And sweeping generalizations are ALWAYS wrong.

And labels are just an excuse for laziness. If it is against a race or a religion, the label is a stereotype.

The way this country is now throwing around "leftist", "socialist", etc, is just someone relying on your laziness to not think for yourself.

Appropriate of tonight, the NFL is a socialist organization: The member teams and owners share revenue, have a dictator who makes arbitrary and steadfast rules, limit competition by quotas and caps, they discourage and limit the outsiders (say a new city wants an NFL team) from taking a part of their "good thing", and they rely on fleecing the taxpayers of the cities they live in for support, they claim "for the good of all" (i.e. municipal stadiums, police details, military flyovers as entertainment)

That NFL sounds pretty socialist, doesn't it? Certainly doesn't sound American, that's for sure. So if you are watching the Super Bowl tonight, you are supporting socialism. How does that feel?

Wow, a 90 minute one and a 3 hour one, I will have to take some time and watch those. Like you say, those are old videos, looks like both in the 80s?

The stuff from the OP is not 40 years old, it is on social media and carried by Comcast. And people are reacting to it (in the YouTube comments) like it is objective news. Does this not scare you that the Russians on our social media might be influencing the stupider people in this country about what to think?

In the Wikipedia article, it mentioned that John Kerry went after them when he was Sec of State, I believe, for their "misleading" facts.

But then again, that is what propaganda is meant to do.

Russian propaganda on American airwaves and social media. Scary.

Wow, OldKid or Toody, no rebuttal when the FACTS are put in front of you?

Sheep. Pied Piper Combover and his friends have you buffaloed, and you just. can't. admit. it.

Sleep tight... I know he bankrupted 4 casinos, but he couldn't POSSIBLY milk a country into bankruptcy as well, right? Did I hear he is in Mar-a-Tacky again this weekend? Hmm, who owns that hotel where everyone is staying and dining?

I read the article, and I have read all the comments here.

First, the article is basically an interview with an author who wrote a book. As I believe Igor stated, it is a puff piece with an old dude, and if the interviewer was really hard-hitting, she might have called Mr Langone out on a couple of his "mis-statements", the first one being when Langone said

"But look at what [Bill] Gates created; Jeff Bezos, the guy from Google, Home Depot, Walmart. Hey, we didn’t just get rich; we helped a lot of other people live better lives."

First, Jeff Bezos is is the major COMPETITOR to the folks at Google.

Second, Home Depot and especially Walmart have created the American sweat shop, where the employees are paid at the very bottom of the barrel. Anyone want to try to own a home, pay their utilities, try to raise a kid on a Walmart salary? 2o years ago I tried.

Home Depot at its inception doctored their books and counted empty boxes as inventory to make the books look good (anybody who worked at The Home Depot 29 years ago heard the stories in orientation of Bernie and Art... Funny how Ken says he was a founder, but we never had a mention of HIM) THD and Walmart used "inferior Chinese crap tools" and the like to undercut good American goods... I had loyal American workers who refused to use said Chinese crap, preferring to use American-made tools, like Stanley. (If I brought a tool to their job site with "China" stamped on it, they would not use it) Most "American" toolmakers since then have stopped manufacturing domestically; they could no longer keep up with the quality of their brands and match the price at THD. THD and Walmart led the way for good manufacturing jobs to go to China, and I don't think Stanley even has an American tool plant anymore. This proves MsHarmony's point that GREED is a killer of many things, capitalism included.

Lying about inventory on hand, filling the steel in the stores with empty boxes... hmmm, I am thinking that a lot of other American firms saw that "If it is good enough for THD, let's try it here" Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom (I used to call him "Uncle Bernie" in meetings) is still doing Federal time because of the shaky accounting practices the MCI folks convinced him "was the way everyone does it now". WorldCom was arguably the first of many firms whose failures, based on "Home Depot accounting" caused some serious crap in our economy. Oh, and watch the Enron documentaries to see how Enron's deception can be traced directly to the George W Bush White House.

So now greed is cool. It is OK to start things like airlines and universities, bankrupt them, screw the little folks (or as Ken Langone says " Like it or not, we’re not all created equal, OK?" That hit me as a little out of step with what our founding fathers believed when THEY set up this 243-year old capitalist experiment). I mean, casinos basically PRINT money, as a result of human greed; tell me how ONE man can BANKRUPT four casinos? Greed, deception, dishonesty... It is not the LEFT, Ms Toody, who has been slowly killing this country, it is the greed of members of the Right who has gotten us here, and the poster child for greed and dishonesty is at the helm.

I also question in the article how Mr Langone has such a bad taste about socialism, but knows so little about how it works. He can't name a place where it has not succeeded?

I think his book was misnamed, it should have been "I Love GREED and Screwin my Employees"

Interesting show.

