Guest “you couldn’t make this sort of schist up if you were trying” by David Middleton
The Soviet Union of Concerned Scientists actually have a Pinko on their payroll!
As if that wasn’t funny enough, according to her LinkedIn page, she attended International University of Moscow in 2007.
A bit more explanation would be useful for this non-american. Could you elaborate?
According to “mylife” she has a solid income of “Income: $250K+” and single. Maybe I should propose to her./SARC
Just be careful to find out what her preferred pronouns are before contacting her, you would not to fall at the first hurdle by accidentally assuming she was a well balanced female, would you?
/transphobe
Pink is how homos identify to the public?
Funny, that’s the exact opposite of reality for everybody else.
Why do they do everything backwards?
I think he is referring to an old slang for a communist or socialist.
This site is very anti-socialism, which I find a bit sad but not unexpected as most of the content comes people living in the US who have irrational fears that somehow universal healthcare, free education and so on are going to ruin the moral fibre of their ‘great’ nation.
Socialism. Always just one more murder away from utopia….
“Socialism. Always just one more murder away from utopia….”
I think you just made Surfer Dave’s point.
Socialism is just a particularly draconian form of oligarchy with high taxation where the government attempts to maintain support by giving people “free” stuff. Eventually, however, it “runs out of other people’s money” and is forced to either pay homage to the free market or use increasing amounts of violence.
Note that the oligarchs themselves never use the free stuff; they have their own of the highest possible quality money can buy.
What is wrong with the above analysis? It seems historically accurate.
How exactly does the truth make Dave’s point?
Outstanding phrase!
Socialists remind me of climate alarmists, and leftists in general. They find it impossible to believe that any rational person could ever disagree with them. So they invent ever more fanciful excuses as to why the world doesn’t work the way their theories say it should.
Surfer, the thing I can’t quite wrap my head around is that American socialists say that the electorate is stingy and if we would all just give them enough money to implement utopia it would be a sure thing.
And yet, if you look at the actual money spent for existing single-payer socialist government health insurance programs (Medicare, Medicaid, VA, tribal, etc) together they spend FAR MORE per capita than other countries do in total. We cover about 60% of all medical bills and spend MORE doing it than other countries who cover 100% for less.
It’s not about being stingy or greedy or immoral, it’s that they have proven themselves incompetent and incapable of delivering the utopia. We already did the experiment, it failed.
Even at the VA, where the government employs all the staff, owns all the property, controls all the Rx, etc, they spend 2-3x more per capita than other countries.
But I will say that if the American socialists can get their act together and use the existing money spent to deliver true cost savings that allow coverage of everyone, I will accept that government insurance without complaint. I’m not going to hold my breath, though.
The notion that we Americans are the richest, yet most uncaring, personally greedy people in the world is just so much Socialist talking point rubbish. There isn’t a TRULY needy person in America who does not receive FREE medical care, FREE housing, FREE food stamps, a FREE cellphone, and a host of FREE welfare support and $$$.
But here in America we understand that all FREEDOM and LIBERTY lies within the INDIVIDUAL, not some “benevolent collective”. We acknowledge the natural state of mankind, and accept that Capitalism BEST fulfills man’s basic needs. However, we don’t think much of slackers who have the ability to WORK for their own living, WORK for their own children, but choose not to. We believe that people who do that, will never be happy or fulfilled.
This is a rather irrational and uninformed view of Americans. We know the murderous history of International and National Socialism. We don’t fear the Socialists but it is reasonable to reject their ideas even if it makes them sad.
In the USA:
Everyone pays taxes, everyone gets police protection.
Everyone pays taxes, everyone is protected by a national Air Force, Navy and Army.
Everyone pays taxes, everyone gets free, compulsory primary and secondary education.
Everyone pays taxes, only some get health care. The rest get excuses about socialism and commies under the emergency waiting room benches.
The medical industry is profoundly corrupt. It is also a corrupting influence.
Bernie said two days ago that in Canada, when you leave hospital you don’t owe anything. I checked. It’s true. The only way to get a bill is by upgrading to a private room. For that you have to pay. That’s it.
