Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics General Stuff Watching the Supreme Court

I asked my daughter-in-law that question. This was during the runup to the 2016 election. Also, although she has several semi-serious health issues, why she would vote for someone who was running on doing away with the pre-existing conditions clause in health insurance.

Her answer, and I kid you not, was, "Because my mom is voting for him."

It was a simple as that for her. Nothing else mattered, except that her mom was voting for him. I was absolutely dumbfounded!

perotista - I too can remember when they changed it and, when they did, I agreed. The problem is that now there is no draft, our military is getting fewer and fewer members but we have yet to goto the draft. I have problems with that one on several levels. The simple fact is that they should have given the early votes to members, or ex-members of the military and left the rest to grow up on their own before they vote (for, again, lots of reasons and one of them is that they seem, for the most part, to be damned fools and pretty clueless).

As time goes on I become more and more convinced that the voting American Public is a bit shy when it comes to common sense. I have no doubt that many would say I was wrong but I am unlikely to change my view. Its like the so-called homeless. We do have a LOT of homeless but we also have a LOT of bums that we call homeless but are not. The other day a woman asked me if I would give her 5 dollars. I told her to get a job as there are a LOT of jobs out there! She said nothing, just went to ask somebody else for 5 dollars. Its even worse than that. In Seattle they took over an entire hotel and put the "homeless in three". The Seattle police will not go into that building without 6 to 12 fellow police for their own safety. I realize that this is a problem and that there really are homeless but, I think, just as many bums (I will skip the drug thing). My wife just came back from a trip to Germany and Poland. She said they have no homeless and she asked about it. There are some but not many. Government are almost trying to do something about the homeless with stuff like "little houses" which is no real solution but very cute.

One can go on and on about this kind of stuff. I am not even sure there is a solution to the 'homeless' but they are spending piles of money to 'fix' the problem and most solutions are simply not working and there is yet something else and there are thousands and they vote! I sometimes talk to them and ask about their politics. You would be amazed at the number who are going to vote for Trump! As I say, I have no real solution but the whole mess, I think, is an example of a voting public which, for a large group, I do not believe is competent and everybody is getting to experience the result.

If I was in charge I would institute the draft tomorrow unless the person who was draft age was in school and taking a course which would put him/her into a job needed by the nation, like, for instance, doctors (which, I think, government should underwrite - to become a doctor, in the United States, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars!). I know at least 4 doctors who have been unable to pay their debt to government due to the way the debts are configured which are impossible to keep up with. Canada, for instance, put their doctors through school, basically for free if they give gov x years when they graduate.

We have, basically, a government which, for many, makes absolutely no sense (I am one of them). When I write to my politicians they used to address whatever I had to say. Now they reply with a request for money and little else.

I have come to the conclusion that the United States is run by, basically, pure greed. This is one of the reasons that Trump exists. He makes no bones about his own greed and, unfortunately, a LOT of people admire him for that. More lunacy I guess.....

One last thing. I believe in our military bu there are problems there. Once is the simple fact that several years ago the Congress of the United States asked the military to have a serious investigation as to where their money goes and who gets what (there is a word for that but I have dementia (and had to look that up)). Anyway, every once in a while somebody in congress will wonder it what they wanted will ever be done. The fact is that it won't. This is simply one of the problems we are living with. There are a LOT of them. Our problems are not just the Presidency, one can go on and on about what we need and many think Trump will fix it but there is little he claims he wants to do which fixes a damned thing. All he really wants to do is to get the folks he think have hurt him and little else. What we REALLY need is a new, REAL, Hoover Commission (was responsible for no fewer than 7 major government fixes). That actually worked. They, amongst other things, asked everybody working in government what their job was, etc. They saved an incredible amount of money and cleaned up the mess. Now we depend on those working for got to run gov. We gotta a little problem.........

Apologies, I got off the track and carried away...............

I was drafted in 1966. That was the best thing that happened to me. I went on to make the army a career, 21 years. Then went back to work for the army as a civilian for another 26. The change from 21 to 18 didn’t affect me, I really didn’t give it much thought. But I do think waiting those 3 extra years would give those a chance to grow up more. Even at 21, many are still stuck to momma’s apron strings.
There probably isn’t a solution to homelessness, much like joblessness, a person must want a job or a home. We’re a rich nation, but for quite a lot of our problems the solution has always been to throw money at it. If that money doesn’t work to solve the problem, it’s only because we haven’t thrown enough money at it. Your woman wanting five dollars, she wanted a hand out, not a hand up.

