2023 State Of The Union Address

[RVonse]

Either you increase FICA

Remove the cap on the FICA tax.

Diversity is what made our country successful!

Really? Considering all the problems in the US, I don't agree it is that successful in the first place. But that notwithstanding, how would you consider all the fighting between cultures would in any way contribute to our success? The race riots of the 1960's helped make us successful? More so than the mono culture of Japan? I honestly don't get where you are coming from.

 

[southernhybrid]

Either you increase FICA

Remove the cap on the FICA tax.

Diversity is what made our country successful!

Really? Considering all the problems in the US, I don't agree it is that successful in the first place. But that notwithstanding, how would you consider all the fighting between cultures would in any way contribute to our success? The race riots of the 1960's helped make us successful? More so than the mono culture of Japan? I honestly don't get where you are coming from.

I think those things were rare. Look around and see all the small businesses that have been created by a diverse number of ethnic immigrants. What would we do without all those tasty Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian etc. restaurants? What about the wonderful Soul music, funk and jazz that Black culture has given us? How about all the doctors and nurses who come from very diverse backgrounds? Those are just a few examples of the joy and success of being in a diverse nation. My husband once worked for a company owned by Asians and I once worked in a home health agency in Atlanta that had nurses from many different ethnic backgrounds. I grew up in an area that was dominated by Italian immigrants as well as Polish immigrants and I lived in San Antonio, Tx. for five years. My two favorite nursing teachers were Mexicans. They were wonderful and helped me get through a very tough program.

I think you are taking a very narrow minded view of things. Btw, I lived in an area in the Northeast that experienced the so called race riots in the early 70s. They were motivated due to the racism that poor Black people living in ghettos were dealing with, but I have enjoyed living in a Black majority city for almost 25 years and it has given me the opportunity to enjoy being able to make Black friends and interact with many Black people. I've also known quite a few Iranian people during my younger years and enjoyed them. I married a man who is the grandson of a Syrian immigrant. His grandma was a wonderful person and I learned a lot about the Arabic cuisine. So, perhaps you simply haven't known enough people from different cultures to see the beauty of mixing and learning from each other. I stand by my claim that diversity has helped us be successful as a nation. Maybe you need to get out more.

 

[Politesse]

Also, Japan is not a "monoculture"! The United States, Europe, and Japan have been mutually and successfully trading cultural ideas, practices and capital for over seventy-five years, to the demonstrable great benefit of all parties. A centrepiece example, in fact, of the good that can come of intercultural synthesis even under less than promising initial circumstances.

 

[Derec]

I think those things were rare. Look around and see all the small businesses that have been created by a diverse number of ethnic immigrants.

What even does the phrase "diverse numbers" mean?

What would we do without all those tasty Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian etc. restaurants?

As I said before, some diversity is good. When the number of those coming in is too high, it's no longer immigration, it becomes colonization. Esp. when the newcomers are from incompatible cultures like Afghanistan or Somalia.

What about the wonderful Soul music, funk and jazz that Black culture has given us?

Notice that these genres are all from about half a century ago? I could definitely live without hip hop/rap and associated violence.
In Atlanta, rapper "Young Thug" (who broke a teacher's arm in middle school btw.) has become a multi-millionaire due to rap, but is now on trial for racketeering. Hopefully justice gets served, but they can't even seat a jury.

How about all the doctors and nurses who come from very diverse backgrounds? Those are just a few examples of the joy and success of being in a diverse nation.

Medical education is broken. Entities like AAMC as well as individual med schools care more about DEI than about academics. The result is that mediocre black and hispanic students can get into med school, while white/Asian students have to achieve much more to have the same chance of acceptance. AAMC also made USMLE Step 1 (licensing exam) pass-fail in order to hide achievement differences between students. Meaning it is now even easier to discriminate by race and assign residency spots "equitably" rather than based on individual merit.

I think you are taking a very narrow minded view of things.

To be fair, I think you do too, on the opposite end.
Just because there are some benefits to some diversity does not mean it is a good idea to take so many people to fundamentally change the demographics, culture and the very identity of our country.
Just look at all the problems Europe is having with the ever increasing Muslim population.

Btw, I lived in an area in the Northeast that experienced the so called race riots in the early 70s. They were motivated due to the racism that poor Black people living in ghettos were dealing with,

Everything is whitey's fault?

And you have not answered what exactly your definition of "diversity" is? Do you consider so-called HBCUs "diverse" just because there are no white people there?

