Ford Mustang Forums banner

Anyone from East TN at the Corral?

2M views 39K replies 280 participants last post by  93Cobra#2771 
#1 · (Edited)
I live in the Knoxville area. Anybody else near to K-town? We could all hook up and scare some Hondas! ;)


This was the post that started this all. It's been over a year! I'm thinking it's time for a party!!!
 
#30,741 ·
The USSA, here we are. Do we have to change our name now, to be politically correct like all other recent name changes?
 
  • Like
Reactions: broncobuddha
#30,744 ·
FB and Twitter have essentially limited pretty much all news about election stuff. They even banned trumps Twitter account for twelve hours (honestly, he shouldn’t have access to social media IMO).

People used to talk about how the government controls the media in communist China. Yet here we are with a social media company essentially doing the same thing. It’s very dangerous how much power social media wields.
 
  • Like
Reactions: broncobuddha
#30,747 ·
I get Epoch feed - they're not unbiased. But I've concluded there's no such thing as unbiased coverage. You have to read it all (from far left to right) and make up your own mind. Weird - we live in times where more people have more access to more info than ever before - not even close actually, MEGA information - and we live in a time where it's harder than ever to actually figure out what's going on. Didn't take people long to figure out they could feed whatever they wanted into the system, and people would not only believe them, but they'd pass it along to others as "truth". I've maintained it from the beginning - we will come to regret the rise of social media. The fall of 'traditional' media is directly related to the rise of social media. When any idiot with a camera becomes the "reporter" -- all reporting standards go to hell in a hand basket.

I believe Twitter's banned Trump til the end of his term....
 
#30,748 ·
Yes yes and yes.
Just saw the announcement on the two week ban.
And he was just as guilty as others in social
Media manipulation. I certainly wasn’t a fan of his leadership/Managment style but he sure got a lot of stuff done.
 
#30,749 ·
I get Epoch feed - they're not unbiased. But I've concluded there's no such thing as unbiased coverage. You have to read it all (from far left to right) and make up your own mind. Weird - we live in times where more people have more access to more info than ever before - not even close actually, MEGA information - and we live in a time where it's harder than ever to actually figure out what's going on. Didn't take people long to figure out they could feed whatever they wanted into the system, and people would not only believe them, but they'd pass it along to others as "truth". I've maintained it from the beginning - we will come to regret the rise of social media. The fall of 'traditional' media is directly related to the rise of social media. When any idiot with a camera becomes the "reporter" -- all reporting standards go to hell in a hand basket.

I believe Twitter's banned Trump til the end of his term....
When your reporters carry law degrees they are no longer reporters. They aren't interviewing, they are interrogating. Always gunning for an angle, that one clip that goes viral so that the big machine gets its sales revenue. PBS is the news we've been watching because it is calm. It's old school reporting. Is it biased, yes, most likely. But it is calm, no unnerving excitement in the voice of the anchor. Who, what, when, where. That's reporting. the "why" is left up to those listening/watching. The listener/viewer can then draw their own conclusion from the facts. That's reporting. I used to pull stories of the AP wire when I worked in radio. The AP wire stuck to the facts at that time. That was 20 years ago now.
 
#30,750 ·
I have no problem with his management style, it's been great business leadership, which is what has been lacking most from the Federal government. His personal character and history, plus the twitter crap, that 's bad but not very important for the purposes of what was needed most.

The social media forms have taken the integrity of journalism down with them. CNN etc, are all terrible, but why they stopped reporting news isn't that important, that they did is very important. Now as Michael said, we have to waste a lot of time just sifting through the massive BS, to find slivers of truth.

We are done as a Republic and Democracy once the Dems are in full control again. They have learned that no corruption or crime they commit is punished, thus the huge vote counting fraud, they were betting they could do it without anyone proving it. There again in Georgia, there were no video records made of the vote counting process, nobody has any clue how many votes each candidate actually got(except those who manipulated the count). Without proof of what is going on in those counting rooms, no election is safe from theft. Hello USSA.
 
  • Like
Reactions: broncobuddha
#30,751 ·
I think I know what you meant Bob - actually, there are a number of well known journalists who have law degrees. I don’t see that in and of itself to be a problem. To me the bigger issue occurs on the editorial front - with heavily biased decisions being made about what gets covered and how. Equally problematic is that with all the takeovers and consolidation that’s occurred in media over the last 20 years, most of the older, well-schooled “true” journalists are gone. Budget squeezes (focus on profitability and shareholders) have resulted in their replacements being low paid youngsters with little experience and no veterans to mentor them. Now throw a “right now” deadline to every story (because they’re competing with social media) - you get nothing even close to resembling the “truth and facts” that we used to get from the press. No easy answer.
 
#30,754 ·
However, I just read the link above it. Wow. If this actually proves to be true, half of Washington would go down the tubes. Now if we could just get rid of the other half.

Once again, I say, term limits would stop a lot of these types of shenanigans. These people just get too much influence and power when they are in there for decades.
 
#30,755 ·
...