The draft, our military is way too small to handle the draft. The army has a bit more than 450,000 troops, The Air Force around 320,000, Navy 340,000 and around 175,000 marines. A lot of the bases that used to house the military when there was over a million-man army have been closed. No place to put all the manpower a draft would bring in. Also, the military is more technology driven than with manpower. There are certain professions the military will pay for their college, doctors and nurses are a prime example.

When I write my congressman, I get back a form letter. No request for money, but just a form letter which usually has nothing to do with what I wrote my congressman about.

No doubt quite a lot of money the military spends is totally wasted. But a lot of that falls on congress. There’s been many times the JCS, the military will tell congress they don’t need this or that. Can’t use it. But congress appropriates the money and by law forces the military to buy this stuff. The goal is to keep the civilian jobs back home or to add more. You should go to a DRMO sales where the military sells stuff back to the civilians. I bought 3 brand new laptops a few years back for 20 dollars a piece. Still in their original box, unopened. The only problem was they had windows 7 on them. Nothing wrong with windows 7, I’m still using them. But the army bought a bunch for 500 or so dollars each, then sold them off 5 years later, unused for 20.

Just keep in mind, when it comes to politics, there is no common sense in politics. Especially since the arrival of Trump.

I wasn't supportive of the idea of the draft the way it was run in my youth however I learned to appreciate the reason for it later in life when I began to study in earnest what my father went through. If it were within my power I would change some basic elements of selective service but I now realize how important it is. I would have benefitted, no question about it.

No democratic society can afford to have "a warrior class" all-volunteer military, it separates us too much, it creates unwanted barriers to communications between the different strata of our people. A selective service obligation forces our society to understand the concept of universally shared sacrifice and we all end up with skin in the game.

Not everyone is built to be a soldier but every able bodied person, and even some who aren't 100 percent able bodied, have something to offer.
Maybe they're not all made of military "stuff" but almost everyone has "the right stuff" inside them. A draft, especially a peacetime draft, brings us together.

We better damn well build new bases and accommodate a much larger military because the last time we arrived at a point like this, two large regional powers became rather hostile and decided that they had gauged our weakness accurately...and they were almost right.
The civilization and society I grew up in almost got wiped out before I was even born.

In my humble opinion we are at such an intersection right now.


PS: You'd better wipe out your Win7 OS. There's plenty wrong with Windows 7, it's not safe and it's not secure anymore.
Give the likely lower performance specs on your lappies I'd suggest you install Linux and restrict what those machines are allowed to do.

When Newt Gingrich came to Washington one of the first things he did after hitting his peak was to completely upend what Congress thinks is discretionary spending versus non-discretionary.
Non-dis funding is sacred, Congress is not allowed to randomly cut non-dis funding.
Where the VA is concerned you'd think doctors, nurses, lab techs, medical software writers, pharma, prosthetics makers and the like would fall under that category but surprise, they do not.

Know what IS non-discretionary at the VA? Construction programs, that's what.
Our VA in Long Beach is currently lacking an on-staff neurologist for the Spinal Cord Injury Unit (SCI) so SCI patients have to get in line and wait to see the regular staff neuro docs instead.
It's the funding.

But like almost every other VA in the country we are AWASH in construction projects, most of which consist of new walkways, gardens, atriums, decoration. Vets have to make way for hundreds of construction workers as they march through the halls, and sometimes it almost feels like the VA is now here to serve them instead.
It's a JOBS program and pesky details like having enough doctors gets in the way of where THE REAL MONEY is trying to get spent.

We have more grand pianos, paintings and flower gardens than we know what to do with but we don't have enough nurses.

That is the legacy left to us by the Agents of Newt, and we're still stuck with it today.

Understand. But when congress directs, puts it in the law, budget that funds will be spent on whatever, construction in your case, the agency, VA here has no choice but to spend those funds as directed by congress. It isn’t the fault of the VA or even the military that funds are spent on things that they don’t need or can’t even use. Congress directed them to spend those funds on what congress ordered they spend them on. What it all boils down to is keeping civilian jobs or creating new civilian jobs in their districts or state so come reelection time, those congressmen and senators can tell the voters they kept their jobs safe and created new ones to boot.

When it comes to the military budget, there are times I think congress doesn’t give a coyote’s howl about national security, just keeping their job. Perhaps as much as a 100 or maybe even 200 billion a year could be cut from the defense budget if congress just gave the military what it needs to protect and defend this country. Not bloating the defense budget with things, the military doesn’t need and worse yet, can’t ever use.

Some thoughts. First your computers. I switched from Microsoft to Linux (ubuntu) several years ago. Its free, updates itself regularly, good forum for help, etc. Never looked back. If you have a computer you can mess with I would suggest just installing Ubuntu. You can google - install ubuntu on a microsoft computer and get a lot of help. What it amounts to is downloading ubuntu onto a memory stick and then booting with it and its a done deal! then all you have to do is load it up with software and you are on your way. And, again, ITS ALL FREE! Ubuntu has a good forum for help. You will never look back.

