Do you like the United States?

My sentiments exactly,

There are some worker protections here. Employers are required to pay overtime after 40 hours, so most employers won't let workers go over 40, officially. I've mostly worked in retail so this doesn't really apply to me, but I've read about people who work in careers that focus more on projects who basically work 60 hours while only getting paid for 40. They may only be getting paid for 40 hours, but if they can't finish their projects in that time then it could mean their job so they do work off the clock. The people I know that work 60 hours have multiple jobs, sometimes three at a time. However, the protections really do suck. At my job the managers kept changing their story about how many breaks you got for x hours worked whenever they wanted to get more work done, so I looked up the actual regulations. There basically are none. According to federal law, you could work 20 hours straight and your employer wouldn't be legally required to give you a break. Even when there are protections for certain things, employees are reluctant to take action against their employer or they don't know that their employer is doing anything illegal because they lie to their employees.

Depending on where you live, taxes can be hugely high here too. Federal aren't too bad, but you have state taxes, usually sales taxes, and property taxes. Where I live, the sales taxes are pretty high by US standards. Federal taxes are progressive, but the state tax is flat. That means that while I don't pay federal taxes because I don't make enough, the state just taxes a flat percentage regardless. Property taxes, you basically have a choice of living in places with decent public services and high property taxes or with poor public services and low property taxes. For all those taxes, I have no medical coverage, sky-high rent, and I'm burning through my savings to pay for one semester of the cheap college option. I'd gladly pay even higher taxes if it meant I was getting something in return. Over here you either have to work your ass off in a physically demanding job for crap pay or go broke paying for an education that will get you a better job.

It's alright. It has done a lot of good in the world and a lot of bad. I wouldn't live there unless I made a six figure salary after taxes, though. And even then there are (a lot of) other countries I prefer.

It's not that expensive....also every state has their own cost of living. You can't include them as all the same.

The ones with low costs of living tend to be Republican strongholds and fly over states. I've lived in cosmopolitan cities my whole life and would rather not go anywhere near rural America.

Michigan is the seventh lowest and a blue state..........

It has a Republican governor and went for Trump in the last election. It's also a state that can't provide clean drinking water to a major city and whose industry has largely collapsed. No thanks.

Also, I live pretty close to Michigan anyway lol so I could visit the UP whenever I want.

Yeah even blue states get Republican governors once in awhile. Also going for trump doesn't mean they continually vote that way. As I have told several others in threads........vote. Republicans always vote so Democrats and Independents need to make sure they cancel those votes out.

Unfortunately they make excuses why they don't. What can you do when people don't care?

From what I see America is a better option than a lot of countries on the planet. Its a great country but definitely could use some improvement, generally speaking I think the problem with america is that people are dishonest and corrupt, which is the root cause for the divisiveness the country is suffering from. I wish people would be more understanding, if we can accomplish that then you will see the US ascend and to actually earn its title as "greatest country in the world". For the time being I would simply call it "a great country".

Corrupt, manipulative, lying Hilary Clinton is "better"?

I like the president and I voted for him.

LOL Trump is corrupt, manipulative, and lying.

I think we should first clear the whole "sexual assault" thing before we get into other baseless allegations, otherwise it will get too messy.

Edit: You want people to constantly cancel out republican voters? WOW! you are such a fascist! You are not only stupid but extremely intolerant as well! this is the problem with america, you divide yourselves!

There isn't a single American culture although you may see them vary depending on region and population. In our case, my family and relatives regard themselves as Asian-Americans. Our culture contains a mix of Asian and "US" values. We value honesty and family ties above all else and take seriously the education our kids get. If our values happen to sync more with "white America," so be it.

I love the USA, it's ideas and principles that it were founded on were amazing. However a lot of policies are just irresponsible, such as giving complete free reign to the rich, giving them full patent and IP rights is a socialist gift. The dumb idiots on the right who think climate science is a scam. Also the fools on the left who only fight on the identity politics agendas. America is a beautiful place to visit for me. It's a great place to live if your rich. For everyone else, America is not such a great place. I am happy staying where I am, and I would not move to the US unless I was offered an 7 figure salary.

In fact I'm surprised that the middle class workers in the US put up with the bullsht of the government/corporate parties sleeping together. The fact that there is no universal health care options is frankly pathetic. If it were me, I'd fill out an application to immigrate to a different country ASAP...it's not that hard now adays.

Why would anyone clear it? The only reason it popped up was because Trump, in his own words and on tape, told "Billy" (i think thats his name) what works for him. If self snitching is not enough for you, we have court cases that were often settled and even had some where he admitted to doing... pretty much exactly what he said to Billy and what dozens of women over nearly 40 years have been claiming.

