Where Do Donald Trump And Other Republicans Stand On Cannabis Use?

[Auggie]

For all of you who hate socialism and would prefer not to live in a socialistic country please feel free to mail your social security checks to me I will be happy to take them off your hands. Please do not forget to sign them. Also if you get laid off from your job, do not forget to mail me your unemployment checks, we would not you to feel you live in a socialistic country.

For you who have not figured it out already, America is a socialistic country, but for you who hate that idea, please send me those checks.

Your argument doesn't hold water ...

Social Security is not a socialist program. Just because it has the word "social" in it doesn't make it a commie idea. It is a RETIREMENT system that I've been paying into for a half century now. That is not gov't money - it is MY money. And SSDI is an insurance policy that I've payed into for the same period of time in case I become disabled. Soc Security would be FLUSH in money right now if the politicians would stop robbing from it with IOU's to fund their favorite wars. I think LBJ was the first to do this to fund the Viet Nam war.

Same thing for Unemployment Insurance. It is INSURANCE. I pay insurance on my car - if it gets wrecked the insurance company pays me. That's not a socialist give away program - that is ME paying someone else to take on a risk that I can't afford to take on. I pay (and my employer) a premium every pay check.

So, if I wreck my car I won't be sending you the check that the insurance company sends me.
If I get hurt and go on disability, you won't be seeing that insurance check either.
When I retire, you won't get any of my 401k disbursements or Social Security checks either.

America IS socialist now, yer right about that. But, it is tipping further to the left every day. A touch of Socialism (like a bit of seasoning) is a good thing - but it can go too far. As I noted in a previous post, our degree of poorness is inversely related to the degree of socialism allowed in the country. The more communist we get - the poorer we will get.

Why do you think South Americans and Asians are flooding to our country?
What kind of gov't do they have at home?
Why are they so eager to leave?
Is it to seek a more perfect form of Socialism?
Is it to seek freedom?

It has been proven - and is currently BEING proven ... Socialism doesn't work. It's a good idea ... but it doesn't work. Sooner or later a socialistic gov't runs out of other people's money to spend. And the productive (rich) citizens of that system LEAVE the lazy and uneducated behind to fend for themselves.

I strongly suggest that you read Anne Ryand's "Atlas Shrugged", and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. The latter used to be required reading in school - probly is 'verbotten' now. Anne Ryand actually grew up in (I believe) Poland under the yoke of the Soviet Union in the 50's. She understood socialism.

You don't.

~ Auggie ~

 

[Auggie]

I just love an intelligent discussion about hot topics. You know, the three you never discuss around the dinner table ... sex, religion and politics. No yelling, no name calling ... try to change my mind. I don't have a closed mind. If you can convince me that the communist/socialist failures these last hundred years won't happen here - I will vote for Comrade Bernie.

Till then; Greece, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Soviet Union, N Korea and many more all weigh heavily on my mind as a warning. Hell, Canada can't even afford its own military. Few years ago they sent their President to the USA for medical care. When our medical system looks like theirs ... where will they send him next? Norway keeps being held out as some kind of socialist utopia. They have, what, THREE people there? How much aid do they send to underprivileged countries? Oh, zero? Norway is one of the most expensive places in the world to live. Taxes are brutal - up to 50% on income, and property taxes are high too.

The men who first occupied Jamestown had a socialist structure developed. Everyone farms their crops and places them in a central grainry from which anyone and everyone took their meals from.
When it was implemented, men started to not work, simply because they didn't have to work to get a meal (they just had to wait for others to farm their crops, and then they would take their share).
When the colony started to fail, John Smith arrived, and he basically said, "What the hell is this? Whose idea what this?" And he implements the rule 'You eat what you grow'.
Things got a lot better. There was actually some crops left over and trade developed. And some people got more wealthy than others. And here we are 250 years later - learning the same lesson.
Where is John Smith and Ron Reagan when we need em?

Now, change my mind.

