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Question #1: Does anyone here believe that the national downfall is NOT due to liberal Democrat policies?

Question #2: Will you vote for Conservative Senate and House candidates in November, in an effort to re-establish American greatness?

Nice leading questions though.

KS, if you are still buying what the Liberal MSM is selling after the last 2 year total shit show, there is no hope for you.

Since the Totalitarian Marxists (Democrats) took power in 2020, there has not been one positive thing done for America or the American people.

Ask this question...what nation that has adopted Socialist, Marxist, Communist, Fascist, Statist type governments have ever prospered? None. That's because it doesn't work well at all.

These tyrants are not Liberals...they are power hungry controllist..and we have witnessed the results from both parties.

Leftist always throw money and effort at everything but the root cause..like putting a bandaid on a cancerous sore..it covers it up but does absolutely nothing to deal with the cancer.

Right. That is why Question #2 asks if you will vote for CONSERVATIVE candidates.....not Republican candidates.

Interesting how a nation founded on God and biblical principles rose to be a worldwide leader and global powerhouse. Interesting to see the same nation rejecting God and biblical principles degrading itself and slowly falling apart. Also interesting how the same story is essentially mirrored in the bible numerous times over.

No doubt many non-Christian’s will hate my take on this but regardless of your take on Christianity biblical morals financially and personally are tough to refute that they build a good socio-economic place. Loving your neighbour, taking care of your family and sticking by them, saving for a rainy day etc etc.

Now get off my lawn

Yes, I will be voting for politicians who claim to be conservatives but of whom half or more will be RINOS.

NO POLITICIAN OR POLITICAL PARTY IS GOING TO SAVE THIS NATION OR THIS WORLD.

I will vote for the best option to have the most individual freedom from the crappy choices we will have.

Fixing America will have to come from the private sector like almost everything positive and productive.

I watch and read both right and left slanted news, and I know the difference.

But Flatlander, you deserve some credit I suppose. Much like today's cigarette smokers, you hang in there despite overwhelming evidence that what you are doing is extremely destructive.

"None are so blind as those who WILL NOT see."

(Link at end to a paper by Stephen Pinker with ref's for those points)

So, yes. We are in epic decline because more Americans are open to different lifestyles or cultures than they were 50-100yrs ago. That's not saying folks then were bad. Just that they didnt have the chance to know/meet/interact with folks who were different in some ways... And that's steadily changed resulting in a more open society, and people who felt shunned or hated just for who they were, being more willing to openly be that person now, than they would have a few decades ago.

No positive things in the past few years? There have been far more positives than negatives.

1.) Reduced the deficit significantly. 2.) Invested in semiconductor manufacture in the US. 3.) American Rescue Plan which helped add 10mil jobs to the economy and drop unemployment to 3.6% 4.) Major infrastructure bill 5.) Burn Pit suffering vet's help (PACT bill) 6.) Rebuild strength and cohesion in the free nations of the world (badly shaken previously) to help fight an autocrat's needless war (Ukraine). 7.) Trying to manage inflation (which if you believe is solely the fault of Biden, Trump, or any administration you are willfully ignorant. Its a complex global phenomenon with many roots. Yes, some are on this admin, many are not. Their handling of it isnt perfect but given how it's going in many other nations, we are doing better economically post pandemic by a heck of a ways) 8.) Many companies continue to post massive, record profits despite the economic challenges that do exist. Exxon made 17.9$ billion, up 273% from the same quarter last year. Chevron 11.6 billion. The major oil co's put up like 60billion or so over the past 3 months. Exxon was raking in about 2200 dollars a second every single day and Chevron about 1500 dollars a second. Seems like a good quarter to me. 9.) Inflation Reduction Act looks like a go and most non-partisan economic groups believe it will be very positive economically. Helping both with health care costs, green energy investment further deficit reductions. 10.) For those of you loving big walls, the admin even started filling in some sections and actually got Mexico to invest in more enforcement capability on their side of the border. Seems like something many here would applaud even if it's not exactly what you want. 11.) Killed Al Qaeda's leader. 12.) Gas prices dropping steadily for almost 7 weeks now. All his fault, not in reality unless Biden's policy's in the US literally raised gas prices around the earth. Should / could he have done more sooner to cut that off, yeah, that would have been awesome. Have to admit, I suspect those companies in #8 above could have helped a little too. But, I also have stock in those companies... so I guess I'm paying more at the pump and getting more in the investment portfolio. That's a rationalization, it's a global issue and it's improving, hopefully a lot more.