For the folks who don't think that the Russians are NOT active on American social media, Wikipedia states quite succinctly that RT is a Russian propaganda outlet, funded by Putin's team to create an "Alternative facts" source. YouTube actually has a banner on that URL that refers the reader to the Wikipedia article on RT, such a comment by YouTube is something I have not seen on other YouTube pages.

As we know Trump watches more TV than any previous president, (he is also the least read president of the 45, another superlative, albeit embarrassing, for him.) I wonder if this is one of the shows Trump has enjoyed watching every week since it has been on?

I agree. On 9/11/01 I was in Atlanta attending a tradeshow. I was right in the shadow of the CNN tower, and knew I was in the safest place in the world, because no way Bin Laden would attack his eyes on the damage he caused. Al Jaz had to show all the supporters of terrorism in the Middle East, their loyal viewers, what their money had supported.

So why are they listed as multiple tax increases? By your own words, the site is misleading and FAKE.

Wake up America, the President is picking your pocket and you are supporting him!


Of course, why should Trump supporters care, it is Blue States that are paying the majority of taxes, so that Red States can suck up most of the welfare $$$:

AP FACT CHECK: Blue high-tax states fund red low-tax states
https://www.apnews.com/2f83c72de1bd440d92cdbc0d3b6bc08c

I love that there are always lots of accusations, but it always seems that folks are short on supporting facts. To which I say, "No supporting facts? Must be FAKE NEWS if you can't prove it!"

No comment on the current Thief in Chief TRULY lining his pockets with our money. I didn't expect you would. Obama's ACA fixed a great portion of our healthcare, which was in SCARY shape. (I was a consultant working on said ACA programs, if you need any proof of what Obama did to make sure trauma care was improved in "trauma centers" across the country) However, out CURRENT resident of the White House can't seem to do a thing other than make himself richer at the expense of the US Taxpayer, and feed his great ego.

Thanks for playing.

Hmmm, if the site https://www.atr.org/full-list-ACA-tax-hikes-a6996 is legit and unbiased, maybe it would not mind listing the House bill numbers that resulted in these "taxes" on such questionable things as tanning salons and black liquor? Methinks we might have a little bit of "fake news" on the website you cited? I don't think half of these are real taxes, because they would have had to have had House bill numbers.... a House that was, by the way, Republican controlled under the last President.

<crickets>

And wow, while we are waiting for those (non-existent)bill numbers, let's talk about Presidents who truly can be PROVEN as thieves, using government proceedings to line their OWN pockets?

What would you say about a President that requires anyone petitioning the government in favor of a merger (such as John Legere of T-Mobile and Marcelo Claure of Sprint) to stay at HIS hotel in DC? John Legere has been quite candid and quoted in a number of trade rags regarding the number of days he has had to be in DC, and staying at the Trump Hotel DC, in order to continue testifying in favor of the TMobile-Sprint merger. This money goes right in the pocket of the POTUS. The visits to DC keep piling up too, every time groups like the FCC "reset the shot clock" (as the govt calls it) on the merger, requiring Sprint and TMobile to come to DC with more documents.... And do you think this is the only legal action being heard by the Government?

Also, when Trump takes his weekly junkets to Mar-a-Tacky, do you think all his Secret Service detail and government-expense entourage are given free rooms on the premises? Do you think they are given free food? I doubt The Trumpster Fire dines on McDonands there, but on the priciest well-done steak smothered in catsup (gross, no class, and an abomination to cattle men everywhere, but the Emperor likes it...)... Let's see, we taxpayers pay for the food and lodging, and Trump sells it to us. PRETTY MUCH EVERY WEEKEND.

I mean, W spent a lot of time on his ranch in Crawford, but he did not own the restaurants or hotel rooms where his massive number of government entourage needs to eat and sleep.

Question: Trump made a big deal of saying "I bought this myself" when he brought a fast-food buffet in for the college boys. Trump Hotel DC (where all having business with the government are required to stay) is right down the street; couldn't he have called down there and bought some REAL food with his "own" money to feed the kids?

... would be for the Trumpster to hire her!

My god, the Reagan cabinet had the previous record for number of members to leave the office via some kind of disgrace or legal action (remember Ed Meece, James Watt, James Tower, to name a few?), but the Trumpster Fire of a presidency is going for the title.

Hey, if the Right would find someone who is not a demagogue, a retard, or a pathological liar and egotistical BABY, I might vote for the candidate on the Right next time.

So there you go.

I also get a kick out of how the conversation turned back to Hillary, when I asked about how a wall is going to make us more safe, when the drugs are coming in through the ports, and the illegals are coming in through the airports, not the Mexican border.

Let's see: what do the 9/11 bombers, Adam Lanza, Tim McVeigh, Steven Paddock, Richard Reid the shoebomber, the Orlando nightclub shooter, all of these other shooters, what do all these folks have in common? Not ONE of them has been anywhere near the Mexican border!!