~ Auggie ~

 

[OlderGrower]

I just love an intelligent discussion about hot topics. You know, the three you never discuss around the dinner table ... sex, religion and politics. No yelling, no name calling ... try to change my mind. I don't have a closed mind. If you can convince me that the communist/socialist failures these last hundred years won't happen here - I will vote for Comrade Bernie.

~ Auggie ~

What happened to no name calling?

FYI Comrade would imply communism not socialism, but hey if that helps you feel better about the shit hole government we presently have, go for it. Like you I am no youngster, though only 55. I have seen this country go to hell in a hand basket and have to say trickle down economic's actually does work. The rich got richer and the rest of us got what trickled down, and a trickle it was.. nothing more.

Also Cuba and North Korea are communist countries not socialist countries.
3 people in Norway, I see you are just full of fun facts. Where did you get them? FOX news?

Official development assistance by country in absolute terms in 2013[edit]
To qualify as official development assistance, a contribution must contain three elements:

Be undertaken by the official sector (that is, a government or government agency);
With promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective;
At concessional financial terms (that is, with favorable loan terms.)
Thus, by definition, ODA does not include private donations.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the DAC countries giving the highest amounts of ODA (in absolute terms) are as follows. European Union countries together gave $70.73 billion and EU Institutions gave a further $15.93 billion.[1][2][3]

European Union – $86.66 billion
United States – $31.55 billion
United Kingdom – $17.88 billion
Germany – $14.06 billion
Japan – $11.79 billion
France – $11.38 billion
Sweden – $5.83 billion
Norway – $5.58 billion
Netherlands – $5.44 billion
Canada – $4.91 billion
Australia – $4.85 billion
Italy – $3.25 billion
Switzerland – $3.20 billion
Denmark – $2.93 billion
Belgium – $2.28 billion
Spain – $2.20 billion

So once again YOUR wrong, Norway gave 5.58 billion dollars in 2013, I believe you claimed they gave.. let me see what did you claim.. oh yeah you said Oh, zero! Only missed it by 5.58 billion but you were really, really close with your facts.


Great story about John Smith by the way..In 1606 Smith became involved with the Virginia Company of London's plan to colonize Virginia for profit; it had been granted a charter by King James. The expedition set sail in three small ships, the Discovery, the Susan Constant, and the Godspeed, on 20 December 1606. His page was a 12-year-old boy named Samuel Collier.[2]

During the voyage, Smith was charged with mutiny, and Captain Christopher Newport (in charge of the three ships) had planned to execute him. Fortunately for Smith, upon first landing at what is now Cape Henry on 26 April 1607, unsealed orders from the Virginia Company designated Smith to be one of the leaders of the new colony, thus, perhaps, sparing Smith from the gallows.[2][7]

The English arrived at Jamestown in April 1607 and, by the summer of that year, the settlers were still living in temporary housing. The search for a suitable site ended on 14 May 1607, when Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, president of the council, chose the Jamestown site as the location for the colony. After the four-month ocean trip, their food stores were sufficient only for each to have a cup or two of grain-meal per day. Due to swampy conditions and widespread disease, someone died almost every day. By September, more than 60 were dead of the 104 brought by Newport. The men may well have died from drinking brackish creek water and from poor nutrition.[8]

In early January 1608, nearly 100 new settlers arrived with Captain Newport, and through carelessness the village was set on fire. That winter the James River froze over, and the settlers were forced to live in the burnt ruins. During this time, for the three months that Newport and his crew were in port, they wasted much time loading their ships with iron pyrite (fool's gold). Food supplies ran low and although the Native Americans brought some food, Smith wrote that "more than half of us died".[9]

In April 1608 a ship brought supplies and 50 new settlers, whom Smith set to construct housing and do farm planting. He spent that summer exploring Chesapeake Bay waterways and produced a map that would be of great value to Virginia explorers for over a century.[9]

Since I could find nothing stating your famous statement by John Smith I can only assume you read it in a book or heard it somewhere.