 

[Derec]

Also, Japan is not a "monoculture"! The United States, Europe, and Japan have been mutually and successfully trading cultural ideas, practices and capital for over seventy-five years, to the demonstrable great benefit of all parties. A centrepiece example, in fact, of the good that can come of intercultural synthesis even under less than promising initial circumstances.

There has been exchange of ideas, but vast majority of Japanese citizens are in fact Japanese. They do not have mass migrations of people from shitholes like Afghanistan, unlike US, Europe and Australia.

 

[Elixir]

As I said before, some diversity is good. When the number of those coming in is too high according to my esteemed judgment, it's no longer immigration, it becomes colonization

FIFY
One could assume that one Pakistani is diversity, two is a potential problem, three is a colonization and any more constitutes an invasion.
Obviously we need a spreadsheet to be provided by the arbiter(s) of what number is “too high”, so we can assume the posture of an appropriate level of xenophobic terror.

vast majority of Japanese citizens are in fact Japanese

Whereas the vast majority of American citizens
ARE FUCKING IMMIGRANTS or their offspring.
oh, the horror.

 

[Derec]

Yes, you are misunderstanding how SS works.

You may be misunderstanding. There is a formula, and average working income is definitely included in calculating benefits.

There is also this idea that SocSec/Medicare is a benefit one earns. That would be weakened if it was paid for by contributions that do not result in benefits, or if we moved on to funding SocSec/Medicare with other taxes (like a tax on transactions) in whole or in part.

 

[Derec]

FIFY

I mean, we are all talking here based on our own judgment.
Just because we disagree on appropriate levels and kinds of migration does not make me "xenophobic".

One could assume that one Pakistani is diversity, two is a potential problem, three is a colonization and any more constitutes an invasion.

Not quite, but a few million does constitute an invasion. Especially when they are not or only poorly vetted. We certainly do not need any more Islamic extremists, or violent criminals.
Take the case of Afghan mass migrant  Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai. He murdered two people while moving through Serbia on his way to Western Europe. Even though he was convicted in absentia, UK took him in instead of immediately deporting him. Then he murdered a British man.
Or take this case.
Suspect Arrested in Deadly Stabbing of 2 on Train in Germany
The perp is a Palestinian.

Ain't forced diversity great?

Whereas the vast majority of American citizens
ARE FUCKING IMMIGRANTS or their offspring.
oh, the horror.

Unless you are living in eastern Africa, your ancestors had to have come from somewhere else.
So what? That does not tell us anything about appropriateness of different immigration policies in present day America.

 

[Elixir]

So what?

So why are you complaining about “too many” people like yourself whose ancestors were not Americans?
How many generations after immigration does a person cease pushing your “terrified” button?

 

[Derec]

Shifting gears back to the SOTU. I have not had a chance to watch it, but I did hear a small part on the radio while driving.
It was the part where Dark Brandon was talking about a different Brandon, the one who wrestled the gun from the shooter. Biden kept talking how the shooter had a "semi-automatic pistol" and then concluded with a call to ban "assault weapons". That's a non-sequitur. Or does he want to broaden the definition of "assault weapon" to include handguns as well?

 

[Elixir]

Also Derec, are you as terrified of Norwegian immigrants as you are of Nigerian or Azerbaijani immigrants?
I suspect not, generally speaking.
I know that I am reflexively more wary of a dark-skinned bearded middle eastern male than of a blonde blue eyed Swedish woman. But it make a conscious effort to resolve and control that irrational reflex.

 

[Elixir]

Shifting gears back to the SOTU. I have not had a chance to watch it, but I did hear a small part on the radio while driving.
It was the part where Dark Brandon was talking about a different Brandon, the one who wrestled the gun from the shooter. Biden kept talking how the shooter had a "semi-automatic pistol" and then concluded with a call to ban "assault weapons". That's a non-sequitur. Or does he want to broaden the definition of "assault weapon" to include handguns as well?

I‘d favor a requirement to more heavily regulate ALL semi-auto firearms more stringently than single shot, bolt action or revolver-type firearms. The lexical confusion that pervades the debate is unfortunate and serves only to keep weapons of mass murder in the hands of those who will use them for their intended purpose.

 

[Elixir]

we are all talking here based on our own judgment.

… which renders assertions like “most Japanese citizens are Japanese” utterly meaningless. One might wonder why anyone would make such a categorical statement that holds no water … if the reason was not so obvious.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Also Derec, are you as terrified of Norwegian immigrants as you are of Nigerian or Azerbaijani immigrants?
I suspect not, generally speaking.
I know that I am reflexively more wary of a dark-skinned bearded middle eastern male than of a blonde blue eyed Swedish woman. But it make a conscious effort to resolve and control that irrational reflex.

