay-check. People are left to starve and die in the streets if they lose their job and have no family or friends to rely on. We spend our money socializing losses incurred when banks gamble and lose, and we allow them to keep profits when they gamble and win. We have spent 6 trillion on the war on terror based on knowingly false information and 1 trillion on the war on drugs with absolutely nothing to show for accept for 500,000 dead brown skinned people those don't matter though right? We incarcerate more of our population than Russia and China combined. We lock people up for non violent drug offences. Police brutality is a real problem that largely goes ignored, people are routinely killed even following police commands explicitly. We are caging immigrants and their children like dogs at the border and we are doing this as a warning to discourage others from coming here. I think George Carlin above said it best, go to time stamp 4:50.

As a recap: We spend more than the next top 7 countries combined on military spending each year. The war on terror has cost us 6 trillion so far, and the war on drugs at least 1 trillion. It would only take 6 trillion to completely power the usa with concentrated solar power and molten salt energy storage to provide 24 x 7 power even when the sun isn't shining, and we would have enough energy to all drive electric cars and have dirt cheap power bills. We could have paid off all the mortgages in the usa. Instead we printed money and gave to the banks which caused the problem by lending money to people they knew couldn't afford to pay their loans and then lying about it and making it sound like a safe bet and reselling it to investors. We are hemorrhaging trillions of dollars to kill half a million people for their oil resources and incarcerate more people than china for non violent drug offences, and we could have socialized health care, education, and clean 24 x 7 solar energy. By the way Norway produces most of their energy from hydroelectric, and Iceland from geothermal. This whole situation is so laughably absurd and surreal it's hard sometimes to come to terms with the fact it is reality.

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/doordash-tipping-tip-scandal-guaranteed-minimum-tony-xu.html Doordash keeps the tips people give to their delivery people, or did at least. Many people driving for Uber don't break even considering depreciation and maintenance on their vehicle. People are just trying to survive for the most part.

You missed the part about the Nordic countries having the least corrupt governments, and highest quality of life. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/these-countries-have-the-highest-quality-of-life https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/least-corrupt-countries-transparency-international-2018/

When the banking crisis hit the USA, we decided the best course of action was to print money and give that newly printed money to the banks that caused the problem. They were "too big to fail" after all. The banks made loans they knew were not going to be repaid, in many cases they never even verified income of applicants, they resold these as mortgage backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations. They marketed them as AAA rated super safe high return investments, they knew they were bad investments, and when it all came crashing down on them, we the taxpayers were required to socialize their losses. Banks gamble and win? Privatize the profits. Banks gamble and lose? Socialize the losses. For the money we printed out of thin air and gave to the banks, we could have paid off every mortgage and subprime loan in America. In Iceland when the banking crisis hit do you know what they did? They said the banks caused this, the banks can accept responsibility for it, and the banks can fail if need be. The criminal bankers that caused the chaos were thrown in jail. Iceland recovered quicker than the rest of Europe and is much better off now as a result. https://grapevine.is/news/2018/02/07/36-bankers-96-years-in-jail/

https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison https://www.businessinsider.com/the-war-on-terror-has-cost-the-us-nearly-6-trillion-2018-11 https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/11/14/price-tag-of-the-war-on-terror-will-top-6-trillion-soon/ 6 Trillion USD spent on the war on terror by 2018 estimates. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/wars-terror-killed-million-people-study-181109080620011.html 500,000 killed for oil and mineral resources. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/06/27/452819/ending-war-drugs-numbers/ Since 1971 we have spent 1 Trillion USD on the war on (some) drugs. 7 Trillion dollars we might as well have doused in gasoline and burned to the ground. 7 Trillion dollars literally just wasted on killing a half a million people to harvest their oil and mineral resources, and to lock people up for smoking weed. https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/what-it-costs-go-100-percent-renewable/ https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/03/the-old-dirty-us-electric-grid-would-cost-5-trillion-to-replace-where-should-infrastructure-spending-go.html 5.7 Trillion would be enough to move the USA to 100% solar power. Concentrated solar power with molten salt energy storage like the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project would provide power 24 x 7 even when the sun is not shining. We could produce enough energy to power everything including transportation with electric cars. I am going to post another reply to this about the banking crisis and how Iceland handled it.

Besides healthcare and education there are a lot of social safety nets in Nordic countries. Homeless? Not possible in most Nordic countries. Having a baby? 70 weeks of paid parental leave in Sweden. Unemployed in Sweden? 300 days of unemployment, and then if you still can't find a job you can go to the labor market program and be guaranteed at least some type of work. Disabled, no need to hire a lawyer to appeal 20 times to get disability benefits. I had a friend in the USA they refused his disability even after his kidneys shut down and he had to go on Dialysis. He got disability, and his lawyer took 20% of back payments due, and then he died 4 months later (bankrupt by the way from hospital bills). Retirement pension in Norway for those over 67, the basic rate was $2,326 USD in 2013. I have a friend in Norway, he delivers the mail, 4 days per week, and makes $50,000 USD a year, he said he saves after all bills and expenses are paid $1500 USD a month. These are just some examples. In my opinion we are being hecked over with a big red white and blue baseball bat.

Hi Sean, I know you will be overloaded for a while perhaps many months, but I wanted to toss this out there so I'd be first in line. I would like to change my name to: Tai_Chi_Chai_Tea Also if PPD's are still going to be allowed could I request one of those as well please. Thanks again.

I think you are projecting, I never mentioned communism.

When debating with these idiots about how socialism cannot work. I point out how the Nordic countries which have socialized medicine and healthcare have the highest standard of living, and a well educated and healthy populace. When you don't spend more than Russia, China and the next top 30 countries combined on the military you can afford to educate and provide healthcare for your citizens. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/these-countries-have-the-highest-quality-of-life

As silly as this sounds for a grown man, I sincerely cried when I read this. These people have made life a living hell for our entire group. Sean from the bottom of my heart, thank you sir.

I like to meditate in the forest, does that count?

I like this one.

I visited this forum a while ago and never signed up. I ended up coming back and decided to sign up this time. I've been going through a lot in life lately and I am looking for answers and generally trying to "find myself" so to speak. I am hoping to find peace within myself and purpose. I look forward to talking with everyone!

I saw a pair of blue jays today playing with each other in my backyard. I heard they can be quite aggressive and mean birds but these two, the almost seemed like family. I am planning on building a nice bird feeder with a pole in my yard so I can attract more birds to watch. I know my cats would enjoy it.