Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[Syndrome]

Otherwise known as "Crazy Eyes"

[marty351]

.....

[Raptor]

OK, this is the Bar but do we have to bring this 'merican political crap (propaganda) to AFF.

Go AOC I say, she can't be worse than Trump

Who's quote is it anyway?










.

[simon varley]

she's certainly got the old guard scared

[CoupeKing]

Originally Posted by simon varley

she's certainly got the old guard scared

Yeah, all on the left - they're dropping like flies.

She won a district by 18 thousand votes off another Democrat who was about as useful as a ride-on lawnmower on the International Space Station.

And she's 29 so can't run for the Presidency for another 6 years.

[zipping]

“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”
-Thomas Sowell.

People can knock Trump imo its a free world butas Bill Clinton said "its the economy stupid"

You can't deny his success with the economy.

Where Australia is loosing manufacturing jobs, Trump has turned the tide and addedd them, something even people on the right were skeptical he could do.

Even Ford is joining the party.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/ford...factories.html

AOC "Where we’re going, we won’t need steel."

National mobilization our economy through 14 infrastructure and
industrial projects. Every project strives to remove greenhouse gas
emissions and pollution from every sector of our economy:
o Build infrastructure to create resiliency against climate change-related
disasters
o Repair and upgrade U.S. infrastructure. ASCE estimates this is $4.6
trillion at minimum.
o Meet 100% of power demand through clean and renewable energy
sources
o Build energy-efficient, distributed smart grids and ensure affordable
access to electricity
o Upgrade or replace every building in US for state-of-the-art energy
efficiency
o Massively expand clean manufacturing (like solar panel factories, wind
turbine factories, battery and storage manufacturing, energy efficient
manufacturing components) and remove pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions from manufacturing
o Work with farmers and ranchers to create a sustainable, pollution and
greenhouse gas free, food system that ensures universal access to
healthy food and expands independent family farming
o Totally overhaul transportation by massively expanding electric vehicle
manufacturing, build charging stations everywhere, build out highspeed rail at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary, create
affordable public transit available to all, with goal to replace every
combustion-engine vehicle
o Mitigate long-term health effects of climate change and pollution
o Remove greenhouse gases from our atmosphere and pollution through
afforestation, preservation, and other methods of restoring our natural
ecosystems
o Restore all our damaged and threatened ecosystems
o Clean up all the existing hazardous waste sites and abandoned sites
o Identify new emission sources and create solutions to eliminate those
emissions
o Make the US the leader in addressing climate change and share our
technology, expertise and products with the rest of the world to bring
about a global Green New Deal
…
A little more.

Build on FDR’s second bill of rights by guaranteeing:
 A job with a family-sustaining wage, family and medical
leave, vacations, and retirement security
 High-quality education, including higher education and
trade schools
 Clean air and water and access to nature
 Healthy food
 High-quality health care
 Safe, affordable, adequate housing
 Economic environment free of monopolies
 Economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to
work

Comrades

[Adamz Ghia]

The economy is like a big ship, it takes a while to turn around. Trump can’t claim credit yet, the economies performance now is due to Obama. Just like John Howard can’t really claim all the credit for how well we did during his priministership, it was due to Hawke and Keating.

Howard was able to manage it well and can claim credit for the continued success we enjoyed, and if in 8 years the US is still improving then Trump will be able to do the same.

I’m not a Trump hater, I personally like him, if not agree with all of his policies.

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

Howard was able to manage it well and can claim credit for the continued success we enjoyed, and if in 8 years

I think I will disagree with that, all Howard did with the benefits of Hawke/Keatings legacy was blow it - setting us up now to deal with middle class welfare, you know paying the child care bill of people who are both working but need child care, of course there was that other gem, 'the baby bonus' FFS!!!!

[zipping]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

The economy is like a big ship, it takes a while to turn around. Trump can’t claim credit yet, the economies performance now is due to Obama. Just like John Howard can’t really claim all the credit for how well we did during his priministership, it was due to Hawke and Keating.

Trying not to be partisan here but any fair assessment of the last 2 years show that the US economy has gone to another level under Trump.

Every economist and even Obama himself derided candidate Trump as a charlatan, yet here we are with every major economic indicator very strong.

Then there's the Federal Reserve, which cut rates and flooded the financial system with cash during the Obama years. Now it is reversing course and tightening, or raising rates.

Trump has preached fiscal discipline, he has not practiced it. Might bite him.

99% of the jobs created in the Trump era have been in the private sector with only 1% in the public. Another big positive is that investment is pouring into the USA, investment in 2018 was 6 times what it was in 2017. That is definitely trump.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth UK
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth USA
https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/gdp-growth Aus
https://tradingeconomics.com/europea...al-growth-rate Euro

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Go AOC I say, she can't be worse than Trump

I suggest you read the 'Green New Deal' she has just released.

