I was thinking of name change for a while and I liked Petro's post about Jeb! and said well, bingo, Brook! it is. Thanks to Petro he granted my wish. He is a Republican and all but he ain't that bad really. A very cool owner. He lets me survive on this board and he lets you post as a stinking Dolphin fan
Trump: When I said we should go to war in Iraq, I ‘wasn’t a politician’ https://www.yahoo.com/politics/trump-when-i-said-we-should-go-to-war-in-iraq-i-052320351.html
I was only there for 3 nights, and did not see, well I don't think I saw, any gypsies. What a great place, though. I'd go back this afternoon if someone gave me a ticket.
Every point you make here is true, and I agree with the overall sentiment. But there are two points, whether contrary or not to your overall argument, that remain, and fuel concerns that there is too little control over immigration. The first, and I understand this is not a point progressives are inclined to make, is that border security is a must in this day. National sovereignty is undermined without it as well. Second, and a point wholly in keeping with the progressive agenda, is that everyone is supposed to follow the rules. Illegal immigrants by definition do not follow the rules. That's a real problem.
You imply without actually saying that both parties have been treating the average American equally badly. That is something I totally disagree with, and is the main point of contention I have with the Sanders campaign. The nineties saw great growth in middle class income while the budget deficit first went down and then, however briefly, went away. While the GOP under W pursued economic policies that were adverse to the average American and totally benefitted the very wealthy, and then under their stewardship we saw the greatest decline in national wealth with the financial crisis, the Dems then rightly minimized as best they could the ill effects with their Keynesian approach. An in fact while wage growth has been tepid there has been a huge increase in jobs since the economy bottomed out. I also think the average American has benefitted, even if they do not realize it, from the ACA. The situation is complicated by the mixed effects of NAFTA and globalization, and more could be done on that front. Then there is the fact that the GOP has obstructed other efforts that would have been helpful. But to argue an equivalency between the parties is ridiculous.
They were trying to hit me up for money when I was near the Vatican. They showed some gory picture of christ getting crucified and were mumbling. I yelled at the bitch in norweigan and she scrammed pretty quickly.
My son is heading down there this afternoon for the weekend. Lucky bastard. Rome is my favorite city in the world. _
I have some American cities I really like, not counting NYC which I've simply been here too long to consider in that category. To be clear there's a lot about NYC I love and I do not take it for granted. But enough is enough. Seattle is a great place, except for the weather. There's no place like New Orleans. What a lot of fun. San Francisco and Boston also deserve mention, as for that matter does Toronto. In Europe I frankly have not been around much, yet. My wife loves Madrid, and Dublin is a great place especially for younger people. I've never been to Paris I am ashamed to admit, and I am sure I will love it when I get there. But I can't imagine preferring it to Rome. Rome has everything I want in a city. To say it has history is the biggest understatement ever. No place else comes close, OBVIOUSLY. But it also is a very alive city, very contemporary. Lots of great architecture, including current. And the food is fantastic. It's a great city to walk around. the fountains, the river, the avenues. And while the summer can be hot, it's mostly dry. The people for the most part are great. And the women on average are quite beautiful, well dressed and all the rest. Yes, it is my favorite city as well.
My tops in order: Rome--by a wide margin for all the reasons you listed Bruges Florence Paris--this is a must--second only to Rome for "big" cities Seville (liked it better than Madrid) Salzburg Amalfi Lyon Another 10 towns in Italy About 6 towns in Ireland Btw, I saw the most beautiful woman in the world in Rome. Like every 15 minutes. My neck had whiplash. _ _
Another awesome city for beautiful women is Milan. Probably in part because of the fashion houses there, like Paris, but a smaller city than Paris. Walking around Milan in the middle of town, it's as if they must have checkpoints all around the city where they only allow beautiful women inside. Ugly and even plain ones get turned away.
NAFTA and globalization basically took the middle third of American society and moved them down to just above the bottom fifth, while compressing everybody else in the bottom third down to that level also. That it made middle classes suddenly viable in a host of countries in which they were not viable before is wonderful and all but that's not the job of the American ruling class. Their job was to keep Americans middle class while they made their millions. Now instead they're making their billions and most people would be considered poor or verging on it by the standards of middle class America in 1960. The answer to the Rust Belt rusting out wasn't to just give up on American manufacturing and ship it all overseas so the shareholders could become much richer and CEO's could make many millions more than would have been decent in 1960's America. The people who worked in those factories weren't then and aren't now shareholders in anything significant other than their house, which now owns them instead of the other way around.
I think several different things are being included in your post, but the respective role of the two political parties in the way their policies have affected the middle class, what I THOUGHT your post that I quoted was about, is not one of them. However worthy a subject NAFTA and its effect on jobs is, NAFTA was a bipartisan effort, and certainly cannot be laid SOLELY on the Democrats. Yes, I suppose it can be seen as problematic that where the two parties agreed there it was to the detriment of some, while benefitting others. But it cannot by put forth as an example of Democratic Party perfidy not shared by the GOP. In any event NAFTA is problematic as an argument for reasons concerning itself. First of all while it is part of and encouraged globalization, there would have been an effect from globalization even without NAFTA. Obviously. And you do of course refer to both. I am just pointing out here the specific role of NAFTA as part of the larger consideration of globalization is problematic. Second, it is hard to know what would have happened if NAFTA had not been adopted. Third is that the whole situation is a mix of variables. Prior to the financial crisis, it was argued that the US economy grew by @25 million jobs following adoption of NAFTA. http://www.factcheck.org/2008/07/naftas-impact-on-employment/ Now concededly even if that is true job growth does not mean corresponding wage increases. But again it is difficult to separate out that variable. In that connection there were obviously a number of factors that were involved in that increase in total jobs. But NAFTA did not succeed in lowering the number of jobs in the US. My own view is that there may be some way in which NAFTA adversely affected the income levels for some segment of the US population. In fact it likely did. But in other ways it helped, and not just the very wealthy.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/19/news/companies/schlumberger-ceo-pay-oil-jobs/index.html Sounds about right in this day and age. Middle class getting screwed, the CEO a super slight pay decrease...Increasing his pay would have looked real bad...
More on Rome One of my favorite art films is L'Eclisse by Antonioni, with the great Monica Vitti. It was set in Rome, shot during 1962. In the nearly 55 years since, many streets and buildings remain unchanged. Here's a link comparing three street scenes then and now: http://filmap.tumblr.com/post/115942433307/leclisse-michelangelo-antonioni-1962-bar-della Of course that link could compare a much larger number of outdoor scenes than that, including the modern EUR district, but I thought it interesting.
