USA Politics Thread - *No gun debate*

[froggyluv 2130]

I can be legally detained for any length of time for no reason because I have a pantry full of food and some guns

Now Im doubting the food has anything to do with anything as I have a full fridge and as far as 'having some guns' - why would that be illegal? The current President hasn't passed any new gun restriction legislation as far as Im aware?

gas prices are falling but still way above what they should be

This is where we Americans are spoiled. Been around the world? It's way more expensive just about everywhere regardless of the type of party running that respective country. Gas prices are expected to keep dropping -be happy rather then complaining for "what could be".

and an unconstitutional... thing... was allowed anyways by an incompetent government body after way too long of a wait.

I trust a Supreme Court decision over a forumite over what is Constitutional. You may believe it bad policy or law -but the Supreme Court decides what is Constitutional.

I don't quite share your enthusiasm. I went out to enjoy life, but there was a law against it. Sure, it could be much worse, but that's not reason to not want something better. This crap is hardly a democracy.

Sorry that you don't. I always believed that the only thing you have control of life is how you react to things. That is why a Totalitarian Dictator with absolute power can be miserable all the while a prisoner in a Nazi camp can say a bird singing one morning was the greatest moment of his life. Americans have it pretty good and I think its good to appreciate what you have.

[GRS 10]

I am thankful for what I have here, but that is no reason to not push for more. I love it here, which is why I want to see all the crappy stuff is end so it can be even better. I'm so critical out of love for this place. :P

The 7+ days of food and weatherproof ammo thing means someone can be suspected as a terrorist.

Edited June 29, 2012 by GRS

[froggyluv 2130]

I hear what you're saying GRS and striving toward betterment of ourselves and our Nation is an admirable thing. My real problem are with pundits of the two parties constantly trying to keep us in a state of perpetual fear to "keep the base electrified" all the while lining their pockets with this insidious drive. Like Jesse Ventura says "Dems and Repubs" are like the Bloods and Crips street gangs -even sporting the exact same colors -blue and red respectively. Street gangs will do anything in the name of their gang breaking all social norms and contracts to best the other gang and have little to no care for normal people on the sidewalk. While this mentality may be somewhat appropriate for disenfranchised teen and moreso rival schoolyard cliques on the playground -it is utter foolishness for grown men that have the serious jobs of protecting and sustaining our Nation.

I used to watch the news nonstop and it left me feeling hopeless and despair. Now I spend that free time in the mountains and nature or the gym and it's amazing how little I notice any Government save the horrid Tax Day ;)

[GRS 10]

UN gun control affecting the US? Like hell! I bet it won't go through but if it does there will probably be some serious trouble here. Might get interesting.

Edited July 14, 2012 by GRS

[PELHAM 10]

Gas prices? - here in the uk local to me the cheapest is:

£1.30 = $2.02 per litre

= $7.66 per US gallon.

[Mr. Charles 22]

http://gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

Oh americans :rolleyes:

[nodunit 397]

Wow, wonder what is going on with California.

[GRS 10]

For us the point isn't whether it is higher or lower than the rest of the world, but higher or lower than the year before. We don't care about you have to pay.

[BronzeEagle 2]

infrastructure wise, america is a sexually charged nightmare where resources like strength and capability are looked over completely in favor of a fresh face. human resource misusage in the hands of utopianists, in places nieve enough to let it happen i should say. good luck!

Edited July 23, 2012 by BronzeEagle

[Hans Ludwig 0]

Gas prices? - here in the uk local to me the cheapest is:

£1.30 = $2.02 per litre

= $7.66 per US gallon.

Now subtract taxes and the regulatory compliance fee.

[PELHAM 10]

Now subtract taxes and the regulatory compliance fee.

True lol, Transport in general is so expensive because of tax etc. If the UK ever became another US state as we used to joke, the motto on the car tag would be:

"UK - the stay at home state!" lol.

[Prydain 1]

One of my half-sisters is in the US doing charity work this month and said that the US coverage (NBC in particular) of the Olympic opening ceremony was highly censured. Does anyone else have this experience?

I have found a few articles, blogs and conversations about how the US coverage missed some of the stories and commentators speaking over the content with unnecessary ramble. But this part of the ceremony was over five minuets long, you don't have that many adverts right?

Also, give a medal to whoever is the intern in charge of Mitt Romney's diary for sending him to us on the week we stick several big middle fingers up to that most foreign of powers effecting us at the moment; sloping-forehead-conservatism.