Oh and some get more wealth then others..... I have no issues with some receiving more wealth then others though when The charity said that, in 2010, the 388 richest people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014 before falling again in 2015.

Do 80 people really need to have the same amount of wealth as 3.5 billion people? 7 Billion (2011) According to the United Nations, world population reached 7 Billion on October 31, 2011. The US Census Bureau made a lower estimate, for which the 7 billion mark was only reached on March 12, 2012. But as they say in France....."Let them eat cake"

 

[OlderGrower]

Oh and your argument that none of that is socialism because you paid into it. I hate to break the news to you, but if I collect food stamps, or any other form of government welfare as you call it, I paid for all those with MY TAXES. Just like you paid for our Social Security and unemployment insurance. You remind me very much like my wife brother, when someone else receives any kind of government assistance, they are a mooch and drain on society, but when he gets those same government assistances, he deserves them because he paid for them with his taxes. Unfortunately you can not have it both ways, either both are mooches and drains on society, or both deserve the benefits since both paid taxes. I am by no means a wealthy man, though as a Union Electrician I have made a decent income over the years and trust me, I pay plenty of taxes. I consider myself lucky, not everyone gets a living wage, but everyone gets to pay taxes. Even back in the day when I was making a whopping $1.90 an hour I was paying taxes, granted I got most of it back but I still had to pay, just like everyone else.

Oh and I believe your right, our country is being flooded by people from countries like Norway, Belgium, Ireland, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Those are all countries with socialism and their people are just flooding the USA to get away.. Oh wait, those countries are not flooding the USA. Could it be because those would be the countries Bernie wants to emulate .. though apparently you would prefer we emulate the worst examples of socialism if we were to become more socialism, not the best. So heres a question right back at you, you claim we live in the greats country known to mankind, well.... if that is the case, why are no other countries trying to emulate US.

 

[Auggie]

Well, I been gone ... working. You know, that what us capitalists do to screw the regular person and steal all of his money. Work. Google it.

Where do I start. LoL. How about here: Communism has several flavors, and blends. On one end of the scale (the right end) is fascism. Characterized by strong government control of everything. The trains run on time, or the stationmaster gets executed and a new guy is put in. The trains run on time. The economic system allows some capitalism - with the permission of the gov't. Strong nationalism; "we are the best and everyone else is subhuman." Very strong military complex that is frequently used against weaker neighbors. Usually they pick a group of people to blame on --- in 1930's Germany it was Jews. In 2016 Amerika - it's Mexicans. On the other end of the scale is socialism - to the far left. Their approach is similar but different. Gov't still controls everything but systems rarely work as designed. Lots of waste, lots of graft and theft at the upper levels of gov't. ALL "income" is controlled by the gov't. It is actually illegal to work for yourself - it's all about the good of the masses, not the individual.

Both systems are Communist in nature. And, there is no pure form of any gov't. Not even our system has ever been pure capitalist - closest we ever got to it was the years right after the Civil War. We have a mixture of Democracy and Republic with a dash of Socialism thrown in. Personally I have no problem with the idea of socialism -- it's a great idea. And the things that Bernie is going to give me, free of charge ... shit, who wouldn't be for that? I have no problem with social programs. I believe that "the people" should be in charge and pick up some of the cost of things like education and health care. I don't object to my taxes going to care for someone who is disabled, or unemployed and needs a hand up. No problem with that at all. Social Security is not a tax, it's an insurance premium. Same with unemployment - insurance.

Our illegals are coming from Asia and South America. They are fleeing a socialist system that doesn't give them a chance.

Keeping in mind the above descriptions of socialist and fascist systems ... can you see what our voting choices are going to be? I don't think that Comrade Bernie will make it to the White House; I believe that Herr Fuehrer Trump will.