This admin has made some serious blunders for sure. They (none ever will be) were never going to be perfect or serve all of us as we wish they would. There are plenty of areas that could have gone and could be better.

But the argument on general grounds that the USA is a cess pool is factually false and not based on the evidence which has mounted over the past century, nor the past few years. Similarly, it does not take into account the myriad ways we are better off now - for example, simple stuff people dont think of like more people with indoor electricity and plumbing, better internet availability, etc.

Now, Ill complain and moan about policies I think are dumb, or approaches to governance I think are no good. But the argument that we are worse off today, really lands ONLY from our own creation. The information streams we choose for example. If we suck down Alex Jones for days, yes, we think the world is ending and everything is horrid. That's like shoving our face in a pile of rotten elephant remains, taking a bite, and saying "the finest steak in the world is horrible and this proves it".

I'm sure Ill be flamed and a million links of our imminent demise shall follow. So be it. What's up there above this is evidence based and readily available from reputable sources, google away.

I dont want to be the jerk. But I think it's worth (when I have time at least) it to drop information that makes you think.

Here is the link to the broad trends noted early on in this way to long post. https://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/has_the_decline_of_violence_reversed_since_the_better_angels_of_our_nature_was_written_2017.pdf

Yep, I still believe most people are good and I’m not changing just because a few here try to paint the many with the extremes.

Don’t forget that some of humankind’s most atrocious and disgusting behavior has been in the name of a god or justified by said god. Religion has been twisted so bad by man in the past. Be sure your not twisting it too. Christians who only have relationships with Christians wasn’t Jesus’s plan. He did the opposite.

This is why I don’t get why you all dislike “liberal” hunters. Isn’t it a good thing that I proudly tell other liberals I’m a bowhunter and explain the value in hunting?

Maybe the problem is what you think is a liberal isn't really a liberal. There are extremes in every sect of humanity.

Sounds like a failure trap to me. Be like me and believe like me and the world would be a better…type of perspective. That’s absolutely true for you but maybe not so much for someone in Chile, Sudan, Japan, or maybe Muhammad Ali, or me, or your neighbor.

Great Post Will!!!!

Somebody is voting for these thugs. We have a right to believe what we choose but the truth is a nation that becomes morally bankrupt will crumble from within

Another good short read is The End of Empires. Similar conclusions without the cycle by a British officer. Funny enough, the things a society becomes obsessed with at the end of its life are sports, gender, women in power, debt, etc. Seems like we can't help but relive the past.

Christianity is very accepting and we welcome all. Unfortunately that means a lot of whack jobs that don't fit in anywhere else find it a safe haven and then you get the news articles...

Funny, there are a lot of “Christians” here that aren’t very accepting and definitely do not welcome all. Remember “kick them out of your camps.” I didn’t see you spreading the “be accepting” word on that thread.

I understand perfectly the history and context of world religion. They were not like a poacher is to hunting. It was the church not some lone person acting on their own. The Knights Templar. Much was some divine plan for expansion and concur and man thought God sanctioned it. How many times have you heard people here talk about killing muslins? No other descriptor. Just a Muslim. Wasn’t it Trump who wanted a travel ban on Muslims. Is Trump a poacher? I cringe every time someone minimizes the historical role of war and religion. As if we have learned so much.

