Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

Trying to catch up to Star Wars caused the Soviet Union to go broke.

This is likely true, although it is amusing that the people who for decades were saying that the Soviet Union would go broke on its own due to the
failure of its own policies were the first people to laud Ronald Reagan
for making it go broke.

Golden Dome will do the same to China.

It's possible but given the state of our respective economies it is
likely to make us go broke first. Also, let me say that Kennedy, Johnson Nixon, and Reagan were a lot better at playing chicken than the current
holder of their office is. If you're going to play chicken you need to
have someone on your team who is really good at it.

Much as I hate Henry Kissinger, he was really good at it.

And we will get new space technology out of it. I look forward to my >vacation at the Space Hilton.

It is likely that we will get new space technology out of it, as will
the Chinese. But you can't put a Hilton in a military zone. Except
for the Hanoi Hilton...
--scott.
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/21/2025 8:47 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

BTW, I fully expect to see two or more space stations, a space gas
station, and a space hotel out of this. SpaceX is going to put up a lot >>> of equipment to support the Golden Dome.

I fully expect to go the way of the dodo, just like reagan's star wars
proposal.

Trying to catch up to Star Wars caused the Soviet Union to go broke.

Sure. Pull the other one.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a result of a
complex mix of internal problems and external pressures. These
included economic stagnation, political repression, ethnic
tensions, and the Soviet Union's involvement in the Cold War.

Key events like the Chernobyl disaster and the fall of the
Berlin Wall further accelerated the decline"

Golden Dome will do the same to China.

Apples are not equal to oranges.

And we will get new space technology out of it. I look forward to my >vacation at the Space Hilton.

Assuming you can meet the physical and health requirements.

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Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/22/2025 11:09 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

Social Security and Medicare will not die until the financial apocalypse
of the United States. Pray that it does not happen.

You are not paying attention. The just passed big ugly bill cuts
a half-trillion dollars from medicare. Not to mention the gutting
of medicaid, which will cause many rural hospitals to close outright.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5312712-house-gop-bill-medicare-cuts/

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Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/22/2025 11:11 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

IIRC, there are international treaties about the non-militarization of
Space. Just as there are for Antarctica. China may simply be objecting
to a plan that violates those treaties. Or not, as the case may be.

This is the same China that blew a satellite in LEO with another killer >satellite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle#Anti-satellite_trials

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In article <SwLXP.1070635$C51b.70661@fx17.iad>,
Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:

Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/22/2025 11:09 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

Social Security and Medicare will not die until the financial apocalypse
of the United States. Pray that it does not happen.

You are not paying attention. The just passed big ugly bill cuts
a half-trillion dollars from medicare. Not to mention the gutting
of medicaid, which will cause many rural hospitals to close outright.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5312712-house-gop-bill-medicare-cuts/

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/24/2025 9:55 AM, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 5/22/2025 4:19 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:

On 5/22/2025 3:10 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:

Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/22/2025 11:09 AM, Paul S Person wrote:


Social Security and Medicare will not die until the financial
apocalypse
of the United States.  Pray that it does not happen.

You are not paying attention.  The just passed big ugly bill cuts
a half-trillion dollars from  medicare.  Not to mention the gutting
of medicaid, which will cause many rural hospitals to close outright.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5312712-house-gop-bill-medicare-cuts/ >>>

Not gonna happen, just wishful thinking on your part.  Three million
people a year are joining Medicare (the last of the baby boomers), 65
million or so at the moment, and one million a year are leaving.  That
is a huge voting block.  And seniors vote in the USA.

Lynn

There are lots of people who can be persuaded to vote against their
own interests if they are told it will hurt someone they dislike.

The recent election is an example.

pt

No, the people of the USA voted the thieves out. And for sanity.

No, 1/3 the electorate didn't vote at all. So really, about 25%
of americans actually voted for the orange clown.

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Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:

There are lots of people who can be persuaded to vote against their
own interests if they are told it will hurt someone they dislike.

The recent election is an example.

I have a co-worker who has been very enthusiastic about Trump's wanting to
do various things, and every time I pointed out that these things would
be bad for the economy he said "Yes, but we have to own the libs!"

This is added to Trump's own notion of the world being a zero sum game,
and if that if the other guy does worse it's just as good as if you do
better. (This is not a traditional conservative concept and it's something that Reagan blamed the left for doing.) I am not sure how prevalent this
idea is among his followers but it does seem to be becoming more popular
which I find both disturbing and puzzling.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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Bobbie Sellers <blissInSanFrancisco@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

Would that be Hood Donald of Manhattan

The most corrupt administration yet to be seen.

I don't think so, because the standards of Jackson and Harding are pretty
hard to live up to in terms of corruption. But certainly this has been
the most openly corrupt organization, wearing corruption on it's sleeve.
And people are cheering about it, which is a sign that there is something
far more fundamental wrong.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

Sigh. Your mantra of taxing the rich grows tiring.

Many people of gone through the numbers, taking every penny of the rich
will not be even close to fixing the USA debt.

Issue one is that taxing the rich reduces a lot of resentment. I make about three times as much as my sister does, and we both pay about the same amount
in taxes. Not the same percentage, the same amount. My uncle plays about three times what I do, and he doesn't pay anything at all in taxes (although
he does pay as much as I pay in taxes for tax attorneys fees, I suspect.)
And we are none of us even close to the 2% mark. I am okay with paying taxes as long as others are paying taxes too.

Also note that "taxing the rich" is not the same thing as "taxing the wealthy."

So I think a lot of what the "tax the rich" crowd is about is having fair
taxes so that everybody pays their share. This has less to do with adjusting tax brackets than with removing deductions.

If you actually look at the tax code, it's many, many volumes. Pick up any page and there's something alarming on it. "This applies only to purchase
of an ocean-going ship between 130 and 135 feet in length in the month of February." Someone did something for their senator or congressman and got
that put in. Those things need to be out in the open so they can go away.

The only way to fix the debt problem through taxes is to tax the middle
class to death. And the uniparty is rightfully scared to do so.

When you do that, the middle class gives up and stops working and then everything goes wrong. That's the issue, that you have to look at the
economic consequences of behaviour caused by taxes and not just the
taxes themselves. There have been cases where reducing taxes made for
more money being collected. There have of course been cases where the
opposite was the case too.

So, the financial apocalypse of the USA approaches as that is the
default option.

The problem is that some of us look at Europe and see countries where the government services are much better and the taxes on the middle class are
not much higher, and the budget is much closer to being balanced, and we
wonder why we can't be like that.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> writes:

On 5/30/2025 11:32 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

On Thu, 29 May 2025 19:13:37 -0500, Lynn McGuire

If he were doing /that/, he would be insisting on taxing the rich to
reduce the National Debt. And shore up Social Security.

Sigh. Your mantra of taxing the rich grows tiring.

Sigh, your right-wing mantra is bankrupt and your constant
harping on financial apocalypse had been tiring for years now.

Many people of gone through the numbers, taking every penny of the rich
will not be even close to fixing the USA debt.

The first step is to balance the budget. And that must be done by
restoring tax levels on the wealthy to the levels during the
late nineties, when the democratic president actually balanced
the annual budget. Although the post war levels of taxing the
wealthy would be far better for america in general.

The only way to fix the debt problem through taxes is to tax the middle
class to death.

Horseshit on all counts.

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