Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login
The John Byrne Forum
Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum Page of 2 Next >>
Topic: Trump at Individual Level Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message
Karl Wiebe
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 06 December 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 172
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 1:19am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I love reading the political posts on here (mostly because I am not very political and don't live in the U.S, and I like learning about other people's experiences).  When people I know talk or complain about Trump, one common thing I have heard is that there is no point voting, or it doesn't matter who wins the election, because our lives on a "day to day" level basically stay the same.  I think the argument goes that people generally get outraged about "big picture stuff" like the threat on democracy or the chance of nuclear war, but nothing is actually different.  That is the argument anyway--life goes on exactly the same as when the last guy was running the show.

Is that true?  I would love to hear how life in the U.S. (Or abroad) is different for you today personally because of the current U.S. President?   (Again I want to point out, I have no opinion on this because I don't live in the U.S., use American health care, etc.)
Back to Top profile | search
 
Thomas Woods
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 09 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1356
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 2:17am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

The biggest personal impact to me was not being forced
to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

Other than that, at least a half a dozen facebook
'friends' lost.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
John Byrne
Avatar
Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132135
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 5:41am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

The biggest personal impact to me was not being forced to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

•••

Yes, being constantly at risk of devastating debt is so liberating!

Back to Top profile | search
 
Doug Centers
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 17 February 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 5438
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 5:47am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Personally?

My 401K is doing well (yet in the back of my head I know a correction is coming)
Some heated discussions much like when Bush and Clinton were in office but not quite to the same level.
Have become more disgusted with both sides of the media.
I always get medical coverage, and it goes up every year, so no change there.


I'm an Independent that voted for Clinton.
Back to Top profile | search
 
Thomas Woods
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 09 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1356
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 6:03am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Yes, being constantly at risk of devastating debt is so
liberating!

---

I need it, and want it, but my current situation has
made it backbreaking to afford. I started out paying 500
per month, it jumped to 700, so I called to get a
crappier plan and got it down to 550. Then I lost my job
and said 'F' this, canceled. I've been working freelance
but not getting enough.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
Paul Kimball
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2163
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Thomas, can I ask which state you live in?
Back to Top profile | search
 
Thomas Woods
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 09 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1356
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Thomas, can I ask which state you live in?

---
North Texas
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4410
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

A lot of people do genuinely hate Hillary Clinton and Obama for forcing health care on them. A lot of people feel they are paying more than they can afford now all around and if they feel they are subsidizing someone else's health care (or for the differently moralled, birth control pills) they are unhappy. Spending on the military though is sacrosanct even if it's for some desk jockey's deluxe gourmet coffee roaster while a grunt in Afghanistan can't get sufficient armor plating.

Trump even came within stealing distance by promising to reduce spending and taxes and create jobs. I don't know when the trickle-down will be an evident failure yet again but it might not be too much loner with the trade chaos he's stitched together out of a few bare threads. Canada doesn't accept U.S. dairy as it is heavily subsidized with people paid to not produce and all that sort of business we don't have. Personally I like Tillamook cheese from Oregon, and the Cheez-Its if the count as dairy, are genuinely beloved, and I would be glad to be able to buy them while in Canada. We do also have different standards on hormone injections of cattle, but especially of dairy cows. The U.S. forced Japan to let in U.S. rice which they see as practically a matter of national security to produce for themselves and ended up wishing they hadn't bothered, though it may have helped a small number of poor Japanese actually for a little while. I suppose cheaper U.S. milk and cheese might help poor people In Canada for a little while too, but eventually it all evens out in the market and if you've forced your product on people they tend to not want to buy it.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
David Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 2997
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

As someone with type 1 diabetes and a couple other disabilities, I spent the first 12 months of the Trumpresidency in a state of terror while Congress debated eliminating the Obamacare cap on medical expenses. Being underemployed and self-insured in the years immediately before the reforms were enacted wiped me out; I wasn't looking forward to going through that again, but without six figures in savings to set on fire this time around. Luckily, that didn't happen. For a weird moment Republicans even considered lowering the cap, which would have been nice. I'll admit overall, the tax bill treated me pretty well.