We're not talking about a single claim that at most offers up the evidence of: "he said she said"... No no no, this was "He said proudly to another celebrity". And then a couple women made claims that he did to them, exactly what he described to Billy and then of course the nearly 40 years of incidents that have been taken to court and that he has had to pay restitution for.

Who said that?

How'd you arrive at that statement?

Please, i really want to know the dots you connected to move on to this.

HE did! Obviously this doesn't have anything to do with out previous conversation of course, but this does help me to get a clear idea of what kind of scum I'm dealing with.

This guy hates republicans so much that he doesn't ever want them to have a say in the political spectrum, "people must vote so that republican votes get canceled out" was his advise, Jesus its divisive behavior like this that got someone like Trump in office in the first place!

Great. Give me a name of a victim, give me a name of a women who was able to confirm that she was sexually assaulted by Trump (and it better be with actual evidence and not some bullshit "he said she said", because if you cannot do that then I WILL deem the subject closed and will shit on ANYONE who brings up this subject again).

Hmm I've never been there. But I have had a few Americans visit my habitat, colleagues of my father. And those people were very friendly and funny. And I do want to visit some parts of the USA at some point, just to experience what the air smells like and the light looks like over there. My dad has been there and he loved a park he visited because it was so big and well kept. There is a lot of nature in the USA. Everything where I live is fabricated nature. We planted all of it. So having some rough nature would interest me a little more, unless there's lots of mosquito's.

Lots of places in the USA, if something happens, the police wouldn't be there in 5-10 minutes. So you will have to deal with it yourself. I think that has really created a different type of society, because obviously that changes how you treat and look at strangers. So I bet the interactions with people there would be quite different. I even heard (or was this in Canada?) that if you live in some places, if you hear someone unknown walking in your house and call the police, they would tell you to take a look yourself first, because they wouldn't just drive all the way there to check it out for you.

And I hear your roads tend to be built in grids. I wonder what that is like. Crossroads are pretty dangerous parts of the road where I live, because it becomes more complex and more mistakes can be made, so to have crossroads everywhere sounds interesting too. I hope it's not like in Rome. I remember not daring to cross the street in Rome cause everyone was driving so aggressively, and a police officer saw me and instead of helping me cross he just crossed the street and all the cars hit the breaks and started honking. I think he wanted to show me how it's done. For me that was very weird. In my country you wait till the cars stop, if it is a designated place for people to cross. At some point someone will stop and you can cross, but in Rome nobody seems to stop without you walking in front of the car. XD At least on some busier streets. I would guess finding an address in a grid based city would be a lot easier than it is over here.

Where do you live?

Is this the part where I answer your question and you reply with a post insulting where I live?

Naw, I'm good bro.

What's to like? Boring history, boring politics (until Trump), boring food, boring music etc.

I live in Michigan right by the border of Canada. No insults, just curious.

Blame the Euros. They're the ones who settled in.

That's not what I said. Reading comprehension fail. I said if other parties voted the results would be different. Are you trying to suppress votes because it sounds like it right there...........fearful of other parties voting.....

Yah i know he does but that does not suggest anything other than him playing D/R politics and being supportive of the D.

Maybe i should have been a bit more clear in my first response.

There is nothing he is saying beyond "hey vote for this guy". pr "hey, vote for this team". There is nothing to indicate that he is doing something out of the ordinary or unusual or is suggesting something dirty, illegal, or anything that IMO would be the only reason you'd cite something like this. A better question i'd be asking is why are you leveling these claims against someone else, when you yourself seem to be doing the same with republicans and specifically Trump? There's plenty to be said about LJS and his lack of critical thought when it comes to democrats, and that same application applies to you... which is why ive always been a fan of cleaning one's own house before moving on to others, but that's just me.

Well, its a corrupted two party system that has ensured a third party cannot win that has allowed for an orange anti-sex blow up doll to be elected. In other words, he was elected because of a system and oligarchical ideas that had been in place and had us moving in that direction, long before Trump.

If we want to dive a bit deeper and specific on why republicans are capable of being elected to begin with, than all we need to do is mention redistricting/Gerrymandering. Without this rather questionable and potentially illegal (IMO) act, they wouldnt win half of the districts they end up winning, which in turn often gives them states they should not have won. If we removed this practice from swing states, they'd lose them all. While im not a fan of democrats, this is definitely a real issue and something they can point to when highlighting how if we are to work in this two party system, roughly 10-20% of the nation supports republican ideas over democratic. Of course we know the democrats are nothing but empty rhetoric that will never be implemented, but it still requires that lie of left wing ideas to get support.

Here's the problem, without video or audio you can always suggest a rape or sexual assault did not happen or was not "proved" and of course, this would not be inaccurate. Even with the most destructive to defense evidence (tearing of vaginal walls, semen, rape drugs) you can still suggest innocence or no guilt and this actually holds true with the majority of crimes. And there are not too many cases of video taped rapes or sexual assaults. This is where simply being reasonable about the situation kicks in and recognizing the situation for what it is.

