When will Hillary Clinton give up her candidacy ?

Why did you even bother mentioning China and Russia?

Because they are excellent examples.

China is still a Communist country and Russia pretends to be a democracy but is really a quasi communist country. Both countries are oppressive, will not tolerate free speech, punish and kill journalists and still imprison people on flimsy charges. They have terrible record on human rights and are intolerant of homosexuals and all in all are lousy places to live.

I'm not arguing for or against trade policies, I just don't think the US is at risk of becoming a copy of the other countries sited.

You are wrong, I think because you are using words very loosely.

China is governed by an authoritarian political organization that retains an old name - Communist, but it has very rapidly unleashed private enterprise and private ownership of the means of production. There are still some large old style government owned enterprises left, but they are either stagnant or slowly collapsing. Most of their economy operates on market capitalism and it is growing rapidly as a direct result. Indeed the rapid transformation of China's economy is a wonderful illustration of the very principles I outlined for you.

Russia is no longer communist even in the names it has retained. However it operates an economy largely controlled by the state, one that operates much like an organized crime syndicate. It survives by exporting natural resources, and isn't doing very well economically.

Both countries do indeed operate on authoritarian principles, but neither runs its economy on on communist or even sociaist ones. Free market principles operate more widely in China and it is growing as a result.

That almost sounds OK, george, but the facts are that life expectancy at birth is a pretty fair indicator both of a health care system and standard of living generally, and we rank 43rd. Granted that many of the "countries" ahead of us are little more than the size of counties or cities, we are still behind a huge portion of the wealthy countries in this statistic, most of which have tens of millions of people. Not to mention we are behind the entire EU taken as a whole, which illustrates that we are slipping, since much of the EU is composed of nations newly freed from the Soviet tether. Yet the EU is ahead of us, and even the Czech Republic, former Soviet vassal state, is not far behind us. Almost all these countries ahead of us, large or small, have a centralized health care system designed to give roughly equal health care to all.

Life Expectancy At Birth
1 Monaco 89.52
2 Japan 84.74
3 Singapore 84.68
4 Macau 84.51 .
5 San Marino 83.24
6 Iceland 82.97 .
7 Hong Kong 82.86
8 Andorra 82.72
9 Switzerland 82.50 .
10 Guernsey 82.47 .
11 Israel 82.27
12 Luxembourg 82.17 .
13 Australia 82.15
14 Italy 82.12 .
15 Sweden 81.98
16 Liechtenstein 81.77 .
17 Jersey 81.76
18 Canada 81.76
19 France 81.75
20 Norway 81.70
21 Spain 81.57 .
22 Austria 81.39
23 Anguilla 81.31 .
24 Netherlands 81.23
25 Bermuda 81.15
26 Cayman Islands 81.13
27 Isle of Man 81.09
28 New Zealand 81.05
29 Belgium 80.88
30 Finland 80.77 .
31 Ireland 80.68
32 Germany 80.57
33 United Kingdom 80.54
34 Greece 80.43 .
35 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 80.39
36 Malta 80.25
37 Faroe Islands 80.24 .
38 European Union 80.20
39 Korea, South 80.04 .
40 Taiwan 79.98
41 Virgin Islands 79.89
42 Turks and Caicos Islands 79.69 .
43 United States 79.68
44 Wallis and Futuna 79.57
45 Saint Helena, Ascension,and Tristan da Cunha 79.36
46 Gibraltar 79.28
47 Denmark 79.25
48 Puerto Rico 79.25
49 Portugal 79.16 .
50 Guam 78.98
51 Bahrain 78.73
52 Chile 78.61
53 Qatar 78.59
54 Cyprus 78.51
55 Czech Republic 78.48
56 Panama 78.47 .
57 British Virgin Islands 78.46
58 Costa Rica 78.40 .
59 Cuba 78.39
60 Albania 78.13
http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/life-expectancy-country.html

Because it must, inevitably. This is not a matter of an axiomatic conservative formulation, you see. Just a reflection of reality.