It is not a single payer system – each province has its own system. Elective surgery like having your lips plumped is not covered. The competence of administration in provinces is inhomogeneous.
Only about half of Americans pay Federal income taxes. Everyone, including most of the Free World, is protected by the United States Marine Corps, with occasional assistance from the other branches of our armed forces.
Police protection and public schools are State and local matters.
Health care is primarily a private sector matter. It is an industry that provides goods and service for a profit. The only way health care could be a “right” would be for you to have a “right” to the fruits of other people’s labors.
Medicare is funded by Medicare taxes, everyone aged 65 and older, who has paid Medicare taxes, and people of all ages determined to have disabilities by the Social Security Administration are eligible. Medicaid is funded by Federal and State taxes and is available to people with incomes below certain levels.
Everyone in the private sector, aged 65 and older, who paid payroll taxes is eligible to collect Social Security retirement benefits, as are people of all ages determined to have disabilities by the Social Security Administration.
In Canada, you don’t get a bill when you leave the hospital, you just wait a long time to get in… https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wait-times-for-health-care-in-canada-2018
Ceinspin
I live in Québec, Canada, Yes i confirm when i leave the hospital of waiting for 16 hours straight at the ”emergency triage” before seeing a doctor i don’t owe the hospital, doctors or staff anything.
But i lost a day at my job, a sleepless night that will probably make me miss a second day at work.
The reality here is that : Free medical care for everyone, best population/doctor ratio in Canada and we have the WORST delay of the whole western civilisation. It is documented and ongoing for at least 25 years.
Its a nightmare don’t go there, seriously!
The entire world is benefiting, without contributing, from the American health system. The US far and away leads in medical R&D and it’s all thanks to the quasi free market system.
“Everyone pays taxes, only some get health care. The rest get excuses about socialism and commies under the emergency waiting room benches.
The medical industry is profoundly corrupt. It is also a corrupting influence”
Everyone in the U.S. can go to the emergency room at a hospital. Everyone in the U.S. can buy health insurance. That includes illegal aliens.
But you are correct in saying the Insurance companies and Hospitals are taking advantage of a very flawed system. The insurance companies had what should be described as a monopoly since only one or two insurance companies were allowed to operate in a State so there was no competition to keep prices lower. Hospitals make out like bandits by not disclosing the actual costs of their procedures and costs vary widely between hospitals but there is no easy way to find out the prices they charge for the various procedures. Although I should add that some Hospitals forgive the debts of people they deem low-income. I personally know of a hospital, Saint Francis, in my area that forgave a $30,000 hospital bill for a person who only had a social security check as income.
Thinking Medicare For All is a good idea is not seeing reality. One of the Democrat candidates for president said during the recent debate that he went and asked numerous officials from Hospitals all over the country what they thought about Medicare For All, and they all said they would have to close their doors if such a program was implemented, because they couldn’t afford to take the pay cuts Medicare For All would require. Many doctors today do not accept Medicare patients. Medicare for All is not the solution, it just multiplies all the problems.
The solution is the one Trump is trying to implement: Reform the U.S. Healthcare system within the Free Market system. If he had any cooperation at all from Democrats, he would already have it fixed. Despite the Democrats’s obstructionism, Trump has implemeted rules to allow businesses to cross State lines to find the best Healthcare deals, and he is working on getting drug prices down. Give Trump a Republican House and Senate next time and he’ll get it fixed.
Government-run healthcare is the last thing we need. Free markets and fair competition/full disclousure are the way to bring down the prices and make healthcare affordable for all. I don’t want Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders involved in my medical decisions. Just my doctor.
… Yep, here in Canada you get exactly what you pay for: hour-long waits in your overbooked family doctor’s waiting room (if you can even find a family doctor) and YEAR-long waits for an MRI and other vital diagnostic tools. Oh, your cancer has progressed to the point where palliative care is the only remaining option? Too bad; at least it didn’t cost you anything to find out. Well okay, it did, since everybody in the country who isn’t completely indigent has to pay into the system every month.