This has become a world of extremes. Everything is extreme. Religion: if you don't worship the same way I do I will kill you, cut off your head and send the recording to the world; because you are Jew, Christian, whatever. Politics: one 'side' wants to go down the road that the USSR did (and failed), the other side wants to go down pre-ww2 Germany's path (that failed). Even our stock market: Up 250 points today, down 350 tomorrow, then up 500 the day after, then down 350 .... extreme swings.

So, the choice we have coming up is ... Hitler or Stalin. What a choice eh? They are both extremists. They both scare me - for different reasons.

And, yes, John Smith landed and found a bunch of starved and weak and sick settlers. Half of them dead. He told them to get offa their asses and work for themselves. And they did. And that was the beginning of the greatest country that has done the greatest amount of good that this planet has ever seen. Ever.

So, yea, lets change that. Hope and change. Yea.

~ Auggie ~

 

[Takelababy]

How gov'ts work. There's a large crowd at the top that enjoys great wealth. Where do they get it? Working class smucks. The general populace greatly outnumbers the kingpins so they throw us crumbs, like heathcare or pensions so there isn't a civil rebellion. Should that happen there aren't enough military or police forces to curtail it.

 

[OlderGrower]

Well, I been gone ... working. You know, that what us capitalists do to screw the regular person and steal all of his money. Work. Google it.
So, yea, lets change that. Hope and change. Yea.

~ Auggie ~

Don't have to google it, been doing it all of my life. Started doing it at age 13 for my old man for a dollar a day, which I will say was a dollar a day more then my brother or sisters got. Much like the stereo-typing of all stoners being nothing more then guys who live in their parents basement at age 40 with no job or ambition, I feel you are stereotyping me. Just because I think it is wrong that the richest 60 people own as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 BILLION people on this planet does not mean I hate or think people should not be allowed to better themselves financially. What it does mean though is I think there comes a point when you have to take a look at the world and call out the greedy fucks for who they are. So unless you are making over a million dollars ever year or making all your income from investments and are not of retirement age, YES I do think you should be paying higher taxes, but if you don't make those obscene amounts per year, then I have no issue with you or what you make. I through in investments before retirement because once you are retired, a low tax rate is fair since you are in your golden years, but if your 30 or 40 and all your income comes from investing, you should be paying the same tax rate as the rest of us. The biggest issue I see with America is the greed which it instills in its people.
That and for some reason they think that because they were lucky enough to be born here they are better then anyone else. Got news for you, we are not any better then anyone else.

And, yes, John Smith landed and found a bunch of starved and weak and sick settlers. Half of them dead. He told them to get offa their asses and work for themselves. And they did. And that was the beginning of the greatest country that has done the greatest amount of good that this planet has ever seen. Ever.

So, yea, lets change that. Hope and change. Yea.

~ Auggie ~

Greatest country ever huh? Greatest amount of good? Well if you were a native American indian you may feel differently, if you lived in one of the many, way to many to list countries where we have gone in and helped over throw the governments so we could install our own Puppet governments, you may not be overly impressed. If you were spending time in prison for the possession of a freaking plant that is less dangerous then Alcohol and Tobacco you might not be so impressed with the route this country has taken. Now had you said the worlds biggest bully I might have to agree with you on that point, but greatest amount of good? Really? Thats just sad to imagine that if we are, then this planet is in really, really bad shape and the existence of mankind is screwed.

Education= According to Pearson, the United States has a "cognitive skills and educational attainment" score of 0.39, which makes the United States rank fourteenth out of forty countries ranked in that category.

How about satisfaction?
According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project, 33% of Americans are satisfied "with the way things are going" in their country. That makes the United States rank nineteenth out of forty-four countries ranked in that category. China ranks first, with 87% of Chinese saying that they are satisfied with how things are going in China.

Gee how about healthcare costs?
According to Bloomberg.com, the United States has the forty-fourth most efficient health care system out of fifty-one countries ranked in that category. (Efficiency includes life expectancy and health care costs per capita.

What about locking up our population in prisons?
According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, there are 2,228,424 prisoners in the United States. That is enough to make the United States rank first in that category. The second highest number of prisoners is in China, at 1,701,344.