Yeah, so what? Wasn’t it Muslims that pulled off the 9/11 attacks that killed US Citizens…In the name of Alah??! Biden is welcoming Muslim illegal aliens with open arms, all while declaring US Citizens and their religious beliefs as the actual terroristic threat. That makes a lot of sense. I know, I know; “But, But, the border is secure!” Says China Joe. As he is secretly continuing to install the fence sections they forced Trump to abandon.

The true irony here is the fact that the bowlibs all claim that trump was the one ruining the country and needed to go. I guess my blind ignorance is not allowing me to see all of the good that China joe is doing for our country.

So, soccern23ny.....is that a public admission that you approve of socialists/socialism? Or that you are indeed a socialist?

If it wasn't for the SS system I am required to pay in to, I would already be retired and much wealthier. I wish I had the option to opt out, too late now but I would have 20-30 years ago. SS has delayed my retirement and reduced my wealth, like most socialist things and those that are government-controlled.

edit: the thing that warms my heart the most is knowing that i pay for government employee healthcare and pensions. i really fall asleep at night much faster and with lower blood pressure when i think about this.

If I paid $3000 per year into a mutual fund that averaged 10 percent, I would have 2.1 million dollars at age 59.

I’m fairly certain the social security contributions I am FORCED to make are an extremely poor investment in comparison.

The government gets my money for 45 years, then makes me a very small monthly payment until I die.

I have a feeling it would be illegal for a private company to even offer a scheme like this, let alone force people into it.

I INVESTED into social security, and as soon as I reach retirement age in 17 more years:( I damn sure am going to collect my piss poor returns on my INVESTMENT.

It was socialism on a private scale and it worked until the greedy killed it. Coincidentally it correlates with the decline if unions. Another thing the right leadership hates

Fixed it for you!

JohnMC has a great plan until the stock market crashes and Americans and America is flat broke and can’t recover. The stock market is not a guarantee no matter what anybody says. It’s scary to think what would happen if our social security was in the stock market and we were attacked. We would fold like a cheap suit quickly. I’m not saying social security is the best but it’s better then mandatory participation in the stock market. An option to opt out and go it alone would be fine with me. If you go it alone then don’t expect socialism to save you things go south.

Don’t get me wrong, I want, no demand, capitalism as our major economic driver. However, I support social programs too. Blame on the Christian in me.

I can’t. But can you tell me that there isn’t the possibility of catastrophic consequences if our social security was the stock market?

“If it ever got as bad as your hypothesis your SS check won't be worth the paper in written on either.”

Wait a minute. Are you telling me that the money, my money, I put into SS isn’t going in to an account set aside for me. You mean it’s possible I wouldn’t get it back if we had an economic depression. You mean all our money is pooled together then paid out. Even to those who didn’t pay as much as me and live longer. Does my estate get all my SS money I put in if I die at 62? That kinda sounds like socialism.

I get your point JohnMC and it’s a valid one.

I know you're being ironic but, nope. A good friend who retired the same day I did opted not to collect SS for a few years. (Shop closing, no choice.) He passed away at 66, never got a penny back. Neither did his wife and kids. I started collecting the month after I left. Pays the bills, have a healthy IRA and 401-k when I need a bit extra.

No substitute for learning to save and starting young.

The greedy didn't ruin SS, it's a bad system to begin with.

I still haven't seen a nation that has prospered from any Socialist, Marxist, Communist type system.

It's like a square wheel...no way for it to function right.

The problem with Socialism is " eventually you run out of other peopels money".

By the way, did you get a Trump check? If yes, what did you do with it?

No. You don’t have to have it as a public service. You could privatize it and charge per call for only those who use or get caught by the fire or police. So those things are just socialism that you agree with. Got it. That makes you a socialist based on your posts.

Got it

John, isn’t the real return on SS less than 2 percent for the average recipient? Ryan, it ought to be privatized, rounding up to a market average long term return of 8 percent, being that exponential functions are at play, the average retiree would have more than four times the amount they receive from SS.