[PELHAM 10]

Wasn't great coverage on the bbc at times, the commentary on the athletes was dire, this is supposed to be celebrating sport and achievement and we had:

"Rwanda - apart from being a country of Genocide they do produce some very good cyclists"

I squirmed in my chair with embarrassment as many nations were described as "poorest in the region" or the mentioning of some other historical problem, simply awful. Hopefully it wasn't heard outside bbc channels. The opening ceremony was mostly stunning but have to agree about the overtly left wing politics of some of it - I think Boyle misread his assignment as creative director and assigned himself as creative dictator lol. It was a bit Blairite and you could tell they had much to do with it initially, it even ended with Tony and Cheries fav pop song (Maccas a family friend).

[Prydain 1]

I think Boyle misread his assignment as creative director and assigned himself as creative dictator lol.

I think he wanted to show stories related to the British people, their culture and their strife. I understand that conservatives are a bit angry because British people, culture and strife include campaigning for womens rights, labour, immigrants, unions, fighting inequality and its culmination; our society today. If Nazi-dress donning Tory party members want to complain about the love for the NHS, a certain acceptance of socialism and calmness in the face of it and lesbian kisses then they can and I'll just see them as what they look like to me, foreign.

Since we are in the US politics thread it is probably apt to mention, also, the NHS tribute specifically. Our society has been disrespectfully talked about in recent years in the wake of the Obama administrations struggle to change the US health service and the lies, rent-a-mouth spin and failed criticism that was played to us by the interest-controlled and American media. It was nice to finally see it proudly shown off like a big sparkling diamond, we made an NHS symbol visible to over a billion people so if you don't like it, fuck off.

[PELHAM 10]

It's not the politics that I disagree with, I just think it's bad form to bang your socialist drum at such an event - it should be neutral ground and purely entertainment based.

[Prydain 1]

What was shown was all fair to me. The middle finger that only Torys can see is the fact that systems in the business of nurturing, treating and caring for others without heaping on more worry and despair is being celebrated which is a world away from the loveless, straight faced, Thatcherite Britain that El Dave wants to believe he leased control of. I say, if you don't like Britain's heritage and what makes us the society we are then the door is always open for you to leave.

Socialism, the suffragette movement, unions, mass immigration, industrialism and capitalism were, among others, all celebrated in the Industrial Revolution piece. That is Britain. Complex, diverse, colourful and with a thousand years of ideas isn't doing well to start dismissing its best ideas or forgetting about them -- the very reason why we have the problem we do right now with Dave's ilk. Those low-brow members of our population who are conditioned by the Torygraph, the Scum, the Mirror, the Daily Mail and the rest of the tabloid press see a word like 'socialism' and have a dog-like reflexive twitch to turn from an amicable person to the worst kind of reactionary. This relates to American politics too as we see a similar pain.

[PELHAM 10]

@Prydain - funny the party of the socialists didn't win the last election isn't it? Perhaps a significant number of people take a different view?

Be very careful how you set up your version of the NHS in the USA. Here if your relative has died of malnutrition, dehydration or simple neglect on a hospital ward you find that the notes have either gone missing or been forged, the staff who caused the death have been sent for trauma counselling, it's left up to the Union to discipline them which is very rare and if you dare to criticize you are met with a tirade like the above. Getting compensation is very difficult as often the evidence goes missing. You can't say anything about the glorious staff of the NHS - it's verboten lol.

This is one of the few that reaches the headlines and was probably only mentioned because he was so young, this happens to the elderly every day:

Man 22 dies of dehydration in hospital due to staff failures

http://www.channel4.com/news/man-died-of-dehydration-in-hospital-due-to-staff-failures

Edited July 29, 2012 by PELHAM

[Prydain 1]

One example of incompetence in a country of 62 million by a service employing 1.7million people. I know the problems of individual trusts do pop up occasionally but it isn't a blight on my argument is it? Is it at all a failure of the thesis that a health service should be in the business of treating people equally and freely rather than driving worry into them just so they will buy more check-ups and care and making terminally ill people who can never work again pay large sums of money that indebted them in their final years/months/days?

You will see sorry storys like that in the future though, 50 thousand NHS nurses, doctors and staff will be fired because stupid people forgot what the Torys are about. If you think one young man's death because of some incompetent nurses are bad, wait until there are no nurses at all.