And there's a converse here. A little free enterprise does a little good while a lot of free enterprise does a lot of good.

But this two-part formulation is not binary. It's not a belief system. It's just common sense and natural law. Really nothing at all to do with ideology.

Re America's election industry

This doesn't tell us much. "No system is perfect". Uh, yeah.

Here in Canada, our recent election lasted something less than three months. And citizens commonly complained that it went on and on...

Relatively little money was involved and it is money, more than anything else, that corrupts or that opens the door very wide for corruption. And it is the need for money in election which, when this becomes extreme as it now is in the US, which pulls elected representatives and their staffs away from doing the tasks they've been elected to do. So you guys lose in two directions.

No they're not. You are using a fallacious argument form, appeal to extremes.

As noted god knows how many times now, all nations in the free world, including the US, feature mixed economies - a combination of free enterprise and socialism ("democratic socialism").

There is no exemplar nation-state which is either free or successful which is without social programs, without redistribution of wealth, without a centralized
government. Not one. Nowhere.

For the love of all that is holy, do NOT mention this to Ann Coulter, Bibi Netanyahu, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Pat Buchannan or any of the GOP candidates presently running for the White House (particularly a certain neurosurgeon)...
http://wapo.st/1SNHqrI

Clintons use Oval Office for cash.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/hillary-clinton-pardon-record-218331

I put this one up as serious contender for "Quote of the Week"
http://bit.ly/1SNI3l2
It's getting to be like one of those completely idiotic, macho bar fights where everyone else in the place is thinking, "For god's sake. Take it out back or go find some deserted bird sanctuary, you incredible nincompoops, and let the rest of us get on with our evening."

Whom, I ask you, has proven wiser than Charles Krauthammer? Nobody, that's whom. When I think of Charles, I think Delphic (though with a Yiddish accent).
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430452/republican-party-three-sides

Mind you, I'm not really clear on how Paul Ryan's bunch differs from "traditional conservatism".

So, for the sake of accuracy, let's refer to them henceforth as "rebrandicons".

I admit some of your links are interesting, some not, but why have you decided to put them all here on this thread?

Megyn Kelly knows what's what. Here's a question she put to Christie last night re San Bernardino...
http://bit.ly/1SNKAMc
You go, girl! This is not just fine thinking, it's actually mathematics.

Muslims + Purolator = BOOM

For those of us who've come to think of Michigan governor Snyder as one of the sleaziest scumbuckets around, this Detroit Free Press reporting doesn't seem likely to ameliorate our notion.
http://on.freep.com/1SNMhcE

Government is, of course, the source of what is wrong everywhere. But it's just a matter of Christian charity that the people who comprise government (when you are that government) really ought not to be poisoned. Poisoning is for the little people. The citizens. Who are, by complete coincidence, mostly black.

It's my thinking that the End Of Days people might be totally insane but that's not the important thing. They're wimps. Bear with me here.

You might say, oh come on Bernie. We're talking about the sky cracking open! Angels with red, spinning eyeballs and butcher-knives for fingernails! Bloody heads and torsos and limbs flying through the air! Rivers of fire! That's some serious **** there.

Yeah? I don't think so.

How about this for the End of Days. God concludes he's an atheist.

Some? That's big of you. Why here? As the genius playwright Dennis Potter responded when asked why he wrote for television, "That's where the people are"

Quote Megyn Kelly:


Quote Blatham:

That would be suspicious. Nobody buys oil filters through the mail, they just go down to AutoZone if they want to change their oil themselves.

Now a percolator through the mail, that would be a different story.

I've been wondering the same thing.

I guess there's not enough traffic to the mixed politics thread where most of that stuff belongs.

I think the point is that this thread is about the right wing media piling on scandal after scandal against the Clintons to the point Lash actually asked the question when Hillary will give up, as if that was appropriate or inevitable.

So blatham is coming out with an examination of the right wing media. I don't think it's inappropriate.