General Politics Discussion (III) [ARCHIVED] • Page 558

Can't wait to read the article about terrorism participation trophies

 

I'm sure they'll miss him

 

OH MY GOD BOYCOTTS ARE THE MOST "FREE MARKET" FORM OF PROTEST POSSIBLE WHY DON'T YOU LIKE THEM AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM WHY ARE YOU ADVOCATING FOR ONE WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH...

:has a stroke and dies:

 

Does anyone really want to take advice from a guy who couldn't find Capone's vault?

 

"I shan't support Coca Cola"

"Chevy will NOT receive my dollars this month"

 

He found the vault, but it was empty

 

So when Carter Page, an international businessman with an office near Trump Tower, volunteered his services, former officials recall, Trump aides were quick to make him feel welcome.

He had come with a referral from the son-in-law of Richard Nixon, New York state Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox, who had conveyed Page’s interest to the campaign, Cox said.

A top Trump adviser, Sam Clovis, then employed what campaign aides now acknowledge was their go-to vetting process — a quick Google search — to check out the newcomer.

‘Anyone . . . with a pulse’: How a Russia-friendly adviser found his way into the Trump campaign

 

Alabama moves to protect Confederate monuments

 

There's was nothing in Al Capone's vault,
but it wasn't Geraldo's fault

 

Idiotic Commentary on California’s Single Payer Push – MattBruenig | Politics

 

There was nothing in Al Capone's vault.
But it wasn't Gerardo's fault.

 

For the lack of what was inside, he might as well found nothing.

 

He's a monster

 

Holy shit. Just, holy shit.

 

In a group me for a videogame league I was recently called a snowflake for asking people to stop being homophobic assholes. "We're all men here, this isnt a snowflake safe zone"

 

jfc. I make "joke" superlative awards every year for kids at a summer camp. You don't need more than 2 minutes with kids to know what is and isn't an appropriate way to joke with them.

 

If it makes you feel any better about crushing peoples dreams, it takes a lot more than one person to crush your dreams. I don't think you would have crushed her dreams, but could have quite possibly started her down the path of realization. It has taken me a very very long time to realize that, if things don't change within our society, I will remain a member of the working poor for the rest of my life. I've come to realize this, partly because of stalking this thread and mostly just observing, learning, and taking it in, that it's gotten really bad in America. The rich keep getting richer, while the poor keep getting poorer.

Don't get me wrong I can take some of the responsibility because I sometimes don't make the best choices when it comes to monetary decisions. However, predatory school lenders took advantage of a 22 year old kid going through cancer. I did not fully understand the ramifications of what getting student loans would do to me in my adult life when I was that young.

10 Years Later:

1. Nelnet (Student Loan) - 80,000 (Accrued around 15,000 dollars in interest over the past 10 years and I'm about to run out of deferment options)

2. Navient (Student Loan) - 5,000 (Accrued around 1,000 in interest because I can only make a minimum payment of 30 dollars per month on it, I think maybe about 20 dollars of that is going towards the loan)

3. GM Financial (Car Loan) - 11,000 (Car is worth about 6,000 at a maximum, had to get a high interest car loan because my car broke down and I needed a way to get to work so I could put a roof over my kids heads. Got an insane interest rate on it because of my credit being terrible due to not being able to pay bills while going through chemotherapy)

4. Credit Cards - 3,000 (Had to get these as an extra form of income because I only make 35,000 dollars a year as a teacher and that plus my wife's income is nowhere near enough to pay our bills)

5. Medical Collections - 3,000 (Still have some lingering medical collections from when I was going through chemotherapy. "Fortunately" about 20,000 dollars of it has fallen off over the past couple of years. Only reason that much is left is because I thought I was doing the right thing by starting to pay them off, but really I was just letting the time restart so I have to wait another 7 years before they can fall off my credit report again.

My, myself and I is almost in 100,000 dollars of debt and I make 35,000 dollars per year. Was hoping to have some of my student loans offset from being a teacher, but it looks like that is about to not be an option anymore.

This does not include my wife's student loans, car loan, collections, or credit cards.