So as for being the greatest of ANYTHING, the only thing I see our country doing which it is leading the world in, is putting our citizens in prison. Well that and military spending.
Ever wonder why everyone from all these other countries hate Americans so much? Could it be, that we think we are the police of the world and we think if they don't agree with us, then we have the right to kill them.
Calling Trump Hitler and Sanders Stalin, is extreme. You complain about the world being extreme yet it is ok for you to be extreme. Do I think Trump is a good choice for our country, hell no, but to compare him to Hitler, thats a bit much. And as far as Bernie Sanders is concerned, he wants everyone, not just the rich and privileged to be guaranteed health care, but everyone. He also wants free college tuition. He wants to reverse "Citizens United" so the billionaire classes can not buy politicians and in turn take over our country. These are all nobel causes which in the long run will make this country a better place for everyone including the billionaires. So to compare him to Stalin is just wrong, unless Stalin did all of those things, which I am pretty sure he didn't.

 

[SweetSue]

Thank you OG.

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

Bernie Sanders is just there to fool democrats into thinking there vote matters. The game is rigged for the Dems as well as the Rep party. I think people on both sides are tired of big government doing nothing. Obama had the House and Senate for two years and all he accomplished was obamacare and playing golf. He could have passed real immigration laws but instead decided to do an illegal executive action right before his re election. Both sides Will never solve any social issues because these issues are used to excite their base and to keep us ALL divided. The liberals will call trump a racist for wanting strong borders. Liberal are always putting labels on people and placing them in groups. Then they call their opponents racist and try to shut them up. A vast majority of people see this and want smething else which brings us to the rise of Trump and Bernie.
Trump is not perfect but he is the Only candidate with a chance to win that is not bought and paid for by special interest. I believe he will be good for marijuana. Hillary is a morally bankrupt joke who runs from one group to another pandering. She is power hungry and will do anything for power. I like Bernies ideas but they are just happy talk that will never happen, at least Bernie is honest and real and i can respect that. But he has NO chance to beat hillary.
So that only leaves Trump. He is not a racist. Is it racist to have strong borders against ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ? NO. Is it racist to put a hold on syrian refugees until they can be properly veted to keep out thousands of terrorist? No. By the way you can blame obama and hillary for the syrian crisis. And you can blame bush and obama for the rise of ISIS. Bush should have never went in and obama should not have pulled out until the job was done. He abandoned the good people in Iraq. They will never trust us again.

 

[BrokrnEyes]

I have to respectfully disagree about your views on Trump, Nicholas. No, wanting to build a Wall in itself is not inherently racist. No, wanting to put a stop to the inflow Syrian refugees into the United States until A system can be employed to check to see who is a terrorist is not racist (and I must admit, I even agree with the sentiment, we have made war on Middle East sense 9/11, the people there have very good reason to hate us to the point that we just cannot let our doors remain open without taking precautions). What is racist is Liebling entire ethnic groups pejoratively in nonsensically rapists, murderers, etc., actively encouraging violence at his own rallies against my Nordie protesters (trumped likes to cry that the protesters are violating his freedom of speech, yet he is equally violating The protesters rights of freedom of speech and assembly via encouraging violence against them in the rally shut down we saw in Chicago last Friday was a manifestation of the frustration Felt by the groups that Trump is been unfairly targeting. wasn't right, no but it wasn't unexpected either and despite his favorite fall back saying they were violating his freedom of speech, the Constitution does not have a minute for freedom of consequence, IE if you insult someone's mother, you should at least expect that you're going to get a fist in the face as a consequence. Again, it's not right, but who amongst us wouldn't at the least have the impulse to defend our parents?) is in the show claim that he did not know who the former leader of the KKK was and then reluctant dismissal, despite the fact that every serious presidential candidate is given a briefing/packet of information regarding hate groups in the country and his endorsement by the KKK (even though he says he does not want the endorsement, the fact of the matter is that the KKK endorses him because of his message) effectively and rightfully in my opinion clearly earns in the label of being a racist.

