old salt wrote: ↑Fri May 03, 2024 1:22 am
Things have changed since LaxPower days. I'm no longer a moderator & I don't have to moderate what I post. I can express my opinions.
Holy moly. Do you have any idea how much consternation you could have saved both of us if you had told me this?
How many times did you tell me "I haven't changed"? Instead of telling me that you couldn't post freely at Laxpower?
Do you not understand what this looks like from where I sit?
It looks like you have COMPLETELY changed from where I sit....and the switch from Laxpower to here coincided with Trump's arrival. It ain't some huge leap in logic to conclude that like millions of Americans, you succumbed to Right Wing Media and Trumpism.
Get it?
So I'm reacting to this change and saying to myself: "I know the Laxpower Old Salt is in there somewhere, we just need to bring him out".
Get it?
This TOTALLY changes my understanding of your posts. Now I get that this current Old Salt is your true self, and you're simply a hardcore faithful to Party first Republican who despises what you consider to be liberals with every fiber of your being.
I'm cool with that. We've had dozens of you here. I'll poke fun, but won't go searching for the Laxpower Old Salt anymore.
Man, I wish you had copped to your inability to post what you wanted on Laxpower about 5 years ago. Would've saved us a ton of arguments.
This will change how we interact completely.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:43 pm
I find much of your progressive, leftist agenda, to be coercive, impractical & doomed to fail.
First of all, you do this all the time: you ignore that I'm to the center of you. My agenda is centrist. Know how you can tell it's centrist? Every other 1st world nation on Earth has these bennies. Yep, it's to the left of you. But like so many partisans, you're convinced that either there is no center, or you ARE the center. You're not the center, OS. You're the right.
But that's fine. The problem you're missing is: you don't have a substitute for my "agenda". So guess what the working class is going to do as the 1%ers and Coastal Libs continue to take more and more of America's GDP? They're going to vote their people in, and change things the way that they want.
You don't want to hear this, and that's fine. But your inability to provide any solutions to help the Working Class and Flyover America is what's doomed to fail. And the thing you don't get is: I WANT you to give me a conservative solution. I WANT you and your party to govern, and provide YOUR solutions to these issues.
Because what you've done for the last 24 or so years is: "I give up, so we'll do nothing but shovel more money to the rich". Look at alllll the solutions to problems your Party came up with in Decades past that 2024 Republicans like you would consider to be Commie Plots: founding of the EPA. Mileage requirements for US auto fleet. Reagan's expansion of Medicare.
You've stopped governing, and you and your fellow R voters haven't noticed. Again, this is why the gap between rich and poor is exploding.
What's more? You're plenty smart enough to know this.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:43 pm
Your MASSIVE tax hikes will kill the economy.
That's right. That's why your party keeps cutting them. You think it's smarter to pay more on the interest on debt than we spend educating our Children and Working Class. Why this makes sense to you is beyond my understanding, but, you do you......
old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:43 pm
I'd love to be able to cut defense spending, re-balance our global force posture &
leverage our allies to do more in our shared defense.
Under Biden, our adversaries sense weakness & are fomenting conflict in more regions than we can effectively counter.
We're having to spend more on defense, just to arm our allies while depleting our own strategic reserves.
That's right. Neo-Con theory is REALLY expensive. We have to install guys like Bernie who will abandon this game BEFORE we cut military spending. We agree.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:43 pm
I can see the real possibility of strategic failures in Europe, the mideast & the western Pacific....& that's not scare mongering.
As much as we might like, we can't withdraw from our leadership position. We have to lead from a position of strength, not weakness.
Disagree. China is in free fall for the same reason Japan's economy has been a mess for DECADES: too many old people, not enough workers. A lack of immigration has severe economic consequences. Why do you think the US economy is still growing, while others are struggling? Immigrants.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:43 pm
The Dems open border scheme is a sham that subverts our immigration laws & makes a mockery of our asylum process. Obama & Trump tried to enforce our immigration laws. Biden is using every device in his power to subvert them. It has resulted in chaos, with no control over who is entering our country & running free.
We've had over 10 million illegal immigrants in America "with no control over who is entering our country & running free" long before Biden showed up.
We disagree here: you want to focus on the leaky tub faucet: I want to focus on the tub that's been spilling water on the bathroom floor for decades.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 4:43 pm
We're not exploiting our resources, while the Dems mandate unproven & impractical green schemes that the public will not accept & are doomed to failure. Biden drained the SPR just to reduce pump prices a few cents/gallon before the midterm election, despite the prospect of war in the ME.
His endless student loan schemes are blatant vote buying & clearly unconstitutional.
Good faith attempts at bipartisanship like what Speaker Johnson just pulled off are claimed as Biden's accomplishments.
If the IC convinced Johnson why we need to continue funding an open ended proxy war in Ukraine, when is Biden going to share that with the US public & lay out a coherent strategy, if he has one ?
This is all swell, and fair criticism. I just wish you'd hold YOUR Presidents to the same level of scrutiny that you hold the D's.
You don't. And you never will, just like millions of your fellow Republicans. And that's fine.