People who don’t live in Canada shouldn’t make pronouncements about what it’s like to live here, or is that asking too much?
There’s a reason why many Canadians chose to pay for medical care in the US rather than wait months if not years for second rate “free” care in Canada.
Everyone pays taxes, but nobody gets a free car.
Everyone pays taxes, but nobody gets free food.
Everyone pays taxes, but nobody gets a free house.
You seem to suffer from the delusion that paying taxes entitles one to unlimited free stuff paid for by others.
Crispin in Waterloo,
You should put on your bucket list to visit the USA. And Canada, too.
I don’t live in USA and there is no irrational fear of socialism which is simply the most corrupt immoral and perverse political system ever devised. What sometimes gets conflated and you are probably talking about is putting in a socialist safety net under capitialism.
So start again are you talking about socialism or are you talking about capitialism with a socialist safety net because thiose are not the same thing.
In Europe there is a known difference between communism and social democracy.
Social democrat countries flourished (eg West Germany under Brandt and Schmidt)
Communist countries perished (eg East Germany)
Germany flourished because of the “Economic Miracle” worked by pro-capitalist Christian Democrat Adenauer, while much of the rest of Western Europe remained mired in socialism. Once Social Democrats got power in Germany, they wisely continued most of Adenauer’s policies, instean of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Under Thatcher, the UK abandoned postwar socialism by selling industries nationalized under Labour in the late ’40s, and otherwise reforming the 19th century system instituted by the Atlee government. Predictably, British GDP soared from -2.3% “growth” in 2Q1979 to +2.4 in 4Q1987. This despite global recession in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and the US stock market crash of 1987.
No, the realization that these will put guns to our heads, the use of said guns being the ultimate end of every government requirement upon individuals, in order to enforce the bondage that is the only way to achieve those things.
Free education is something pushed by three types of people
– those who fail to release that higher education is a business and is not ‘free’ even if it is not them personally who are paying for it
– those who believe it is below themselves to actually get a job because only they are gifted enough to understand the importance of an Arts-Science degree
– all of the above
Free Education has been described – somewhat unfairly in my subjective opinion – as a Tax on the Stupid. The logic is that if you are ‘too stupid’ to get into university then you need to go and get some smelly job where your taxes will pay for the ‘smart’ people to study some soft hobby degree they have no intention or ability to ever repay. To me this is an unfair description. The fact that our Social Elite class expect the Smelly Workers to pay for their education via taxes is correct, but the direct relationship between education and intelligence is not. Some of the most educated people I have ever met are, to put it bluntly, ‘dumb as’.
I will happily claim that the primary function of higher education in the Western World is to keep unemployable young adults out of the already cluttered youth job market. Face it, the vast majority of degrees are Hobby Degrees (If it doesn’t improve your employment prospects, it’s a HOBBY) which are only on offer in vast numbers because – as I mentioned before – higher education is a business.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against hobbies. I are actually very happy to casually chat about female authored English science fiction from the post Regency period (Jane Webb – tis awesome!) but I am not stupid enough to believe that 4 or 5 years study on that subject is going to make me employable in any field remotely linked to female authored English science fiction from the post Regency period for the simple reason that this is not where the jobs are. Go STEM, go trade, or go learn to serve lattes.
Universal Healthcare is a strawman guilt trip. The guilt is built around the claims that without universal health care people die in the streets from not being able to afford to visit a doctor. Your Nation May Vary and I am not going to get into case by case studies of individual nations.
The point is that Universal Healthcare is intended to provide a safety net/minimum safe standard for the population. It lifts the bottom and that is, by and large, A Good Thing.
What it is not meant to do is force people to be tied to it. If you are not in the ‘minimum’ group and in a position to buy your way to better health, then why should you not be allowed? Why should there be shame and guilt about having private cover? Why should there be guilt and shame about improving the personal lot for yourself and your immediate family?