Government could regulate risk taking to limit exposure, but your concern about a collapse is the old ‘if ifs and buts were candy and nuts…”. Your concern causes paralysis in reasonable risk taking forcing millions into a lower standard of living…that’s Socialism!

Just because a public service has been there all your life, is engrained in our culture, and you value it does not exclude it as a social program (i.e., socialism).

So why is the IRS being accused of hoarding ammo and possessing “automatic weapons”? Is that who they want to go door to door to collect firearms as tho they were taxes? Police and fire won’t do it, but they’ll be expected to protect the IRS actions as they do!

Completely agree and I think I said something similar in this thread. However, labeling all democrats as socialist because the want more social programs (as TG does) is a fallacy.

“The big problem with the Democrat party is they want to make as many people as possible feel like they are a victim and that they need the government to take care of them by spending more and more dollars that hard-working people make.“

Completely agree.

70- I’m not following you down another conspiracy theory rabbit hole. The IRS criminal division has been carry guns (including automatic ones) for nearly 100 years. I’m worried about you man. When are you coming to KS to hunt?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (1st read) and THE BOOK OF SIGNS. (2nd read)

Both are authored by Dr. David Jeremiah

"It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains." - Patrick Henry

"No people that lost their character, kept their liberty" - Lawrence Reed

Convention of States has a solution created by the founders when they wrote the Constitution. Read all about it, https://conventionofstates.com/

Gods plan is plain. Love the neighbor. Treat them as you want to be treated. If the government didn’t take it in taxes, I’m pretty certain most of us would chip into help the neighbor that’s sick and can’t work. Or who’s spouse has died and they need help raising Kids. Etc…..

I’m also certain Americans wouldn’t be so lousy with responsible living if there weren’t so many safe guards for them. Responsibility is a great thing when everyone is forced to be responsible for their decisions. Charity is awesome when given by direction of God. Instead of politicians getting kick backs in votes and campaign donations for creating the mess we have today.

Everything designed to take from someone in order to give to another by government is socialism. And, the flippin’ problem.

Think about how stronger our economy would be with the tax revenue collected, left in consumers hands. Think about the wealth. Think about the freedom. Think about how much better community’s would be if the church was responsible for giving things to those in need versus the government.

Human nature never has or never will change. Nothing we do is perfect. Everything we do is tainted by it. The problems we have only has one fix. Period. That’s why I’m the most conservative person alive. Because I know if we lived by the rules in the Bible, God would take care of us all. Abundantly better then we do for ourselves.

Funded public entities like Fire Dept, Police, is not Socialism.

Redistribution of wealth by the government, taking from one private citizen and giving it to another is Socialism.

Regardless, what we call it...we could do without 90% of the tax dollars extracted from the private sector.

I know it's foreign to today's culture but there is a reason we had no Federal Income tax before 1913..the USSC threw Lincolns Fed Income Tax out at the end of the war because it was ruled " unconstitutional". KS, you have yet to give us a good example of Socialist, Marxist type governments that have prospered.

Yes, we have been moving toward it more n more over the years...and look at the shape we are in. The harder you work the more you get penalized..and your money is given to somebody elae..in most cases somebody that don't WANT to work...or given to some corporate welfare scheme

Even secular history shows us what happens to a nation that forgets God.

I haven’t done that because pure socialism doesn’t work. It’s been proven over and over. Please link any thread where I advocated that we should end capitalism and go to pure socialism. Maybe you should read JohnMC post on the subject.

“KS, you need to study up on government t systems. Funded public entities like Fire Dept, Police, is not Socialism.“

You can call it whatever you want if it makes you feel better. I think it’s you that needs to read up on it more. Furthermore, you can try to demonize 150 million fellow Americans (democrats) as socialist but I don’t see a socialist society or economy in their platform. Do they want more social programs than conservatives. Yes. Does that make them socialists and Marxists. No (A great tactic now would be to find some extremist socialists idiot and color those 150 million fellow Americans as evil socialists/Marxist but remember two can play that game).

