(06-21-2024, 12:09 AM)Maxmars Wrote: Are you sure you remember the Regan Era? I know it is normal to minimize the travails of the past... but I lived them.
While it is also normal for every generation to believe their challenges are the most salient of all time, it is not necessarily so.
We have always had bad actors, tragic circumstances for people, ongoing or impending conflicts, and economic turmoil... and those things occur in a spectrum of urgency. "We didn't start the fire" as the song goes, the human world has always been burning with strife and despair.
I won't get into 'listing' what is happening today and how it is all a function of yesterday and how we dealt (or didn't deal) with it. But I can assure you, the past is also a source of wisdom, and a wealth of experience that has value even today. Biden's today is not so very different from Reagan's yesterday... only the players and their motivations change.
Our basket of items is large and varied... it was that way in the past also. But the past is over and done with. We focus on today while we dream of tomorrow. But the past shouldn't be rewritten as so "different" as to be irrelevant, that path leads to madness.
Sorry for the OT response... I should be discussing Obama's Biden... and who it is that is actually 'orchestrating' the political theater today.
Yeah Maxmars I lived the 80s Im 59 years old, what exactly did I miss?
Let's see late 80s I just got married. Purchased our first house, $121,999 that house today and it's the same house $329,000. Well thats not a good at all
I finished most of my nights watching Ted Koppel and Nightline I have always been a news junkie. I paid attention
Not sure what movie you are watching or are you just being diplomatic or should I just watch the Billy Joel video? Sure shit happens in every decade but what happens and the results can be compounded by the decision-makers, the leaders, TPTB. YES or NO?
I know the answer and Im sure with some reflection you will too. But I can't sleep so....
For example, would you rather deal with Putin or Gorbachov, while you are deciding
tell me again when Mikail threatened to use nuclear weapons?
What measuring stick would you like to use?
We have had a 243% INCREASE in global deaths by armed conflict, and that was just through 2022. 23 and 24 have been violent and bloody as hell. Only one area is down compared to earlier Oceania/Asia
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death...?tab=table
How about inflation? my 20 bucks bought a whole lot more in 1989 than my 50 bucks goes now. Yes or No
https://www.calculateme.com/inflation/20...989/to-now
$20.00 in 1989 dollars = $50.74 in 2024 dollars.
Prices increased by 154% over that time period, with inflation averaging 2.70% per year
Consumer confidence was still higher in the late 80s than compared to today
Crime and Justice are difficult to calculate and find up-to-date totals but do you feel more safe than you did in the 80s. I don't
https://www.britannica.com/story/timeline-of-the-1980s
even a quick perusal of the historical late 80s timeline highlights the Challenger Disaster and Chernobyl, Lockerbie, the Exxon Valdez, and Tiananmen Square none of these events were as long-lasting as the war in Ukraine or even the Israel conflict.
You are aware the collapse of the Berlin Wall would likely be considered a huge positive side of the ledger, as a symbol of peace in our time. Now does Europe feel more or less peaceful in 2024
https://www.britannica.com/topic/2023-Th...-in-Review
2023 starts with
Doomsday Clock advances
(January 24, 2023)
The Doomsday Clock is moved ahead, indicating an unprecedented level of world troubles. The time is now 90 seconds to midnight.
Mass shootings at an all time high
Maui wild fires
India's population balloons
and speaking of balloons what kind of response would the 1989 American government have to the China spy balloon flap compared to the current admin.
Interestingly enough we are looking at 2nd term for Biden in 2024 and in 1988 he couldn't even beat Dukakis.
Pew Research
Biden, Trump are least-liked pair of major party presidential candidates in at least 3 decades
Thursday, June 13, 2024 (7 days ago)
A quarter of Americans hold unfavorable views of both major party candidates – President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/...m-now.html
Quote:The summer treated Joe Biden well. He wasn’t quite the center of attention, but bouncing among D.C., Delaware, and whatever states would have him, he was making progress with weary Americans. The year was 1987, and Biden — 44 years old but already in his third term in the Senate — was running for president for the first time. He’d briefly considered running twice before, but now, pitching himself as a pragmatic but energetic new leader with Ronald Reagan soon to be a retiree, he had a shot.
It was never a clear shot, though, and it famously didn’t last long. Derailed by his own misdeed of plagiarizing a British politician’s speech, Biden dropped out of the race that September, furious at both his opponents and the media and eager to pivot back to his work in the Senate, including running hearings for Reagan Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. Biden’s exit from the race was yet another convulsion in an already chaotic campaign
and we aren't even through with 2024, very little seems the same or equal, in my zip code atleast.
here's the outlook from Biden's own Director of National Intelligence it wasn't exactly glowing report and it's from 2 years ago
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents...s_2040.pdf
Lastly please somebody tell what our esteemed President is doing here
https://x.com/InsaneRealitys/status/1801612713321206198
and isn't it just a bit concerning when Putin and Kim Jong Un are laughing and cruising?
https://x.com/kirawontmiss/status/1803869859325055130
His mind was not for rent to any god or government, always hopeful yet discontent. Knows changes aren't permanent, but change is ....
Professor Neil Ellwood Peart
Professor Neil Ellwood Peart