Yeah, she'll be much more dangerous to your wallet at the strip club than the dark-skinned bearded middle eastern male.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

In Japan there is plenty of discrimination. Burukumin, lower class castes who have been discriminated against for centuries. Koreans, many of whom been in Japan for many generations. And others. Blacks, Arabs and others.

 

[RVonse]

Also Derec, are you as terrified of Norwegian immigrants as you are of Nigerian or Azerbaijani immigrants?
I suspect not, generally speaking.
I know that I am reflexively more wary of a dark-skinned bearded middle eastern male than of a blonde blue eyed Swedish woman. But it make a conscious effort to resolve and control that irrational reflex.

Or it might just be a rational and instinctive reflex brought on after thousands of years of evolution. For better or worse, your very existence being on this world in the first place has depended upon what your ancestors did or did not do.

 

[RVonse]

Who said anything about increasing benefits?

If you increase FICA limit on contributions, you would automatically increase their benefits. Or am I misunderstanding how social security works, at least currently?

Yes, you are misunderstanding how SS works.

Oh? I think it’s a good quesion…

Currently, there’s a max FICA deduction, and there’s a max Social Security payout.
However, I would not expect them to be linked “automatically,” therefore Zipr would have a point that there is no requirement to raise the max payout. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good question to answer explicitly; do the current laws or do they not automatiically connect changes in collection to changes in payout?

Without getting into the minutia of social security, I thought Biden's finest moment was how he responded to Republican jeers. Which he obviously expected falling right into his agenda, declaring publicly in front of everyone Republican's would now take future cuts off the table. A pretty genius move IMO especially for someone who is semi senile. The future Republicans are going to wish they kept their stupid mouths shut!

 

[ZiprHead]

Without getting into the minutia of social security, I thought Biden's finest moment was how he responded to Republican jeers. Which he obviously expected falling right into his agenda, declaring publicly in front of everyone Republican's would now take future cuts off the table. A pretty genius move IMO especially for someone who is semi senile. The future Republicans are going to wish they kept their stupid mouths shut!

Yup, that was a brilliant kick to the balls of the Republicans.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Who said anything about increasing benefits?

If you increase FICA limit on contributions, you would automatically increase their benefits. Or am I misunderstanding how social security works, at least currently?

Yes, you are misunderstanding how SS works.

Oh? I think it’s a good quesion…

Currently, there’s a max FICA deduction, and there’s a max Social Security payout.
However, I would not expect them to be linked “automatically,” therefore Zipr would have a point that there is no requirement to raise the max payout. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good question to answer explicitly; do the current laws or do they not automatiically connect changes in collection to changes in payout?

Without getting into the minutia of social security, I thought Biden's finest moment was how he responded to Republican jeers. Which he obviously expected falling right into his agenda, declaring publicly in front of everyone Republican's would now take future cuts off the table. A pretty genius move IMO especially for someone who is semi senile. The future Republicans are going to wish they kept their stupid mouths shut!

Yeah, the funny thing is that many of us have dealt with senility before and it is hilarious that people like using words like this, without having a fucking clue what it actually means.

Biden hit a grand slam in the SOTU address. And people like you still want to make shit comments about Biden being senile. All the while supporting the guy who bragged about passing a basic competency test.

 

[Elixir]

Who said anything about increasing benefits?

If you increase FICA limit on contributions, you would automatically increase their benefits. Or am I misunderstanding how social security works, at least currently?

Yes, you are misunderstanding how SS works.

Oh? I think it’s a good quesion…

Currently, there’s a max FICA deduction, and there’s a max Social Security payout.
However, I would not expect them to be linked “automatically,” therefore Zipr would have a point that there is no requirement to raise the max payout. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good question to answer explicitly; do the current laws or do they not automatiically connect changes in collection to changes in payout?

Without getting into the minutia of social security, I thought Biden's finest moment was how he responded to Republican jeers. Which he obviously expected falling right into his agenda, declaring publicly in front of everyone Republican's would now take future cuts off the table. A pretty genius move IMO especially for someone who is semi senile. The future Republicans are going to wish they kept their stupid mouths shut!

Will they wish that?
I doubt it. They have no qualms about saying whatever seems propitious in a moment without regard to whatever they said five minutes ago.