I work part-time at a women's health research nonprofit, and the nationwide knuckle-dragging climate Trump has empowered (not to mention the budget cuts) has increased the urgency of the work, and complicated the lives of patients. There are people who have to drive hundreds of miles for reproductive health care, and it's a little scary to realize there are entire ZIP codes in Louisiana where our mailings are the only source of unbiased, practical information about women's health issues some residents will see.
Back to Top profile | search | www e-mail
 
Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4410
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

They seem to be well on the way to making terminations impossible to get in the U.S. Just generally on health care when people hear I'm Canadian and I'm in the U.S. about half want to know how they can become Canadians for this great free medical coverage they have heard about from Michael Moore or whoever. It's different in each province but in mine you had to pay based on income and only part of prescriptions are covered, no dental (that is all added or private)or optometry tests or glasses. You could get teeth pulled in an emergency for free though I think. I think in England you used to get glasses through the National Health Plan with pretty limited frame styles (see Hank Marvin of The Shadows etc.).

The biggest change as a canadian has been out politicians picking up ideas from the U.S. and seeing if it gets them votes. one trick happened first in my own riding some years ago where one party's candidate had to drop out very late in the process and people that supported that candidate (socialist basically) were trying to sort out if the would vote for the liberal or the green against the conservative who was the incumbent. The day before the vote a robo call went out in the riding, I got one, that stated you could still vote for the socialist which i wasn't going to anyway and sort of forgot about this call). Only after the election was over and counted did the socialist party say none of them were behind the calls, they were traced to supporters of the conservative, and thus the conservative got in again by not quite a couple of hundred votes over the liberal who, had the hundreds that went to the non-existant socialist, would have handily won.

Now I think Canadian politicians are looking at the redrawing of district maps that goes in some U.S. states to concentrate the whatever wing vote in one area and give them a chance at winning three or four others. It's called redistricting or gerrymandering, and we've created a multi-part oversight group to watch over any redrawing of boundaries.

In Ontario very recently conservative Doug Ford, brother of the infamous Rob Ford, deceased crack smoking mayor of Toronto, just won the top position, and he started out with hiring people to show up and hold signs for him. He used some other Trump playbook moves to varying effect, but he's in with a landslide with little experience, the one previous office he held lower down he had to vacate for misuse for personal gain issues, conflict of interest. Doug Ford inherited a family business which has gone downhill pretty markedly, but guess what, like Trump he's a "successful businessman"! But he isn't. If people want someone from the world of business why would they want proven losers and confidence tricksters who leverage bad debt and have an abnormally voluminous number of lawsuits trailing them? Somehow the short simple propaganda sticks and the actual facts don't so much. Liberals who held the province for fifteen years though are apparently to dumb to make at least a few noises about tax relief and instead were actually expecting a new carbon tax to get them votes. Yeah, that's going to happen in a tiny number of districts, which is all they got and not enough to even be an official party now. The leader won her seat but now she's leaving, argh; if Ford is dumb, she was dumber. Slip slide and away.
Back to Top profile | search | www
 
Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
Posts: 4939
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

If I was voting in Ontario, I would have had no idea who to vote for. My Conservative friends there were completely disgusted that Ford won the nomination and are completely befuddled why he got it when there were much better people running. I really don't know what people want when they choose their potential leaders but if I take posts from Facebook as an example, critical thinking and logic are not very popular.
Back to Top profile | search e-mail
 
Paul Kimball
Byrne Robotics Member
Avatar

Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2163
Posted: 12 June 2018 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Thomas, can I ask which state you live in?

---
North Texas
]
=++++++
That makes sense. I believe Texas like my home state of Oklahoma refused to
accept the medicaid expansion which I believe contributes to cost of medical
for citizens.
Back to Top profile | search
 

Page of 2 Next >>
  Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 Active Topics | Member List | Search | Help | Register | Login