There is also the point that ‘free’ is only a term that can be correctly used when talking about contagious diseases. (Remember, if you are paying to catch flu, you are doing it wrong! Handy Life Hack!). What ‘free’ means in real terms is that the people that work will end up paying for the health care for people who don’t. Again at basic level this is A Good Thing in principle, by the point is that rather than dragging everyone down to a common level where everyone is equal, why don’t we start dragging people up into a better place. Wealth is not a zero sum. Wealth is created. Western ‘poor’ usually live better lives then 10th century ‘elite’ because wealth throughout society has been created to the extent where even ‘poor’ can own Playstations and own smart phones. Yes, people like me own better stuff than ‘poor’ people, but that might JUST have something to do with the fact I have polished my skill set over the course of my working life to the extent that I get paid based on my skills. No I didn’t pop out of High School and get straight to where I am – I actually made a complete botch of my 20s truth be told – but I am now employable, skilled and financially well off thank you very much.
Socialism is like ‘Climate Science’. The theory and models behind it are 97% binding and undebatable. The observed reality is that socialism at best fails, and at worse fails while killing millions. Socialism is the tool the failed use to try and steal back the success of others, and what is worse the people who push it the hardest are the ones with the smallest stake in the game if it all goes bad. Marx was not a worker. Marx was not an owner. Marx was a boho observer watching the workers and the owners and musing on the best way to totally reform the existing system so that him and his like would be in charge. If it all went bad? Well, he could always go back to being a boho.
Yes, Surfer, a lot of people ARE very anti-socialism, for the very rational reason socialism is an utter failure that has NEVER WORKED and has led to the completely avoidable deaths of millions.
Pinko, in the context of all the dead, is a mild term of endearment.
Craig from OZ, this is the most cogent description of socialism I have ever read. Expand it to a 10 page White Paper and rule the world.
Look what socialism did for the great nation of Venezuela.
It did it twice…
Duuude, how about some free cheese while we’re at it.
Free gubmint cheese!
How come Europe is not the United States with all its economic might? Socialism. Socialism is dead end. See Europe.
“US who have irrational fears that somehow universal healthcare, free education”
Surfer Dave uses newspeak and advocates violence… Socialism is so great that needs violence to force those that don’t agree with it…
free education…wonderful so the teachers, workers in schools work for free? or are slaves? or free education is not free and means someone is forced by state violence to pay, even those that don’t agree with it…
P.S: i am not American and never put my feet in USA…
Surfer Dave, let’s get some terms straight here. Socialism and capitalism are economic systems where, in the case of socialism, the means of production are in government hands and in the case of capitalism, the means of production are in private hands. Look at the Fenno-Scandian countries, they are all capitalist economies (though Norway holds a lot of stock in their corporations). These countries also provide strong social-welfare programs, (free education, universal healthcare, free retirement homes, etc.). In contrast to socialist counties, however, their capitalist economies provide the money to support their social welfare programs. Socialist economies cannot create the wealth to support realistic social-welfare programs. If leftists in America understood this America would be well on its way to becoming a social-welfare state by now.
That said, I much prefer the individual freedoms we enjoy in America that would be encroached upon by the bureaucrats of a social-welfare state.
There are some that argue that having government make all the important decisions regarding how a business is run is enough to make the economy not “socialist”, so long as the deed remains in private hands.
We have universal health care. It really is strange how some people can convince themselves that turning something over to the government makes it more available. Just look at the Veterans Administration.
Free education isn’t. Only a total moron believes that turning something over to the government makes something free.
We reject socialism because we are a free nation that can still read and remembers history.
Hans, the word “pinko” is a perjorative term for a Commie or communist sympathiser who doesn’t quite have the guts to be red, but is almost there by being pink in outlook.
They get a mention in this from the 1980’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMHDBL7CNA4
Correct, like National Pinko Radio.
I call it Nitwit Pinko Radio.
Charlie Daniels, Uneasy Rider, 1973…
https://youtu.be/952h-AJ3Bcg
“A bit more explanation would be useful for this non-american. Could you elaborate?”
Hans, sometimes communist sympathizers are described as “pinkos” in the United States. Much more so in the past, than now. “Pink” is related to “Red” which is related to “Communist”. So if you are a communist sympathizer but not really a full=fledged communist, then you are pink, not red.