“Yes, we have been moving toward it more n more over the years...and look at the shape we are in. The harder you work the more you get penalized..and your money is given to somebody elae..in most cases somebody that don't WANT to work...or given to some corporate welfare scheme“

Did you or did you not get a Trump check? Did your employer or any of your family get a Trump check or PPP loan? If yes, what did you do with it?

Yep, ignoring the obvious and pretending everything is just fine is a great way to deal.

APPauls gets a “like”.

Lets be crystal. Socialism is the state ownership of the means of production. So, in a socialistic system, outside some dinky little businesses, the state owns it all. Outside California looking at producing insulin to reduce costs for citizens, I'm stuck finding it impossible to see actual socialism in America outside dog whistles and gas lighting that's gone on since The New Deal (even before via some in various "Nationalist" movements).

Communism is barely definable and basically end term socialism, IE, not happening here.

Capitalism exists with varied amounts of regulation in most liberal democracies (like our constitutional republic). No, taxing a business or putting safety regs or environmental regs or what not on a business is NOT socialism or communism. Rules just help keep things humming.

A conservative claiming all "liberals" are socialists and commies is analogous to me saying all "conservatives" are authoritarians. Both would be untrue by a long ways. Both are overused to the point that they make people think what they dont like is one of those labels.

Said better, because you dont like a policy/concept, does not make it socialism, communism, authoritarianism, etc. Not liking something just means you dont like it.

Now, you know what does make me lose sleep a bit and feel sad when considering the future for America? Going away from the liberal democracy our constitutional republic has been from the start, and towards an illiberal democracy. I read a great description of this a while back that was something like this: illiberal democracy is what you get when everything good about liberal democracy, like tolerance, trust, secular gvmt, rule of law, political equality are hollowed out and people only think of the second word, democracy - so absolute rule by 50.00001% of the folks who vote. I copied that from a book I read last winter but am forgetting which one. It's not my definition, but it's a good one.

That's exactly what is happening in places like Brazil, India, Turkey, Hungary... It's holding an election, but then spending your time in power doing all you can to prevent future political challengers and remove the rights from others. All that matters is winning and holding as much power as possible.

"leaders" of illiberal democracies are not necessarily authoritarians, but when democracy trends towards the illiberal, it opens the door to that possibility. Be it from the right or left, I want ZERO part of that.

Taken further, having a liberal democracy is what helps our capitalistic economic system work as well as it has/does. Interestingly, it's lead to great progress during times when it was far more "constrained" by gvmt regs than it has been the past couple decades or past 5-6 years... And it's done great with fewer gvmt regs too.

So, there are reasonable approaches to improving the economic situation and lifestyle of people in the US from different angles. And because our nation is a leader, and has always sought ways to grow, we tend to push and seek new opportunities and better situations. That means we dont sit on our laurels happy with what we accomplished, we keep looking for ways to improve, for all. Doesnt always work short term, but over a few centuries it's worked fantastically.

Any way, back to the key point of the thread. The US as with all nations, has issues that need to be improved. But wow, overall, it's awesome.

If it were up to me, everything would be in the private sector except the military.

No federal income tax but a national sales tax sort of system.

We are a far cry from a free enterprise, free market. Look at everything the gov gets involved in...they screw it up..in the private sector.

You are a smart guy..look around at the states that have adopted big giv leftist policies

That said, I do worry about the country's trajectory and what I feel are social experiments that are assumed to be fact.

But, I do have faith in the USA. It's still the best thing that the world has going for it when it comes to protecting the world from descending into what the world was for its entire history, and that is, tyranny, war, and non-stop human suffering.

If and when a global crisis breaks out, I still think that the USA will bounce back and lead the world through it and come out on top.

That actually is a sign of low unemployment. More jobs than the number of people wanting them is low unemployment. The unemployment number is the percentage of people that want to work that is not working. Maybe a little simple of a definition but basically it.

