Progressives also "just want as small a government as possible."

Meaningless statement as many progressives dont want this, they might want a smaller army/police force/internal security etc, but they will want bigger government in other areas.

You have to drill down to which specific sub set of "progressives" want this.

My point is that the real debate is about the question "What is the proper role of government?"

That question has to be answered first before any other questions about government can be tackled.

That is quite the goal post shift.

Not at all.

If one starts with the idea that one of the key roles of government is to provide MFA (for example), then folks supporting that would want a government "as small as possible" to achieve that aim.

If one starts with the idea that one of key roles of government is to provide for all of the basic needs of its citizenry (e.g. housing, food and healthcare), then folks supporting that lofty goal would want a government "as small as possible" to achieve that aim.

The typical Libertarian position is that the only role of the (Federal) government is to protect the liberties of each citizen. And folks supporting that goal would want a government "as small as possible" to achieve that aim.

Both Democrat and Republican politicans want government to be as big as possible. More $$$ and power for them. Both parties are ruled by professional grifters.

This is false.

The left does not just see the government as a provider etc that is a gross simplification.

The governments actual and most important role is to act a check to capital power and protect civil society from such.

Obviously there are elements of the left who argue the state will always serve the interests of capital which is true to some extent but also its trivial to point to the numerous victories of the State in protecting civil society from capital though it could obviously do more.

Its worth pointing out that according to Marx in a fully mature communist society there would be no State.

good post but i will elaborate on the bolded.

Citizens generally do want the gov't to provide THEIR list of 'XYZ' needs and to do so with as small a gov't as possible. I think that is near universally true.

It is the people who RUN 'XYZ', who then fulfill that 'want' but then push it to be as big as possible with Gov't being at the top of that pyramid because, as you say, the more you MANAGE, the BIGGER the department or sector, the more money, wealth and prestige you get directly and indirectly.


But it is not limited to gov't. The same human nature infects Unions, Charities, Not for Profits, etc, where bloat and lack of efficiency often results in more benefits to the ones running it, such as more employees hired, bigger budgets and bigger bonuses.

Example. If I take over a cities homeless initiates with a budget of 'X' serving 'Y' homeless people on the street, and I reduce homelessness greatly, i will have to lay off staff and reduce my budgets due to my win. If instead I support homeless policies that MANAGE homeless people in place and that then encourage more homeless people to move in to that area, and keeps individuals more stuck in the cycle and not escaping and my homeless population then goes from 'Y' to 10Y, then I can argue I need 10X employees, and 10X budget to manage it. I can then compare the staff numbers I manage to big corporations or Universities and say as the person running it 'I should be paid as much as those CEO's as i am managing similar sized budgets and people numbers'.

it is why the current N.American union model is parasitic and not accretive to the corporate host, generally. And I say that as a person who believes the US needs the Union model to come back to balances the abuses on the Corporate end. BUt there is a better Union model. An accretive one where both Union members and the Corporation do better but it would be a hard thing to make Union Management accept as they have always seen their compensation based on 'growing membership as compared to the units of Output' which should never be a goal of a Union, in any one company.

Currently most of the incentives, when you get above street level are for maintenance and bloat unless you truly end up with a altruistic person who is happy to do the things that will see their pay lowered and staff laid off in the public sector and non profit, charity areas. Corporations have a host of other issues including some of this but no where near as much in this regard.

In some places homelessness is a business based on the bolded

QP u can accuse unions of being with w.e narrative u want .
Clearly In the past 40 years it isn’t the workers that won , unionized or not .

I suppose many people would agree with the bolded. And many would also disagree with the bolded. Stating it as you did as a fact is disingenous.

Stop the count

Joe Biden is the big winner tonight.

Joe Biden: First President since FDR not to lose a single Senate seat in his first mid term election.

Also: Dems win full control of the Senate.
Democracy is also a big winner tonight.

Overall, an excellent midterm for the Dems.

The good news (from my perspective) is that the GOP now controls the House and will have all the chairmen of the various committees plus the Speaker of the House.

It will be a little easier now for the GOP to fulfill their role as obstructionists.

Walker tackled just short of the goal-line. Given that Walker was outspent by a ratio of over 4:1, he did amazingly well.

Congrats to Senator Warnock.

Thoughts on the exchange of Viktor Bout for Brittany Griner?