I agree with you completely that Liberals love to label someone a racist for a slip of the tongue or a perceived action or what have you but when you have a series of incidents surrounding a single individual such as Trump, the evidence becomes harder to ignore and at a certain point you have to egg knowledge that the label fits a person.

I think the most telling thing about Trump is the fact that I have read stories on CNN of Jewish groups expressing grave concern about trumps message and I hate to stereotype, but when Jews start expressing concerns over the message of a political candidate, that's a pretty significant red flag right there.

I agree with you completely that Hillary Clinton is a trans parent self interested woman who is very much a part of the political system and her election would only further to grade the country. The biggest concern I have is the mere fact that the FBI is actively investigating her and she is still pulling strong, it almost makes me wonder about her supporters and if they really don't care for their fellow countrymen, particularly the whole Benghazi incident and the finding of top-secret information on her unsecured home server. The fact that she had an unsecured email server at her home, if any foreign power ever found out, which I would not be surprised if they did, even if they were strong allies, their priority would be to be monitoring that server 24/7. I cannot help but wonder if any of our fellow countrymen were killed because of that woman's Seeming your rational desire to have an unsecured server in her home, would it really have been that much more difficult to have someone secure it for her? And why was that not a mandatory requirement in the first place? Was it because she is Bill Clinton's wife or is security really that lacks in the government? Would certainly explain how Snowden got all that information out of the Pentagon.

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are in my opinion two sides of the same coin, the queen being in on deniable desire to change the political system in the country To the point that we the people actually mean something. We have seen over the past eight years the Republican Party do nothing but Stonewall the president on every matter imaginable short of issues that would be political suicide to side against ( and even then, that is not without its own exception). I think if it came down to a Sanders the Trump election, I think that would be so revolutionary that the only other time something that huge would've happened in our history is when British General Cornwallis ( I think ) said that the world has been turned on its head at the end of the American revolution when we won our independence from the British Empire. The thing is though, the longest that will split the parties other Republicans and the Democrats are still very much here, and I don't expect we will see a fundamental shift in politics for another 3–4 elections, if either candidate were to win, they would effectively be locked out by both parties but the political revolution would have already started, hell it already has started just the mere fact that both independence are still active candidates in the second half of the primary season.

 

[Nicholas Flamel]

Well put Eyes. Trump has said some really dumb things but i dont think he is a racist. He has been in the spotlight for decades and has never been accused of racism until he threatened the power of the political class. Now all the sudden he is Hitler lol. The republicans and the democrats are both engaged in trump fear mongering. Trump threatens business as usual in Washington. And the political establishment stands to loose power and money.

 

[blaccie]

I am voting for Bernie, I think hes the only one who would help with legalization, I'd settle for decriminalization! The rest are just fakes IMO who will say whatever you want to hear to get in office...then do nothing!

 

[OlderGrower]

Yeah Trump is a peaceful kind of guy. Why he even said, I quote " I would like to punch that guy in the face." Good thing my son has already served in the military and is now out, since diplomacy like that is surely to bring years and years of peace throughout the world.

Everyone claims that the reason Bernie Sanders is unelectable is because there is no way to pay for all the things he has suggested. I disagree, we could easily pay for everything he suggests and more if we stopped being the world police and cut our military spending in 1/2.

 

[Keith Lake]

They're all out there talking the big talk, but you notice Cannabis is still Schedule One. That says it all. Until that changes this is all smoke and mirrors. Once that changes you won't be able to reign in the speed of change that will follow. Right now it's just the monkey dance for votes.

Cannabis is schedule 1 yet the US hold a legal patent on its benefits.

 

[OlderGrower]

Cannabis is schedule 1 yet the US hold a legal patent on its benefits.

True but many of our prisons are corporate owned and so long as weed is a schedule 1 they will be making huge profits from locking up American citizens. Want to know who really controls our government? Follow the MONEY!