The issue is the number of people that don't want to work. Those that are retired, in school things like that are fine. The issue is currently there are a lot of people that historically would be in the work force that are not. Because they can get enough money mainly from the government to not have to work is the big one. I think drugs is another reason. Look at the number of people living on the streets. Five years ago at least in my area it was not a common sight. Today they are everywhere. Currently there is not enough political backbone to do anything about it, so that probably is getting worse.

And what would you DO about it? A government jobs program? Slavery? People who don't *want* to work probably don't because the available jobs are crap. (There seems to be a shortage of _ambitious_ workers too.)

Yeah, I could work at the donut shop for minimum wage but why should I?

There's a shortage of _good_ jobs, jobs that aren't dead ends or that will allow you to grow and make more money.

Hey, someday you could be *managing* this donut shop for the owner. And get a whole two dollars an hour more. Yeah, shove that!

And before you bring up 'manufacturing' remember you're competing against robots - and a billion Chinese and Indians who will work for a third of what it takes to make it here.

PS No, I don't know the 'answer' either.

Hopefully the guy that thinks work at a donut shop sucks will find a way to get skills that would get him or her where they desire in life.

But your attitude is also what is wrong with so many. Many think the jobs they are capable of is below them (working at a donut shop for minimum wage). Yet they won't do what it takes to get to the point they can do what believe is worthy of them. Talk to guys in the trades that pay a decent wage they can't find anyone with a work ethic. But if the government safety net is so that folks never get to a point things suck enough to motivate them move up in the employment world nothing changes.

Last drugs have got to be cracked down on. Get off drugs and the street or go to jail.

During the time he was out his car broke down and he needed a Jon. My mama told me he walked for miles in the Ft worth area until he found a job on a ranch. The rancher picked him up and took him home until he bought a car. Before he left the job with the rancher he paid him gas money which the rancher didn't want to take.

It's not just the young folks that don't want to work...I work with some in their 40s n 50s that are lazy as the day is long. We have a lot of folks in this culture that want something for nothing

During the time he was out his car broke down and he needed a Jon. My mama told me he walked for miles in the Ft worth area until he found a job on a ranch. The rancher picked him up and took him home until he bought a car. Before he left the job with the rancher he paid him gas money which the rancher didn't want to take.

It's not just the young folks that don't want to work...I work with some in their 40s n 50s that are lazy as the day is long. We have a lot of folks in this culture that want something for nothing

Entry level jobs can be amazing educational opportunies but you get paid instead of paying. Whether a job is a dead end is usually a choice the employee makes.

Yup, and then you're butting heads with the big established chains. Can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a 'Dunkin'. (And there are big deep pockets buying up franchises.)

PS Spike, my first job payed $2/hour. (Not counting part-time stuff while I was in school.) Funny thing is, gas was 29.9 cents for regular...

Based on that. You’re more of a freaking socialist than I am and your personal convictions meant nothing when it came to your personal finances. You could have donated the money to charity. Or bought a government bond. So SPARE me the freaking stupid socialist drum you have been pounding on.

By the way, I have a 50/50 voting record on Ds and Rs in national elections. I have never voted for a Marxist in my life. We have never had a Marxist on the ballot for president for pete sake. And not your stupid #%$ definition that was given to you by right wing nuts. And if you say Obama then you’re a weak minded fool and should see someone about your condition.

Ok I’m out. Rough day. Time for a beer.

Take it as an insult if you like but if you think any company owes you a job until you are ready to retire, or the system is always rigged against you probably entitled and not someone most would want to work for them. A company is paying you for one reason for you to make money for them. Most the time if that is happening you are in pretty good shape.

This is our number one problem in America!

We should all end up millionaires! ""

No, but an honest day's work should earn you a living wage.

I mentioned above that I worked (1973) at $2 an hour. Which back then bought you 6 gallons of gasoline. Today at a $15/hr job, an hour's work doesn't buy you 4 gallons. Kids today may suck at math but their cell phones have calculators. And they know the future ain't so bright.

You want optimists? Let more immigrants in.

