Calling it now. Nothing will happen.

A slap on the wrist here. A scapegoat there. Nothing serious.

The people that run America want this to happen. The mega-wealthy. They don’t care.

They are in charge. The people could be if they rose up or protested enough. They won’t though. As long as they have their TV shows and food on the table the majority sadly don’t give a shit.

The one that has the final say when it’s in full operation.

I suppose I would start by saying “Communism lead to famine in the USSR and China” is like saying “Capitalism lead to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy”.

It’s down to the application of the system. True Communism gives power to the ordinary workers. It is not meant to be concentrated in the hands of an autocrat or an elite. That is precisely what it aims to prevent.

The last two points are just not true. The incentives are, in theory, workers having better standards due to better wealth distribution (if it is managed properly) and they don’t use capitalist products because the products were made under a Communist system, so that’s just ridiculous.

Communism has many flaws. Personally I think it’s more of a pipe dream myself, but the arguments you have stated against it are not good ones.

Not surprising.

Most likely business owners who will be laughing all the way to the bank when they strip our country of worker protection laws and get given huge tax cuts.

Meanwhile us peasants will be left to fend for ourselves.

I truly despise them.

Someone is going to make so much money selling iron lungs when they roll out polio 2.0 in a couple of years.

I had never heard that expression before and had to look it up. Very interesting but they’ve been obsolete for decades now.

The procedure since the 1960s has been to delivery positive pressure ventilation to expand the lungs via tracheotomy, rather than housing the patient in the irong lung (negative pressure chamber).

Did get me reading about Paul Alexander too. The man who used an iron lung for 70 odd years, achieving a degree and a career as an attorney and author. Worth a read!

You make a point. It would need to be comprehensive in it’s reach.

The best way to achieve it in my view would be to strip much of the Presidential powers away. Trump has clearly shown that there is far too much power concentrated in the executive and that many of the unwritten rules are as good as non-existent.

I don’t have enough knowledge to claim to know exactly how to do it. It would require a bipartisan effort and extensive legal work to ensure it’s watertight. Giving Congress more power and giving the executive more accountability would be the way though I believe.

As much as I would personally like to see those responsible held to account I think you’re right in that it would cause untold amounts of harm. It is the right thing to do but there would be huge fallout.

Personally I think America and it’s reputation would benefit much more from putting in place robust laws, even amendments to the constitution to openly and definitively show the world “guys, we’re really sorry. This will absolutely not happen again. Ever”. That’s the only way.

If you prosecute those responsible without changing anything then they will be back with even more vengeance and even more extreme and messed up ideas.

Sheer opulence.

Oh man. I’m sorry to hear that. It sounds like you’re having a tough time. Far be it from me to ask, so don’t feel as though you need to, but are you getting any professional help? It has been enormously beneficial to me in the past and I highly recommend it. I’ve had a rough year myself as my baby daughter sadly passed away. At times it doesn’t feel like there is mich left to life other than your current state of mind but if you can assure yourself that’s not the case and that things will gradually get better then they will. I wish you luck in your struggle.

That story about the sexism sounds like the result of entrenched views on masculinity and ignorance. Absolutely daft. Hopefully you taught her a lesson that day. I find younger people generally more understanding of the equality between genders (excluding all the manosphere bollocks). I’m positive it will keep improving as it has done steadily over the years, though more acceptance would be better!

Thank you for the blog. I’ll try and make sense of it aha. I’ll read the nitter post too when I’m ready. Have you ever watched Adam Curtis documentaries? He’s incredible. There was a clip where some Asian shop owners in the 80s were beong harassed by drunk Englishmen in a really racially abusive manner. It made me realise that whilst we have a long way to go the current attitudes are also quite a distance from where they used to be.

Side note: Do you partake in any form of political activism? As a not very young but not very old person I’m sort of stuck looking for ways to make a difference in the community and have some kind of impact on change, even if it’s small. You seem like someone who would possibly have ideas about all that. I could be wrong!

Right. I agree with everything you said.

I don’t see this as a problem with Israel though.

This a problem with the way the USA. The way billionaires use their wealth to spread their political beliefs and influence.

Israel is a benefactor, like the far right figures he also bankrolls.

The issue for me is the USA’s failure to police the rich elite and stop them from using their money to meddle in foreign affairs.

It’s been an issue long before Trump and under Trump it’s getting much worse. They are the enemy for me. The oligarchs of America.