Yet the argument is: "well the government wastes its money on all sorts of things, why not a wall?" I thought this guy was the guy who was going to "drain the swamp, clean up DC, and get all sorts of great stuff done?" He has done NOTHING. He picked a fight with N Korea to try to get a Peace Prize, but now we see that N Korea has been unphased by all the "progress" Donnie lied about in May. The middle-class tax cut (which, when ANY politician says it, is a LIE anyway) which he was promising right before the mid-terms has disappeared again. "Paying down the debt" is actually "running UP the debt faster than his predecessors". His amounts of time off (running up government spending for his protection details at his OWN resorts)has made W's amounts of time outs burning brush at his ranch seem paltry. And his associates are lawyering up quicker and more than the previous record keeper, the Reagan Cabinet.

We do NOT need a wall. The posturing on the wall by the Cheato is just playing to his ignorant base.

If he had kept his PROMISES about his 100 days' ambition, he would have had a better chance then, when he had both the House and Senate. Of those 30+ promises he made for his first 100 days, What has he accomplished, like 1 of them?

By the way, I think it is plain ignorant to claim Hillary would have been worse than this guy has already shown himself to be.

One can argue that "Crooked and nothing but trouble" applies more to the current resident of the White House.

Have not seen Hillary investigated for anything. Cheato talks a good game in front of his dullard fans, but has found nothing to go after her on.... sort of like how he was going to "reverse all of Obama's unconstitutional executive orders" in his first 100 days, he can call them whatever he wants (and his ignorant fans suck it all up), but there is no substance to all the BS.

We had better build walls around the airports then, because most "illegals" are coming in through them, not across the border with Mexico.

Or do we need a wall to stop drugs? Watch any of the Customs and Border Patrol shows on TV (there is one on Netflix right now), and you can see that the main source of drugs coming in is through the ports.

A WALL DOES NOTHING to make us more safe, or better protected.

You say "Many Countries secure their boarders"? Are these the folks at boarding houses? What did the boarders do? Or do you mean snow boarders? Surf boarders?

Oh and any LIAR is my enemy, and Trump is the biggest liar I have ever seen. This whole shutdown is a staged event to whoop up the 30% of the morons in this country who still think this guy is some kind of intelligent mastermind. Trump plays the victim, and all you hoodwinked supporters eat it with a spoon. Trump CAVED so that he can have his SOTU, so he can have his bully pulpit. He needs the government open again just long enough to get the tax forms out.

Leave the government closed, it has not effected me in the least! And funny, all the folks who seem to support "less government" are the ones who are screaming the loudest that the government is closed.

It is all a circus folks. And when you elect a CLOWN, you gotta expect a circus

Oldie but SMOKIN goodie:

"To Have and Have Not"

Lauren Bacall's first movie, and of course working with Humphrey Bogart, this is where the famous line "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together - and blow." comes from. (One survey has this as #34 on the Top 100 best movie lines). I can only imagine seeing that scene in the movie theatre, and hearing the reaction of an audience full of people when she delivers the line, and we all see Bogey's face...

Almost better than "Casablanca"

Indeed, you should check out any charity for this, using a site like Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org). That site can tell you things like how much the chairman makes from the charity per year, and the "overhead" of the charity.

My pet peeve charity ad is that damn "Kars for Kids" ad on radio and TV. I immediately change the channel when I hear the intro to that little whiney kid singer... not to mention that they are promoting bad spelling....

Oh, the Patriot Act made some sweeping changes to surveillance, wiretap probable cause, detainment etc, that effected ALL AMERICANS, all in the name of Homeland Security.

The whole TSA was a charade (Through consulting, I have inside knowledge of what an abject sham that whole group is) that also effected ALL Americans, and doesn't make us any safer.

Remember too that we burned one of the most respected American's reputation, Colin Powell, by sending him to the UN with 'proof' that Saddam had WMDs, and a massive underground bunker system (built by US firms, but somehow never found) where he was hiding all the WMDs. Oh, and I think we are still looking for the connection between Iraq and 9/11. I was looking forward to seeing Colin Powell run for president, but they burned him, all for the sake of personal revenge against Saddam

I had originally posted it in the Politics forum because it is more a current affairs book. Non-fiction, but very readable and light.

I wanted to recommend a book I read recently. Written by a doctor who worked with the UN for decades,author Hans Rosling is objective (he is not politically motivated in the least... he is in fact Swedish) in describing how we are influenced to improper opinions and beliefs, based on the way information is presented.

Dr Rosling starts with a short series of multiple-choice question about things like world health, global populations, and education. He has recorded and compiled the answers given to these surveys around the world to all sorts of groups, and then reviews the reasons why correct answers come out so far below even the "monkey line" (which is his term for the expected results if they were just random guesses... like maybe a team of monkeys would answer)

Because he writes it as a scientist, it is a great book to educate EVERYone as to how we are manipulated daily, and the tools that some leaders use to manipulate.

The name of the book is "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World". Real good read.

Has anyone here already read it, and care to comment?