I got some of my extorted money back Is what happened.

" go to a straight 3% consumption sales tax?"

Low income people spend proportionally more of their income on necessities - food, clothing, housing etc., so a straight sales/consumption taxes hurts them more. This is Economics 101 stuff.

Most people realize the gov doesn't need near the amount of taxes they extort. Both our political parties have forgotten that they work for us and not visa versa.

Government has too much control as a whole. When you pay taxes in to fund the police or Fire Dept that's one thing but when you tax one citizen and give it to someone else that's redistribution of wealth. Yes, I got my Trump money..just a small portion of what I had already paid in for the last 46 years. But, maybe the rest of our nation can become " like California" as the president said. That's a scary thought.

"No, but an honest day's work should earn you a living wage."

Define both and we can have a conversation. Average home prices in my area are right around ~$300K. Figger 20% down, $240K mortgage. Based on rule of thumb of a mortgage should be 2.5x yearly income puts that at $96K per year. $46/hour. For doing .......

Add to that the current structure of political parties and their nomination system which essentially eliminates the prospect of getting centrist candidates, there are those who will confuse the ebb and flow of social trends as the beginning of the end of our republic.

It’s not imaginary that pretty much every part of the city you see feral human crazed drug addicts sleeping and roaming along the streets.

They lash out and stab or beat people, random people are shot and robbed. They steal to fuel their drug addictions. They also just randomly vandalize, and destroy stuff. The drugs they are on have completely fried their brains permanently. City office building g have never reopened downtown after Covid, it’s literally to dangerous for the employees. Other private businesses have had the same issue.

Beyond the crazed drug addicts criminals have gotten the message loud and clear they are free to do whatever they want.

I Business aren’t closing their doors because of fake news stories, it’s because the “leadership” has destroyed this place.

Just 10-15 years ago, it was always tin the top 10-20 cities for this or that. In the last few years the only thing I’ve seen Portland ranked in a top 10 ten list for is naked bike riding last week. (Besides top rise in crime and murder rates)

Last year my family business had around $20,000 in theft vandalism and destruction. This year it’s on track to be a little higher. I have live here my entire life, and it has turned into an absolute *#it hole.

To an extent I do agree about not watching the news to put you in a better mood. They definitely amplify certain things and twist reality.

The best thing I probably ever did was move out of Portland to another nearby city and county. As soon as you cross the city/county li es around Portland it’s a whole different world. Now I just have to work in that turd hole 50ish hours a week.

A huge majority of the city looks like a combination of a max max movie and Gotham City from Batman.

The leadership of the city has really embraced “progressive” Or “liberal” ideas/ theories, and it has been an ENORMOUS failure leading to shuttered businesses, injuries, death, and enormous loss of quality of life for the residents.

It is really sad to see what has happened to this place, and good luck finding someone who lives here that can just click off the news and begin living a wonderful happy life here. You live and see the news stories with your own eyes every day.

Moral of the story, if you live in a place where these ideas/ theories haven’t been tried out yet, you may want to pay attention to how the story ends when the do it.

You can see it happening across the country.

I believe it will just take longer in the more progressive/ liberal areas to start swinging back towards what seems more “normal”.

Portland has fallen so far down, but I think it will have to fall further until even more voters feel the negative impact of what has been done to this place.

Portland worthless mayor was re-elected , only because his opponent was an open communist and antifa supporter. 2 years ago she may have won.

When a majority of people feel the impacts of policies they either like it or don’t, and that is when the changes can happen.

Unfortunately these swings take years/decades to happen. So you get to live through the bad for a while until it gets better.

On the flip side, per FBI crime stats the U.S. violent crime rate has fallen from over 500/100K in 2000 to under 400 in 2019 (most recent stat year). Most who watch the news dutifully wouldn't believe it despite that being the sort of thing that should be reported. Portland (and our own San Francisco) seem/s to be bucking the national trend unfortunately, but my sense is things will normalize in time. Here in CA, we are already seeing a pretty significant backlash against progressive DA's and their light sentencing and no cash bail policies and the appalling results. Same with some school boards. Hopefully that is one positive trend we can export to OR rather than our typical progressive BS.