I probably get around 10-15 calls a day from either collections or nelnet. Once I run out of deferment options from my big student loan I truly don't know what I am going to do. My minimum payment per month will be around 700 dollars per month.

I don't even care that I'm putting this out there, but I just want it out there so people understand that there is no "middle class" anymore. There is the rich and then there is everyone else.

To put this even further into perspective here are just my monthly payments on credit:

Car Payment: 367
Wife's Car Payment: 463
Combined Credit Cards (Needed to make ends meet): 380
Student Loans: 30

Total - 1,240

All other monthly bills:

Rent: 1,300 (Can't buy a house for my family because my credit score is too low)
Car Insurance: 210 (One tiny little fender bender where I forgot to put my parking brake up and it rolled into another car very slowly and my insurance went up 50 dollars per month)
Phone: 170 (Both of our phone bills)
Subscription Services: 40 (Have Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon Prime, I need some form of entertainment)
Internet: 40
Trash Services: 30
Water: 80 (Average)
Electric: 150 (Average)
Monthly Meds: 50
Monthly Gas: 250
Groceries: 400 (Low Balling it)
Child Support: 1,337 (This will change eventually)

Total - 4,057

Credit - 1240
Bills/Expenses - 4,057
Total Monthly Credit/Bills/Expenses - 5,297

So, my monthly obligations are around 5,297 dollars per month, yes this includes a ridiculous inflated child support payment per month, but that is pretty much offset by how much my student loan payment will end up being.

Between my wife and myself we make about 5,322 dollars in take home income. So, we have a total of 25 dollars extra per month. That's really fun during times like one of our five kids birthdays, if something brakes, emergencies, and Christmas Time. For around 5 years I've been telling myself that I was going to get out of this, but I'm just getting deeper and deeper. It's insane how much I have to work to just keep the lights on.

Monday - Friday:
- Wake up at around 6:00 a.m. every day
- Get ready and commute to my job as a teacher. Takes about 30 minutes
- Teach from 7:45 - 3:00 each day
- Drive back to the side of town I live on. 30 minute drive
- Go to the air force base and bag groceries from about 3:45 - 7:00
- Stock groceries from around 7:00 - 8:30 as a vendor stocker
- Get home around 9:00, go to bed
- Wake up and do it again

Saturday and Sundays are the only days I really get to spend any time with my wife and kids. I am 100% sure I will be working until I die. I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do anymore.

With all of that said, I know a lot of people have it a lot worse than me and I should be thankful for what I have, but really what do I have? 100,000 dollars in debt all basically given to me when I was young and didn't understand the way these companies were preying on kids like me.

I honestly don't know what needs to be done, but something needs to be done because I am drowning and as much as I try to convince myself and my wife that we are going to be okay, I'm really not so sure anymore. All I know is that since Trump/Republicans have come into office my phone has been going nuts from phone calls from these loan companies ready to collect and had one person from the student loan company tell me that they could start garnishing my wages if I don't do something about it. It's terrifying.

I'm truly scared for what the future holds for not only me and my family, but for other American families across the nation. Sorry for the rant, but I just felt the need to get it out there, not only for other people to see it, but for my own mental health.

/rant

 

She's a brilliant legislator though. How she got stuff through during her tenure is one of the most underrated parts of her career.

 

That's what the Montana race did.

No one should overlearn a lesson from that race.

 

There are so so many out there like this where their take home pay is dead even with their monthly bills, or worse. I don't understand how people don't see folks like you and others, and they have the goddamn nerve to say what that girl says. "Just work harder" and "have a better attitude on life and you'll lift yourself out of it." It's disgusting and infuriating.

And then you see the wealthy with their multiple homes and their new cars and their clean eating habits and their vacations and their ~self care solutions~ that cost time and money most stressed, depressed people don't have.

Idfk. Thanks for sharing your story, I'm sure it was hard and it fucking sucks. Damn the man and tax the rich.

 

Even if I thought that to be the case then, I would still say that it is time for new leadership, because the current set is ill-suited for the tasks ahead of them.

 

As I understand it, he was outspent pretty badly. But, I think the point is speaking to the national strategy of assuming that Trump's idiocy is enough to alienate voters into their arms. There's a lot of hard work to be done in terms of building a dominant left message.