And don't start talking about unions being responsible for punishment, you know the law is the same for all. As for disappearing evidence, are you really that thick? If there was evidence of evidence disappearing then arrests would be made and charges brought. This is my point exactly, you can't talk for more than a few paragraphs without lies about the NHS being brought up in post #4989.

[PELHAM 10]

I have direct experience of it Prydain, I have several family memebers who work in the NHS who tell some real horror stories and I have suffered the poor care myself. I woke up during a surgical procedure after an incompetent anaesthetist decided to guess my weight instead of asking. I could move my legs but instead of realising something was wrong the doctor asked one of the nurses to sit on them to keep me still. Luckily it was only a short procedure for wisdom teeth and they had almost finished. Just in case you think it was a dream, I had the finger shaped bruises on my legs as proof.

A member of my family was looking after an elderly friend who was very tall. He ended up in hospital and didn't fit in the standard bed on the geriatric ward, she continually asked for the bed to be changed but was ignored. He developed pressure sores and injuries to his feet which became badly infected and he died of Septicemia. When she asked to see his medical records the parts relating to the treatment for the sores on his feet were missing and the cause of death was recorded as pneumonia. She works for the NHS and habitually looked at his charts so she knows what treatment he received and that the records went missing the day he died.

Do a search yourself and you will find hundreds of examples including this shocking treatment of a whistle blower:

Panorama controversy

On 16 April 2009, nurse Margaret Haywood was barred from practising as a Nurse in the UK following a ruling by the NMC Conduct and Competence committee panel. This followed Haywood’s contribution to a BBC Panorama television programme, exposing significant deficiencies in care at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, England. On 12 October 2009, the striking off order was dropped, and replaced with a one year caution.

A business associate was once a manager in the NHS. He exposed fraud at quite a high level and was let go the following year. He attempted to get another job but was told unofficially that whistle blowers have no future and that it was a mistake to 'rock the boat'.

and: Nursing and midwives' regulator 'failing' patients

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18676422

Almost 4,500 cases are awaiting a decision by the regulator - and of those, about 1,000 have yet to be allocated a hearing date.

Sooo USA please don't follow our example, the bigger this NHS monster gets, the more the staff get away with.

Edited July 29, 2012 by PELHAM

[Prydain 1]

Do a search yourself and you will find hundreds of examples including this shocking treatment of a whistle blower:

Do a search about mistreatment, failed practices and abuse in any healthcare system and you will find the same stories. Or maybe we should forget about those cases?

Your last post lead me to just circle you back to my previous post. Read it, the sentences and respond to that.

Edit: All those achievements aren't bad since it is the second most efficient service among 19 top nations too. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/07/nhs-among-most-efficient-health-services?CMP=twt_gu More evidence of Tory lies.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Prydain

[nettrucker 142]

jzT8EZ7Fgss&feature=player_embedded#!

Wanted to write a comment but I desist.

[nodunit 397]

Must be nice to live without a conscience, without a care or concern for anyone but yourself and more money than you'd know what to do with. IT shocks and astounds me that people ask, nay, demand that everyone remains civil when things like this go on.

[nettrucker 142]

I believe it is one of the root and core problems in the US. It's not different in Europe either maybe the scale is smaller though.

[PELHAM 10]

Interesting to see PressTV commenting on the democratic system of the USA, while I agree there is a problem with lobbying and donations it's best to take the editing of PressTV with a degree of scepticism. Press TV is owned by the state-owned media corporation Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran.

It had it's broadcasting licence revoked in the UK after colluding with the Iranian Govt. in the forced confession, after physical and psychological torture, of an Iranian dissident Maziar Bahari. A very disturbing case you can read about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maziar_Bahari

I would hope that anyone interested in supporting basic human rights and freedoms would not publicise such an organisation.

[hellfire257 3]

Do a search about mistreatment, failed practices and abuse in any healthcare system and you will find the same stories. Or maybe we should forget about those cases?

Your last post lead me to just circle you back to my previous post. Read it, the sentences and respond to that.

Edit: All those achievements aren't bad since it is the second most efficient service among 19 top nations too. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/07/nhs-among-most-efficient-health-services?CMP=twt_gu More evidence of Tory lies.

It is different when the issue isn't personal. My grandfather, who suffered from dementia, was abused by NHS staff (I do not wish to go into details). The problem is that so many of the staff are not properly trained and most importantly, simply do not care about anything except when their next pay cheque comes so they can buy their next packet of cigarettes.