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Go AOC I say, she can't be worse than Trump

She's advocating for a 70% marginal tax rate for the wealthy. Great, some might say, except it simply drives away the people most capable of changing their tax residency. A recent example of this policy failing is France. Tax revenue dropped and capital investment plummeted as the wealthiest moved out of France. Gerard Depardieu being one of the most public examples - the Russians welcomed him and his money. Some 2.5 million French citizens moved to countries such as Belgium and the UK and other countries with more competitive tax rates. They French government saw the light and realised 45% of something is better than 75% of nothing.

She went to university and majored in international relations and economics - yet promotes policies that a high school student can easily debunk. She's big on ideas - mostly bad ones and you can see the hamster running around in her head have a coronary when she's asked things like how her policies will be funded and then she dodges the questions with nonsensical responses that do not address the question. Many politicians do this, but she takes it to another level.

There was her statement that the unemployment rate was lower because people have 2 jobs. That would have the opposite effect

Originally Posted by Syndrome

I suggest you read the 'Green New Deal' she has just released.

To give you all context - imagine the Greens in Australia running our country - that's the level of left wing lunacy we're talking about.

Originally Posted by Big Trev

I think I will disagree with that, all Howard did with the benefits of Hawke/Keatings legacy was blow it - setting us up now to deal with middle class welfare, you know paying the child care bill of people who are both working but need child care, of course there was that other gem, 'the baby bonus' FFS!!!!

Yes, Howard engaged in pork barrelling for votes - but at least we had budget surpluses and reduced government debt to support it. When times were tougher Rudd and successive governments should have cut back on the middle class welfare, but instead doubled down on it and our government debt has grown almost tenfold since the end of the Howard government. Rudd was handed low debt and a budget surplus and low debt and screwed it up - even after taking into account the GFC. More than a decade of budget deficits isn't what I'd call good management. Both parties of more recent times have failed in that regard

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by pauljh74

....
To give you all context - imagine the Greens in Australia running our country -
...

Yes thanks, that would be a good start IMHO.

The Howard's years

The only thing I'll give him credit for is gun control. Just about everything else he did is a major problem that has to be dealt with now. Certain sectors certainly benefited greatly but at the expense of others and society overall.

Howard got an easy ride and credit for all the good reform done by Hawke/Keating and wasted the opportunities that presented him with. Rather than invest in the country he ran surpluses which he later used to buy more time in office. Despicable.





.

[zipping]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Howard got an easy ride and credit for all the good reform done by Hawke/Keating and wasted the opportunities that presented him with.

I love lefties, first one to claim credit "oh it was Hawke/keating who did it".

What did they do?

"Introduced reforms to the economy, they deserve all the credit".

What reforms did they introduce?

"They freed up the Australian economy, they are hero's".

Economic reform included the floating of the Australian dollar, deregulation of the financial system, dismantling of the tariff system, privatised state sector industries, ended subsidisation of loss-making industries, and the sale of the state-owned Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Optus, Qantas and CSL Limited. A fringe benefits tax and a capital gains tax were implemente

What do you think of neo-liberalism?

"We hate that Thatcher the biotch and Reagan is a seee you next tuesday"

The fact is the Hawke /Keating government is a million miles from AOC or the Greens these days.

[zipping]

While I'm on my soap box Keating was useless as PM.

Keating promised two rounds of income tax cuts, legislating them and describing them as "L-A-W law" and never did them, it actually might of helped him but the greatest Treasurer the world had seen decided, the tax cut law should be repealed following the election, with the government instead announcing the money would be put into superannuation.

Just lucky that he found an even bigger idiot in John Hewson to this day proving what a dumbarse he is every time he opens his mouth.


The economy crashed he ran up debt like nobodies business and the only economic reform he introduced was compulsory "Super" has been an abject failure with workers forgoing forcibly 9% of their wages week in week out
and now 12%.



The only winners from such a policy would be the superannuation industry and Unions, which would get to ‘clip the ticket’ on more funds under management and earn fatter profits.

Hawke was a decent politician, Keating rode on the back of neo-liberalism and when he had his shot failed miserably.

Asked by a journalist on 10 July if the unemployment rate of 10.8% meant he had to admit his economic policies had failed, he responded: “Do you mean the ones that have taken Australia from an industrial museum to give it a future, or do you mean the cyclical ones?”

AOC like Keating is someone whose knowledge is a mile wide but an inch deep.

[MITCHAY]

Well if anything the last few years has done for me is to shine a light on what an absolute basket case American politics is. I know we have had a lot of **** going on but that is next level.