I wonder, how you getting along with the VA? The girl who is taking care of me decided that I was getting too old to be too weak so she sent me to another girl to get me fixed. Damn well killed me and my wife was right in there agreeing with all they have done to me so far. When I started I swear they were trying to get me to suicide with some of the stuff I had to do but, now, I can actually getup easier amongst other stuff. My problem is memory. I always ask if they have "the pill" and they always say no with "but millions are working on it". The other day I asked and was told that there are a lot of pills that may, or may not, work but most have problems and then they listed the problems. I do not want any that 'may' work - too dangerous! (I am a bit cowardly). But, all in all, the VA actually takes care of me pretty good. My only real problem is that they have me eating a LOT of pills for this and that.

I could easily whine about the government forever and never duplicate myself. Its why I am so enthused about the commission thing. The trick is to go in and ask every person working for gov to explain what their job is and how they do it. I suspect that they could get rid of half the people working there with that alone (when they did it in the 40's they cut costs by something like almost 50%). Its like people that are programmers. The VA, for instance, used to have one place to log in. Now they have three ways to log in. Waste of time and effort but they had nothing better to do. Same thing locally. Port Angeles (where I live) is replacing a large parking lot. When its done it will be 'modernized' but will be, basically, the same thing they spent over a million dollars "fixing" although they are going to have places to load up EV's which they don't have yet. I see stuff happening all the time simply because they have money they must spend. Our state highway department is constantly doing something to highways that is a waste of time and money. Drives me nuts.

I think I mentioned the simple fact that the military has been ordered to do a study of where and why their money goes. Its now been several years and there is yet no information available (and, I suspect, never will be). Every now and then somebody in congress ask how its going and, as far as I can tell, they don't even get that!

The Military, incidentally, especially the Navy have created messes that they don't talk about, don't admit to and its pretty bad. There is an ammunition dump that has really serious problems. i have often wondered what would happen if something went bang but I know it wouldn't be pretty.

I do know that there is a lot of talk about what happens to the military if Trump gets in. Actually there is a lot of talk about a lot of things if he gets in. As far as I am concerned Biden is working very hard to make sure he doesn't win. If he does it will be a miracle. I will vote for him but the whole thing scares the crap out of me. I suspect the best thing would be if he wins and dies a year or two later and we have a female president and, hopefully, she does well she will have been in training for several years which may help.

Later!

Gingrich did one thing that began what we have today. He got the Republican party to not work with the Democrats. That was the start of what we have today. Its strange. One would think that there are people there who understand that when both sides put something down its more likely to work. The last thing that they did together, to fix the thing on our borders everybody who worked on it were proud to have done the job. Then Trump told the Republicans that they couldn't do that because he needed to have something to rip the Dems for. They bent to their Lord and Master and so it lays there and does nothing. Hopefully they might finish it but I doubt it.

The rules for the Republicans are simple. They are NEVER to do anything with the Democrats. Over the years I suspect that the Democrats started doing the same thing and now we have what we have and its a disgrace.

Gingrich was a jerk............ (and REALLY screwed it all up and none elected these days have the gumption to do anything about it)

We do need nurses, and a number of other things as well. Our solution is to loan money to those who want to be a nurse, a doctor, etc. and then keep them in debt for, literally, years! There is a solution to the whole thing. To be a nurse with a degree costs around 100,000.00 plus interest. Its the same with most other folk that we need. It would be really great if we had a system wherein gov paid for the education and the educated could pay back by doing work for gov for x number of years before going off on their own. There used to be such stuff. I had a friend who wanted to be a dentist but simply didn't have the money. What he did was to have the Navy put him through school and then he was a dentist for the navy for several years. This means that our government used to have such going on and it worked. I do not think such exists anymore. Now the plan is to 'loan' money to a student, add a tasty interest for banks and then keep the loanee in debt for the rest of their life.

We should be proud. We have a government that is as greedy as the very rich!!! There are, actually, people who signed up who have been paying on their debt for over 20 years! We should all be proud!!

That still exists. My son in law who was an ems medic went into the air force which paid for his college, medical training to become a nurse. That I think was for a 4-year obligation to the air force. It worked out one year for every year of college. Stuff like that still exists as far as the military. After college, he became an automatic 2LT.

As for Gingrich, he gets blamed for a lot that Dennis Hastert did. It was the Hastert rule that started all of this. I doubt very few even remember Hastert as Speaker. Gingrich was overthrown much like McCarthy was by the republicans.