Seriously, a couple of days ago on the Canadian national news the news anchorwoman (while speaking about an event) nonchalantly mentioned that all men, woman, and transexuals were welcome.

I am not suggesting to not watch the news, but rather seek out more objective sources. Ditch Fox, CNN, MSN, etc. and look at Reuters, AP, BBC, and the like. It won't make you feel all warm and fuzzy by pandering to your biases. But it also won't make you stupid...

Fact #2.....don't blame the Bible and Christianity, for the failures people make that claim to be christian. Blame them for not practicing what they preach.

Fact #3....christianity= new testament, the old testament " was" a schoolmaster that prepared man for the new....

Fact4#......you cannot be nuetral, or ride the middle of the road, sooner or later you will have to choose.

Fact 6#...how on earth did we get this far?.....one small step at a time

I do not see it being relative at all and in fact, it is actually one of the causes of deterioration. allowing illegal entry and sanctuary cities are a complete disregard for the law.

Thank you Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt for pushing us toward the " progressive era".

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Democrats are accelerating inflation but they will be done in November and we "may" have gridlock for a bit before the Republicans start doing it.

The main problem I have is the Democrats with their judicial appointment activists that try to make law and the subjects that they have convinced that they are victims that riot on a moment's notice.

Look at all the democratic congress people who were protesting at the Supreme Court. They are the lawmakers they write law!

After the SCOTUS interpreted the law they should have done something besides incite violence. Like their jobs. But democrats are to dumb to realize that and cheer them on with their fake handcuffs.

If violence is incited on the other team it's an insurrection.

Before you start thinking I am a trumpette, when politicians are in fear it's serious. When the subjects burn down their neighborhood it's political clout.

We are in a great way as long as we remain diligent and should watch all news sources because the difference between conspiracy and fact is time.

Finally, keep an eye on those violent leftists as they try to build momentum to overthrow our republic....

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Meta itself says “the program isn’t meant to interfere with individual expression, opinions and debate, clearly satirical or humorous content, or business disputes.” The debate about a recession would appear to fall within “individual expression, opinions and debate.” Why did fact checkers get to pass judgment on this content? And why did Meta take down the content at their behest? Did it threaten “imminent physical harm” to someone? Or just political harm to the Biden administration? A reasonable person might wonder.

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What media outlets are putting out the truth about Monkey Pox?

The major ones are not because political correctness is more important than a public health emergency (Bidenleftists designation)

The messaging is tangled in a vortex of leftist thought about how offensive it would be to communicate the majority of the currently infected people are men who have sex with men.

Back during covid I got my info from health systems like those in the United Kingdom, Israel and South Africa because everything was sponsored by Pfizer here in the U.S.

Media is all propaganda and reminds me of the Mark Twain quote...

“IF YOU DON’T READ THE NEWSPAPER, YOU’RE UNINFORMED. IF YOU DO, YOU’RE MISINFORMED.”

there are two things i will never do...vote for a democrat or vote to raise my own taxes.

If one would like to see the RISK of deterioration in America. Watch some CPAC.

Seems as though the communists/leftists/Marxists did carry out a successful coup of the United States in 2020…

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You seem to be one of those leftists that are "definition"ally challenged.

Radicals who thought they could get away with what the leftists did all summer went in to trash stuff.

If it was their own neighborhood no one would have cared. But your leftist rulers and other politicians were scared which resulted in a political show.

So far from a Coup/insurrection it is laughable except to hyper partisans leftists such as yourself.

Should have had Trump raising money for their bail like Kamala did. Then tried and served their time.

If one accepts that to date the success of the United States has been in large part a more or less continuous acceptance of relatively peaceful revolution. As I view the current political currents I fear the above quote is very true.

A process sanctioned by the constitution of the U.S.