I remember watching the mid terms and thinking to myself how the richest country on earth can't even organise an election. Can't get a root in a brothel or have a ****up in a pub comes to mind.

As for AOC, well she has a long ways to go to catch up to Trump and the dumb **** he has said.

Unfortunately we are starting to see the extreme partisan politics which was not really as obvious until the last few years but the middle has the ground here or at least I hope it still does.

[wodahs]

come on !!!!
going to the sun is old school

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

I think I will disagree with that, all Howard did with the benefits of Hawke/Keatings legacy was blow it - setting us up now to deal with middle class welfare, you know paying the child care bill of people who are both working but need child care, of course there was that other gem, 'the baby bonus' FFS!!!!

What’s worse, paying someone’s childcare bill or having one parent off work getting Centrelink and/ or associated benefits? From what I’ve seen if the government didn’t give a childcare subsidy it’s simply not worth both parents going to work.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

What’s worse, paying someone’s childcare bill or having one parent off work getting Centrelink and/ or associated benefits? From what I’ve seen if the government didn’t give a childcare subsidy it’s simply not worth both parents going to work.

The first steps towards a socialist society.

[Cav]

Did someone mention Socialism?

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

What’s worse, paying someone’s childcare bill or having one parent off work getting Centrelink and/ or associated benefits? From what I’ve seen if the government didn’t give a childcare subsidy it’s simply not worth both parents going to work.

I'll tell you what would be better, if people could control their need to live on credit and not need brand new bigger and better everything NOW, that would be smart, but people can't do that so they need 2 incomes to pay for the 40 square house when a 20 would do, they need to incomes to pay for the 2 brand new SUV's sitting in their driveway when one good car and a ****-fighter would do, they need 2 incomes to give their child a whopping 3rd birthday party that would get rid of the debt of a small African country, they need 2 incomes to pay for the $70,000 wedding they just HAD to have, do I need to go on? Seriously?

My eldest daughter and her husband decided that one would stay home and one would work, so that is what they have done for the last 12 years until the 3 kids start school, those 2 have gone without, the kids have done OK, but not as well as their peers, but you know what, they are well balanced good kids.

My wife decided to supplement our income 35 years ago started doing childcare in our home for .50c an hour per child through the local city council, she/we have seen a lot of people come through our doors I can tell you. I reckon my opinion on this is pretty well sourced.

I love it when these 'poor' parents get on TV and whinge about their child care bill, firstly I can almost guarantee that the kid(s) have to be in the 'best' (read most fashionable) privately run centre in the district when there are cheaper and equally good value alternatives around. What these people don't say is that they get 50% of their out of pocket expenses back at tax time, no , no, they just whinge about childcare coz they get their 5 minutes of fame in front of a TV camera

[buggerlugs]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

I'll tell you what would be better, if people could control their need to live on credit and not need brand new bigger and better everything NOW, that would be smart, but people can't do that so they need 2 incomes to pay for the 40 square house when a 20 would do, they need to incomes to pay for the 2 brand new SUV's sitting in their driveway when one good car and a ****-fighter would do, they need 2 incomes to give their child a whopping 3rd birthday party that would get rid of the debt of a small African country, they need 2 incomes to pay for the $70,000 wedding they just HAD to have, do I need to go on? Seriously?

My eldest daughter and her husband decided that one would stay home and one would work, so that is what they have done for the last 12 years until the 3 kids start school, those 2 have gone without, the kids have done OK, but not as well as their peers, but you know what, they are well balanced good kids.

My wife decided to supplement our income 35 years ago started doing childcare in our home for .50c an hour per child through the local city council, she/we have seen a lot of people come through our doors I can tell you. I reckon my opinion on this is pretty well sourced.

I love it when these 'poor' parents get on TV and whinge about their child care bill, firstly I can almost guarantee that the kid(s) have to be in the 'best' (read most fashionable) privately run centre in the district when there are cheaper and equally good value alternatives around. What these people don't say is that they get 50% of their out of pocket expenses back at tax time, no , no, they just whinge about childcare coz they get their 5 minutes of fame in front of a TV camera

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

I'll tell you what would be better, if people could control their need to live on credit and not need brand new bigger and better everything NOW, that would be smart, but people can't do that so they need 2 incomes to pay for the 40 square house when a 20 would do, they need to incomes to pay for the 2 brand new SUV's sitting in their driveway when one good car and a ****-fighter would do, they need 2 incomes to give their child a whopping 3rd birthday party that would get rid of the debt of a small African country, they need 2 incomes to pay for the $70,000 wedding they just HAD to have, do I need to go on? Seriously?

