Biden vs Trump 2020 - vote now and discuss!

static111 said:

Facebook charged Biden more for ads than Trump... https://twitter.com/kaivanshroff/status/1321818080041947136?s=21

HughFreakingDillon said:

mcgruff10 said:

Dumber by the day.  This one is classic Donnie.  He said this at a campaign stop in Arizona yesterday:

“In California, you have a special mask. You cannot under any circumstances take it off. You have to eat through the mask,” Trump said. “It’s a very complex mechanism, and they don’t realize those germs, they go through it like nothing. They look at you with that contraption and they say that’s an easy one, I’m going right through with the food.”

“Now, how about California, though, where you’re supposed to eat with the mask, can’t take it off,” he continued. “You see people and boy, you know, when you have spaghetti and meat sauce, that mask is not looking — you walk out, it looks like you got into a fight with [UFC President] Dana White.”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-latest-whopper-california-requires-224753761.html

@brianlux Can you please post a photo of your "special mask?"

what in the goddamn fuck

KingJeremyD said:

https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax

KingJeremyD said:

https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax

mace1229 said:

brianlux said:

static111 said:

brianlux said:

static111 said:

brianlux said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

brianlux said:

I find it interesting that some view having a 401K as being a sign of someone being wealthy or upper middle class.  My wife and I work in the used book business.   We make about what the average income is for a couple in the U.S. in a state with a higher than average cost of living.  And that is late in our working years, as high as we'll ever go in our kind of small business in podunk Placerville, California.  We have a 401K.  Does that make us upper middle class? 

 

not necessarily, but if the stat that someone posted is true, that only 32% of americans have one, that would suggest it is mostly those with more disposable income than those without. 

True, but you have to remember that many people who complain the loudest about not having enough money think nothing of buying a  $4 or $5 latte mocha fudge hoo haa beverage at Starbucks every morning on their way to work.  The majority of Americans are clueless about personal finance, budgeting and making their money stretch.  The smart thing to do would be to teach high school kids personal finance.  That's one of the thousand things my wife wants to do in her "retirement".

Some of these points are propaganda that put the blame on the poor.   Some are legit.   I 100% agree that real personal financial economics should be mandatory in all high schools.  Expecting people that know nothing about personal finance to know how to handle money is like expecting someone with no training to build a house without blue prints.   As important as it is to teach people to dream it is equally as important to teach kids economics.  My wife and I both came from poor people and knew nothing about economics and had to learn a lot the hard way.   Since then we have paid off debts and created a monthly budget so we can still afford our lattes and avocado toast.   The main oppressive thing for us at this point is the student loans...we have both already paid off as much as we initially borrowed and still owe just under what we initially borrowed, compounding interest on federally backed student loans is, well, it’s  the kind of thing a slime bag like trump would think is good business.   I think no interest loans  or loans with no compounding interest would help on that front.  Something for sure needs to be done about the cost of higher education for low income people and the federal student loan situation should be reigned in and not looked at like a revenue raising tool.  Don’t get me started on the high cost of living and the reality of oppressive wages.

If Biden gets elected and does nothing but forgive student loans for people making less than $125000 a year and lessens the debt burden for others making over that threshold, that alone will do a lot to fixing this jacked economy.

As for not being taught personal finance as a reason for not saving money, I'm not sure that can totally hold water.  Isn't it also a matter of common sense to conserve what one has?  If you go for a ten mile hike in the desert and you drink all your water in the first mile, isn't that a sign of lacking common sense?  Or isn't expecting someone to show up out of the blue with a water bottle for you a sign of not taking personal responsibility?

I like a lot about Biden, but I'm not sure about the forgiving of student loans thing.  I think that I would want that to be on an individual basis.  Did the student make a good effort to do well in school or was this just an excuse to get away from mom and dad and party?  Did the student use their loan money wisely, or were they frivolous with their spending.  In other words, I think there also has to be some personal accounting as well.  Again, these are issues regarding personal responsibility, a characteristic that does not seem to garner much favor with many Americans today.

Imagine going on that same hike through the desert not knowing what hiking through a desert was and not knowing that you only had one bottle of water.  The only way to learn would be the hard way.  Personal responsibility only goes as far as a persons education on any given topic.  

As far as means tested programs, that’s just a way around creating a universal policy with a personal responsibility shield. Not far off from the Republican bootstraps myth or the Reagan myth of the Welfare Queen.  Like James Baldwin said, anyone that has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

Well, let's put it this way- I am no where near as callous about poverty as a typical right wing person, but also not as prone to going along with  the idea of throwing money at problems the way many liberals are.  Throwing money at problems does not get to the root of the problem. 

In most ways, I am far more progressive than not, but in this case, I see myself as what some would call "conservative".  But I see it as being more logical and pragmatic.   And I do not see so many things in black and white/ all or nothing the way some right wing and some liberal people do.

I don't know if you would consider my attitude callous or not, but I don't think many are. They just get irritated by what you sort of described you don't want to see. That behavior of no accountability and being bailed out.
I worked in South Central LA for 4 years. It was an extremely poor area where 98% of the student qualified for free lunch. I literally had parents tell me they can't do homework because they can't afford pencils and paper etc, but then come to school with chips and soda from the liquor store, or a latte from Starbucks, and the newest iphone.
And its not just those in poverty that are careless with money, but no one really cares if you make 200k a year and spent $10 a day on Starbucks. I've had plenty of friends in my 20s and 30s that would go out to eat several times a week, or to bars. Some even continue after they lost jobs and were on unemployment. Hard to feel bad for those people too when they say they're short on rent. 

mcgruff10 said:

Dumber by the day.  This one is classic Donnie.  He said this at a campaign stop in Arizona yesterday:

“In California, you have a special mask. You cannot under any circumstances take it off. You have to eat through the mask,” Trump said. “It’s a very complex mechanism, and they don’t realize those germs, they go through it like nothing. They look at you with that contraption and they say that’s an easy one, I’m going right through with the food.”

“Now, how about California, though, where you’re supposed to eat with the mask, can’t take it off,” he continued. “You see people and boy, you know, when you have spaghetti and meat sauce, that mask is not looking — you walk out, it looks like you got into a fight with [UFC President] Dana White.”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-latest-whopper-california-requires-224753761.html

@brianlux Can you please post a photo of your "special mask?"