“pinko” is an American English term meaning communist or communist sympathizer, Hans.
Hans,
Moscow is in Russia. Does that help? 🙂
Unless it is in New York state!
“Pinko is a pejorative coined in 1925 in the United States to describe a person regarded as being sympathetic to communism, though not necessarily a Communist Party member. It has since come to be used to describe anyone perceived to have leftist or socialist sympathies.
The term has its origins in the notion that pink is a lighter shade of red, a color associated with communism. Thus pink could describe a “lighter form of communism”, purportedly promoted by supporters of socialism who were not themselves actual or “card carrying” communists. The term pinko has a pejorative sense, whereas “pink” in this definition can be used in a purely descriptive sense, such as in the term pink tide. “
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinko
What’s the difference between a Pinko and a Communist? An AK47.
A socialist is merely a communist who isn’t in a revolutionary rush.
A socialist is a dude (or every dude) living in a proper socialist country which
is governed by a really deep red communist politburo, within the means of acceptance without any rejection or disagreement in consideration.
For as long as a citizen of a socialist country supports and openly with no any kind of opposition abides to that system, it happens to be for lack of better word a socialist.
Outside this, any one else flirting with the idea of Marxism, communism or socialism, is simply a silly mind defunct wanabe dude with no idea what actually all that means and entails as matter of fact.
Any one and every one that lacks experience of real life socialism under a communist politburo dictatorial rule, has and owns no any right to consider
or claim socialist belonging of the slightest, either in the means of ideology or practicality… as literally has no idea at all what socialism means.
The most efficient and surest path to economical, individual and national identity self destruction… Socialism.
The modern day sorcery at highest level;
the intellectual academic heartless spinning towards self mass destruction, exercised only as a means for more and more power to dominate, regardless of all else there.
Literally a crime against humanity, at this stage.
cheers
Yeah, but Pinko is the most fitting name since Anthony Weiner got busted for sexting with an underage girl.
Funny and at the same time the usual scam from “insurance agents”.
This sound more like insurance for weather related events. I find it strange to insure against climate – if you don’t like the climate, move your business to a place where the climate suits you.
The US and the “USSR” has climate region for anyone’s taste, I believe.
Could you consider not making the schist joke everytime? It’s an injoke for geologists, fine, but it’s not funny, a bit coarse and doesn’t really make sense anyway unless schist is pronounced sh*t. Maybe it is. I don’t know. In any case, repeating it over and over is not making it any funnier. Could you retire it please or maybe come up with another one?
I provide variety by also using horst schist and greenschist… coarse is my style… if you want fine grained, don’t read my posts.
Very coarse.😇
And highly folded.
it’s a terrible pun, but sure, you keep making the same unfunny joke and I’ll quit reading your posts.
“Hokey Schtick” makes me laugh. His name is a terrible pun and an unfunny joke that makes me want to quit reading his posts. (Well, not really, but doesn’t my protest sound good?)
Yet, he objects to others’ puns?!
What’s up with that?
I prefer coarseness over a someone submitting a post making a basalt of himself.
It’s still a free country. If the schist jokes get your panties in such a wad that you are willing to forego the huge amount of useful data in David’s posts then, don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
Maybe he takes for granite everyone’s appreciation of his gneiss wordplay.
Just don’t take everything for granite.
I do suppose an astronomer could claim someone is getting their statistics from Uranus.
A “Pinko” is not quite red through and through, but distinctly tinged with the stench of Soviet Marxism.
Anti-socialism?
Even free-market think tanks too bolshie for David.
“Bad”
At the same time, we recognize that public goods, natural monopolies and externalities are real concerns that governments must address.
Genghis Kahn is a pinko in comparison.
Genghis?
(thinking…)
Yeah. Pinko. More a Stalinist than a pure Socialist, but remember he suppressed the freedoms of his conquered victims, enforced his laws and brutally dealt with anyone who disagreed. Not remotely the behaviour of a Conservative or a Capitalist.