My eldest daughter and her husband decided that one would stay home and one would work, so that is what they have done for the last 12 years until the 3 kids start school, those 2 have gone without, the kids have done OK, but not as well as their peers, but you know what, they are well balanced good kids.

My wife decided to supplement our income 35 years ago started doing childcare in our home for .50c an hour per child through the local city council, she/we have seen a lot of people come through our doors I can tell you. I reckon my opinion on this is pretty well sourced.

I love it when these 'poor' parents get on TV and whinge about their child care bill, firstly I can almost guarantee that the kid(s) have to be in the 'best' (read most fashionable) privately run centre in the district when there are cheaper and equally good value alternatives around. What these people don't say is that they get 50% of their out of pocket expenses back at tax time, no , no, they just whinge about childcare coz they get their 5 minutes of fame in front of a TV camera

Melbournes median house price in 1973 was $19,800, or adjusted for inflation, $186,945. Today it’s $833,321.

Meanwhile, the average wage was $102.60 per week, or $968.71 per week adjusted for inflation. Today it’s $1550 in Victoria.

Incomes have not by any measure kept up with house prices. There is no credible argument otherwise. So straight off the bat the cost pressures on families today are higher than back then.

And if anyone takes what Channel 7 puts on as news seriously then i have a bridge to sell them...

[Trevor 57]

I'll tell you what is pressure, having to save one third of the price of a house (1/3) and have it sitting in the bank for 12 months before the bank would even talk to you about a home loan, 1/3, how would people go with that, well that's what we had to do to buy our first home (albeit it was a regional home) but the banks rules were the same everywhere. So based on your 'today' price of 833,321 that is $274,996, how would they do, that is what we had to do on a very basic wage, but we did it because we went without, not even enough money to drive to a town 40k's away. Then add to that interest rates of 17%. Don't tell me people of today do it tough, there are some that might, but the ones I see do OK with the new cars, big houses, holiday's to Bali etc

[marty351]

Seems the muricans are wisening up.

[zipping]

Tucker Carlson: Why would we ever pay people who are unwilling to work?

Robert Hockett: We never would, right? And AOC has never said anything like that, right? I think you’re referring to some document, I think some doctored document that somebody other than us has been circulating.

Tucker Carlson: Oh, I thought that came right from, that was a backgrounder from her office is my understanding?

Robert Hockett: No, No, she’s actually tweeted it out to laugh at it. If you look at her latest tweets it seems that apparently some Republicans put it out there.

Document is here straight from her website

https://apps.npr.org/documents/docum...n-New-Deal-FAQ

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

I'll tell you what is pressure, having to save one third of the price of a house (1/3) and have it sitting in the bank for 12 months before the bank would even talk to you about a home loan, 1/3, how would people go with that, well that's what we had to do to buy our first home (albeit it was a regional home) but the banks rules were the same everywhere. So based on your 'today' price of 833,321 that is $274,996, how would they do, that is what we had to do on a very basic wage, but we did it because we went without, not even enough money to drive to a town 40k's away. Then add to that interest rates of 17%. Don't tell me people of today do it tough, there are some that might, but the ones I see do OK with the new cars, big houses, holiday's to Bali etc

Mate, I have no doubt you struggled back then, I’m not arguing that. But the math doesn’t lie, it’s as simple as that. Back then there was also near 10% unemployment rate, I suppose you want to go back to that as well? Because when you cut middle class welfare you cut middle class spending power, and when people don’t spend the first things that companies get rid of is employees.

Anyway, politics in America is screwed, the left have not learned a thing from Trumps victory in 2016 and are gifting him 2020. I hope he wins ‘big league’ as he likes to say.

[CoupeKing]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

Anyway, politics in America is screwed

It was screwed for many years before he ran for the Presidency, he just exposed it. Hence why they eat each alive and have no real front-runner yet.

Just be grateful we're so far away, otherwise we'd be ''screwed''

[superyob]

My hero! God Emperor Trump.

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by CoupeKing

It was screwed for many years before he ran for the Presidency, he just exposed it. Hence why they eat each alive and have no real front-runner yet.

Just be grateful we're so far away, otherwise we'd be ''screwed''

We’re no different in my opinion. Our politicians care about nothing except keeping their jobs, rather than what’s best for the country. And a part of that is due to voter stupidity.

The best way to fix our political system is to vote differently at every election. You don’t have to like them, just vote differently. There should be no such thing as a safe seat.

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

Because when you cut middle class welfare you cut middle class spending power, and when people don’t spend the first things that companies get rid of is employees.

there should be NO middle class welfare.

Middle class welfare was introduced by Howard/Costello as a huge vote buying exercise and it worked (for a while), now all generations have to wear the burden of having to pay taxes to support 2 income families spending habits, tell me how that is fair?