Military bases provide a powerful seed for economic growth in a area, just like prisons, colleges, and Government centers. Care should be taken when deciding what is absolutely necessary for a given range of scenarios. Government must always try to maximize taxpayer money. Payments to foreign countries or military hardware, among other things, should always be scrutinized by truly unconflicted entities. The is no shortage of military bases in Blue states such as California and Washington State, however. The problem we are facing in the United States is rampant corruption brought on by unethical politicians and businesses. Look at how much is spent on campaigning: Millions for a Congressional race and about a billion on the Presidency. As a potential representative, most will not have the money to run for office unless they make some unsavory promises. Save a serious financial mistake, all of these politicians retire as multimillionaires. Not bad, given their, by some standards, modest salaries. Big or connected businesses, the ones who can pay for lobbying or those who are affiliated in some way to a politician get preferential treatment versus non participating businesses. This can create a situation where cronyism is a competitive advantage over innovation, thereby reducing long term technological and business development while reducing the willing participation of others into a rigged system. Corrupt politician specialties include renovating public schools, whether the school needs it or not, calling it money for education, for kickbacks. Transportation infrastructure is another popular method for politicians of all types to line their pockets at taxpayer’s expense. Another is “Regulation support” businesses that provide a required service for complying with Government regulations. These politician affiliated regulation support businesses also support the Party cause by making favorable statements supporting the party’s narrative. Another popular infrastructure project is stadiums. Running at a billion dollars, plus or minus, it does not take long for politicians to get rich. Democratic Seattle, WA Mayor Ron Sims ordered the teardown and replacement of a perfectly good stadium against the votes of the citizens. He resigned wealthy and as far as I know, he was never prosecuted. Last common avenue for corruption is major disasters in other countries. If there was one thing Bush, Sr. and Bill Clinton could agree on, foreign charity work was very worthwhile. Very little of US donations actually ended up in the hands of the poor people who needed the money the most. Can anyone offer a theory where the donations, which included US individual contributions, went? Our political process needs a major overhaul. Both parties are complicit. The penalty for US citizens not acting quickly and decisively is continued loss of our rights and economic options. Look at the enslavement power of high college tuition and healthcare premiums. The cost of college and healthcare are not regulated by a truly free market. For decades, healthcare and tuition costs have far outstripped the rate of inflation with an arguable reduction in quality. The third party payment system is certainly a part of this. The other part may be a systemic effort by the Globalists to enforce higher productivity on those people who want a higher standard of living than subsidies can provide, but are not well connected politically or do not have exceptional talent or money to begin with. Organize by talking to others and sharing ideas, gathering petitions, and making politicians hear our unified voice, regardless of race, sex, political affiliation, etc. We could offer the corrupt politicians amnesty for their quick departure. In the alternative, we could resort to selective boycotts of politically favored companies and civic “disobedience”, where we no longer recognize those who are frequently seen in DC as our representatives.
Would you believe I’ve met some Confederation supporting individuals as a trucker who were not racists? Prejudiced thinking is shallow, unfair, and does not build cooperation on things we share a common interest.
You’ve got anti Trumpers who call black people Coons and other epithets ... reliably Leftarded... and ironically they call other people racists. These are the true racists. They won’t even admit it....
What led you to the conclusion that they were not racists, just curious...did they claim to have Black friends or simply stated "I am not racist". There was nothing pure and heart of gold about the Confederacy. In political terms it was a rebellion against the U.S. government that started a civil war. In social terms it was to support the continued practice of buying and selling human beings for cheap labor and property. Whatever way you look at it...where is the glory and pride that should be extolled....
I don’t accept 40% as even remotely reflecting reality. I have talked to too many people, including a perceived racist. Even the perceived racist knew better than to overtly show his racism. The reason why I suspected he was a racist was he floated some weird trial balloons as he seemed to want to talk about “lesser” people. This person could not safely make any claim of superiority of anyone else in any area, by the way. It is the lesser people who are racists as a form of psychological compensation, I guess. I support Trump because I felt persecuted by the Radical Left for my being: 1. While 2. Male 3. Heterosexual The Democratic political strategy of identity politics has turned into reverse racism, reverse sexism, and reverse sexual orientation phobia. The Democratic Party and the media went way overboard in promoting “Diversity”, and alienated those who were not in their favored group. Hopefully you recognize me as someone who does not base their thinking or decisions on hearsay or a vacuum. I attempt to use a reasoned approach to my opinions and decisions. My conclusion was that it was better for me as a long term registered Democrat to support pussy grabbing, politician buying, bankruptcy prone billionaire Donald Trump than “Basket of Deplorables”, hard drive smashing, email disappearing, identity politics loving Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton as Hillary’s husband was considered a plus, but in the end Trump being perceived as less than an Washington insider won me over. It was almost coin flip close, however.
I beat up on my fellow Democrats pretty bad, but they definitely deserve it. The majority of people are reasonable regardless of their political affiliation, sex, race, etc. It’s the media giving coverage to the most extreme for entertainment and viewership value and that is what may skew our perceptions.
The strongest example I can think of was someone who ended causing me to realize that I prejudged him. This individual has a Rebel flag waving, gun toting, Redneck who used to ride in a motorcycle gang and collected past due loan payments. I had talked to him on occasion and one day in a room inside the training facility of a major trucking firm he was giving world class advice to a new minority contractor. This Redneck spent well over an hour sincerely providing the detailed reasoning of a seasoned pro to someone of color who needed it. My conclusion was that the Redneck felt Rebel Flag represented freedom. It was about rebelling against a overbearing authority. I am thinking the Rebel cause is no longer about keeping or bringing back slavery anymore. It is about fighting the tyranny of our politicians. Something I can definitely identify and get on board with. Hopefully, you too. My personal prejudice was shown when I assumed the Redneck would be annoyed at that idea of helping a man of color. I was happily surprised, but disappointed in myself at the same time. As a side note, one would not risk being prejudiced in guessing how far this Rebel would go to defend his gun rights.