(remember, a Capitalist, like many people keep pointing out, is about the profit. Part of successfully making a profit is offloading expenses onto other people. If you own EVERYTHING (ie by Nationalising the industry) then you own not only the high performers but also the borderline failures. The smart Capitalist knows that. It is better in the most part to trade with someone for only the things you need than to capture them and have to deal with their burdens as well. Capitalism is about success control of the market share for personal gain, not owning everything, while socialism is about owning everything for the (nominal) advantage of everyone).
Genghis was not a Capitalist.
Ergo? Genghis was a Pinko!
QED 😀
WOW, why am I not surprised to find out that Loydo gets upset when people challenge his other great religion.
PS: The fact that there are natural monopolies and externalities isn’t sufficient to justify having government run everything.
If that Bill accidentally gets through the Senate then I hope all affected companies report annually that the greatest climate risk to them is that the overall economy gets trashed by red tape and overspending on ineffective climate mitigations!
Rich.
Yes, that would be quite an amusing outcome as it would focus on the costs of trying to change the weather. The UK’s head of the Bank of England – a Canadian who can’t go home soon enough – is a global warming nutter and says that climate change will bankrupt companies. A true statement but not as he meant it. The UK government’s insane net zero by 2050 will pretty much shutdown most companies.
Re. the expression of “”Pinko””, I think that the 1950 tees expression of “”Fellow traveller”” was more accurate.
Such people had the dream of Communism as being a system which could solve all of the worlds problems, and who when by 1991 the Communist system in the old USSR and its satellites collapsed, they having prospered under the US capitalist way, decided to jump onto the Climate environmentalist bandwagon, where they still are. Maurace STRONG was a perfect example.
Today’s Russia is no longer a Communist system, but it is in their interest to see the USA’s energy market collapse as a result of the obsession with “” Saving the Planet.””. After all the USA competes in n the world energymarket.
MJE VK5ELL
Isn’t anybody going to discuss the stupid legislation? More unnecessary regulation and increased costs levied on business? I assume it will die in the senate. Trump would certainly never sign it. It amounts to yet more wasted efforts by congress avoiding doing anything useful.
The woman’s name is amusing to those of us old enough to remember the term. I find it more curious that her title is engagement specialist. What is that and where do I get the degree?
I just couldn’t get past the byline.
Seriously discussing this legislation is like seriously discussing the DNC primary debates. You’d need to have a major concussion or a brain-eating amoeba to partake in either.
You’d need to have a major concussion or a brain-eating amoeba while riding in an over-crowded Clown Car.
What is the difference between schools strikers and a school shooter? An AR15.
Coarse enough – https://www.google.com/search?q=school+shooter+florida+cruz&oq=school+shooter+florida+&aqs=chrome.
Fitting last name.
Here is a picture of Ms. Pinko –
https://www.ucsusa.org/bio/nicole-pinko
Apparently the UCS is dazed and confused.
Celebrating for successfully bribing or deluding one house of Congress to pass a bill is thoroughly absurd.
In an earlier thread, a commenter was curious where the democrat debates got their audience of trained seals. Obviously,they rented them from the UCS.
Perhaps the UCS should inquire of their legal department, exactly how America’s government works.
Especially, where delusional environmentalists and their lackeys do not predominate throughout America’s government.
Typical American Socialist – “I can reduce the cost of health care by 70%. All it will take is $30 trillion more dollars.”
Maybe if you are extremely inept at math, that might sound reasonable. But if they are saving so much money, shouldn’t they be sending us a big check instead of the other way around?
It reminds me of those who watch the price of gasoline go up by $1, then take the paid- off car down to the dealership to trade it in for a new car with 10% better gas mileage, plus a huge new car payment. Spending thousands of dollars to save $150 a year on gas.
These people do exist, and I guess the Democrats count on their votes.
I remember when Obama promised us that ObamaCare was going to cut medical costs by at least 200%.
In other words, Obama promised that every time we went to see the doctor, the doctor would pay us.
Climate Change effects on business…..
Do you think the government would provide finance so I can set up a buggy whip factory? (Sorta semi-serious sarc)