Once again, I say, term limits would stop a lot of these types of shenanigans. These people just get too much influence and power when they are in there for decades.
I'd like term limits too. But with less time, they would be pressured to become corrupt faster and be more brazen about it.

I think making it illegal for the Congress to invest in anything, and eliminating lobbyists, would help much more. They have insider trading information constantly, it's part of their job clearances.

Lobbyists come from IRS changes, they constantly deal with lobbyists bribing them to alter IRS tax codes. Do away with the IRS, and the lobbyists no longer exist, because there will be no more IRS code to manipulate.
 
#30,757 · (Edited)
I disagree on some points Don - but that probably doesn't surprise you. I think the majority of the malfeasance comes from lifetime politicians trying to keep their jobs and enrich themselves while there. Knowing they can't be there a long time and they don't have to keep saying "yes" to everything (to get re-elected) should allow them to actually try and solve problems instead of just appearing to solve problems. Two 4 year terms for President; one 6 year term for Senators; one 4 year term for representatives. No retirement program, no ongoing medical coverage after they leave. Drop what you're doing - serve your country - and go back to your life.

If you're gonna have government - it has to be funded somehow. You can do away with the IRS -- but the tax funding will then have to come from some other means. And folks will lobby to shape/alter/change that. It's like using ant killer in your yard. It doesn't kill all the ants; it just moves them to the neighbor's yard. If you have elected officials that are accountable to the public and accessible to the public, as they should be, you're gonna have lobbyists. You're going to have people that leave office and go to work as consultants and lobbyists. That same thing takes place in all business segments -- you couldn't put an end to it even if you tried. The solution has to be enough transparency (used to be provided by a working press --- sigh.....) that folks on both sides know shenanigans will be revealed - and where justified, prosecuted. BTW - the IRS was actually never about raising tax dollars; it was created so that there was a means to institute and execute on policy. So it was created with the idea of lobbying in mind...

TOTALLY agree on insider trading -- part of what should happen upon being elected to any public office is that investments should be required to be handled through a blind trust. So the elected official can't make decisions about any investments. Too much conflict of interest at all levels.

And we have an electorate (voters) most of whom are completely ill-equipped to understand the issues that face us....I don't know what to do about that. Our education system is certainly failing us. Most people don't know what the national debt is, or how many people there are in the country 21 and over. Once you feed them those numbers -- ask them to divide 27 trillion by 200 million. Most can't do it. And their phone calculators (if they know they can access a calculator there) won't take the 27 trillion number..... We have people making decisions about the world who can't do basic math. If the $2000 stimulus gets approved, as it certainly will on Jan. 22, each adult in this country is on the hook for something around $160,000. Which I'm sure everyone has stored away.

I think I'm just gonna go ahead and spend my money on cars and guitars and forget about the rest of it. Pete Townsend of The Who - hope I die before I get old. It's close. Real close.
 
#30,758 ·
Two 4 year terms for President; one 6 year term for Senators; one 4 year term for representatives. No retirement program, no ongoing medical coverage after they leave. Drop what you're doing - serve your country - and go back to your life.



TOTALLY agree on insider trading -- part of what should happen upon being elected to any public office is that investments should be required to be handled through a blind trust. So the elected official can't make decisions about any investments. Too much conflict of interest at all levels.
This.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 
#30,759 ·
I think we need a short quiz to be included for all state and national elections. Make it about four easy questions, not published beforehand, four of about 20 potential, and failing half negates the voter's ballot. Stupid people don't know anything about basic government or facts of the day. The quiz should be about those things.

Lobbyists are a large group, not all doing the same thing. The ones that are part of the evil of government are those courting politicians, for the sole purpose to alter IRS codes. Those need to go away, the Congress enjoys that power to manipulate the tax codes, and nobody is following it. Nobody should have loop holes to cut their taxes to zero, yet most have those.


The IRS is the greatest tool and power the government has, they use the stolen money to fund countless bad things. Look at the recent 5600 page spending bill, who... who anywhere knows what all is in that, and why it's their? If you take away the IRS, they could not do that and get away with it. They have so much power now that no sufficient number of people object to anything that they do.

The 16th Amendment allowed the IRS to exist. The Fair Tax bill repeals that, and thus the IRS is gone, leaving a single tax which everyone would see on every purchase they make. The government could no longer alter the tax rate without everyone knowing it, because it would affect everyone.

Right now everyone pays embedded taxes on everything they buy. Businesses do not pay any income taxes(effectively), because they include them in the price of all of their products and services. People have no clue what those extra costs are, 15 years ago that was estimated to be 20-25% of all prices. As business taxes go up, those raise the prices of everything. All of that is part of the IRS system. Do away with the IRS, and everything becomes transparent, and everyone would care about what the government is taking from us.
 
#30,760 ·
You're basically suggesting VAT Don -- ask Europeans how they like that. Again - the IRS and code doesn't exist to raise money. It exists to allow the raising of money to be used to get policy objectives achieved. They won't do away with it.
 
Top