It shows you the power of money and influence here that they traded for Brittany but left Paul Whelan behind

10 years is nuts for the crime she committed but there was a time were if she wasnt a prominent basketball player she may have received that sentence in the USA

Sadly Lebron doesn't care for the US marine being held hostage or enough to tweet about it

And what do you think about the other side of the exchange?

It pales in comparison to the drug war

All I know is he is an arms trader and actually have heard he was railroaded

Lets be clear Biden ignores the fact she committed the crime

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement on your whatabout concern:

"While we celebrate Brittney’s release, Paul Whelan and his family continue to suffer needlessly. Despite our ceaseless efforts, the Russian Government has not yet been willing to bring a long overdue end to his wrongful detention. I wholeheartedly wish we could have brought Paul home today on the same plane with Brittney. Nevertheless, we will not relent in our efforts to bring Paul and all other U.S. nationals held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad home to their loved ones where they belong."

This was taken from the FOX news website. The comment section there on the story mirrors your derpy "she did the crime" whatabout take on it, so not that hard to guess where you were fed that info in a way you wanted to hear it. Here was a typical example from a poster named WheresNancy? (heh, what a stupid user name):

"I agree - if anyone had a truly unfair sentence it was the other guy accused of spying. I feel bad for his family they must be heartbroken. Maybe if he comes out as nonbinary Brandon will take his calls."

and another from user gregingso:

"They walked away from Paul Whelan and that might end up being a death sentence for him, BUT, they got the Rainbow Icon back and that was all that mattered. "

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/britt...ed-arms-dealer

Typical examples of your fellow passive consumers of alt-right derpy media. They post pretty much like you do on these topics (without the pretend effort to be balanced as they are proud to be derps).

All the best.

Let me ask you this question

If Russia said pick whom you want to trade Britney or Paul what would be the correct answer?

Here is the funny thing about that type of LOLgotcha redirection question coming from you or your fellow derps that I cited earlier. You would not know about nor care about Paul (that you all refer to by his first name to make him seem better) without the Brittany Griner story. The only thing the derps do not like is that a non-straight black female, who plays in the WNBA, is the one being returned. That is why all the comments talk about how "she did the crime" and such. If your buddy Paul was not being held by Russia then you and the other derps would be saying a similar message about Griner as directed, only you would not have a white dude to conveniently use as a whatabout. It would probably be more generic derp messaging such as "Brandon" Biden will go to great efforts to get someone that is not approved of by derps released.

I am not deeply familiar with Paul Whelan's case, but I assume it is what it is in nearly all of these cases - Russia essentially taking a political hostage to use as a negotiation chip. I have serious doubts that you or your fellow derps care the slightest about him other than how he serves as a political whatabout tool because a person you do not approve of (that is much more well known) is the one that was released. Hence you toss out snarky Lebron comments and such.

All the best.

Challenging but necessary to bring an American home in this instance.

I can go thru all the rationalizations that in the grand scheme of things this one Russian arms dealer , is both a very bad actor but his release will be over meaningless in the arms trade he specialized in. Someone will be doing what he does whether he is there or not. Whether he now retires quietly or not.

I can also see a future period where there is a direct line to a future death of an american or maybe mass deaths of Americans' that will be directly attribute to this guy's actions and the 'Results based Thinking', 'second guessing' group will come in and blame Biden, saying this was very predictable and he was wrong to do it.


I would liken it to Bidens withdrawal decision in Afghanistan where the 'Results based Thinking' 'second guessers' act like his choice was clearly wrong and obviously wrong and they then use the 'results' as proof, where if the Afghan army had held the Taliban surge for any reasonable amount of time, Biden's choice would have looked brilliant.

But Results based thinkers gonna results based think.

I am believer that if that is the only choice you have to take the civilian first over the active service member.

I do not think we even have to get in to any talk of 'was he also a US spy or not' as I have zero info there but certainly it is within the realm of possibility.

But just my view is that people charged with some degree of serve and protect, should be the last one out after civilians are released.

So in a bank robbery with hostages were forced to choose, i would free 'bank customers first', 'bank employees next', 'bank security next and any police officer caught up inside' last.

I am ignoring any women and children first sorting for simplicity.

Bingo. A citizen had been returned and it's all but whatabout the military guy. Need to free more blonde milfs, then it's a no brainer who should be set free