All of the women who have made claims, have confirmed those claims. Im assuming as stated above, you're suggesting undeniable evidence, but again as mentioned above, the world doe snot work that way when it comes to something like this. It would be fantastic if it did, but sadly it does not.

So again, this is where we have to really recognize the situation for what it is and listen to people, including the offender himself.

Now if there were a bunch of women who came out after he said these things publicly and who's stories mirrored what he had admitted to, i too would also be apprehensive. The numbers should be a bit concerning, but whatever. The problem here, is we have a man who just gave us his M.O. for a crime that by his own admission, he regularly commits, To make this worse, as if self admittance is not enough and i have no idea why it would not be, we still have decades of incidents, claims against him, prior to this statement that are exact to what he described. Leeds, Anderson, Heller, Virginia, Crooks. and about a dozen more all have stories that are exact to what Trump bragged about doing. Some of these cases went to civil court, some not (so we cannot declare money was a motivator with most of them). But the real misapprehension for those suggesting that we should overlook this or that his guilt is not an issue or if we can determine if he is guilty (which we absolutely could, in the court of law he would 100% be found guilty if all this evidence was in front of a judge and he could not influence the judge with money), is this:

This is not a case of "he said, she said". This is a case of "He said and then did..." or "he admitted to". You cannot dismiss this as "locker room talk"if the claim aligns with the evidence. At that point it becomes "admissible in the court of law". BTW, i also dove into what "locker room talk" is, its point and how men use it, above.

Again, i cannot stress how important it is to recognize and accept that the statement he made is verified by decades of behavior, that in some instances, he admitted to, long before this statement. With the Heller case, he basically admitted to what he did. He tried to minimize it as if they were not unwanted sexual advanced and touching, but we had a room full of people (including her husband and child who were next to them when he did this) who all said the same thing. Many of these instances have witnesses who confirm the claim, and again, no one has any kind of motive aside from being truthful.

I find this whole subject entertaining and frustrating. The same people who want to proclaim his innocence, who want to ignore this massive amount of evidence that would be applicable without his admission, adding his admission, 100% solidifies any case against him.... you literally have the person saying "yes i did this".... like... wow.. There's A LOT of mental gymnastics that go into ignoring this. But these are the same people who want to convict others of things that are not even crimes or if they are, have no evidence of. Or even better, excuse illegal behavior by police acting against legal citizens. Many of the same who latched on to Benghazi, Pizzagate, etc. etc. One or all of the no evidence for claims against a democrat. Or, in many instances, against left leaning people who are not even breaking the law. These are also the people who claim small government and that everyone else is appealing to authority, when what they are constantly supporting is the criminal behaviors of established right wingers, while punishing or over-punishing, leftists who if they do even break a law, is more often than not a lowered tier law. Without realizing... some how.... that they are the definition of totalitarianism, supportive of a dictatorship, unquestioning of those in power and supportive of the efforts no matter how small.

This whole defense on your part seems to rely on you not grasping what is or is not evidence, what is or is not acceptable in the court of law, what is or is not illegal, and how you convict someone if they are not admitting to a crime they committed. The crazy thing is, you don't even need to dive into all of that, you simply have to mention that he stated that this is was a tactic he has used in the past and worked for him.

"And that piece of information hasn't phased your skepticism in anyway at all?"

Lets understand what skepticism is here, because ive found a lot of people who think they are "skeptics" or, to be more accurate, are actively skeptic. There is no point to having skepticism as a tool in your critical thinking toolbox, if you're not willing to apply the idea of rational conclusion.

"Skepticism is a provisional approach to claims. It is the application of reason to any and all ideas — no sacred cows allowed. In other words, skepticism is a method, not a position. Ideally, skeptics do not go into an investigation closed to the possibility that a phenomenon might be real or that a claim might be true. When we say we are “skeptical,” we mean that we must see compelling evidence before we believe."—Shermer, Michael. .

I decided to quote this and mention it from one fo your older posts because i have a feeling you think you actively apply skepticism. But applying skepticism is not placing an absolute conclusion and then suggesting nothing can be accurate if its not met. Its actually the opposite, simply applying reasonable questions to claim and then determining if the results are good enough to maintain the claim.

@kod: FYI.....with my critical thought I've voted for several different parties. How many of you can say that? So stop with your insults.

Absolutely loving that Simpsons reference. Matt is my kind of guy.

on topic: i love my county but would do poorly to put it into words so i'll just leave this.

"It might be a truth self-evident that all men are created equal and have a right to pursue happiness, but not so evident as to dispense with a system of checks and balances designed to spur the correction over time of the kinds of prejudice that flout professed equality of opportunity.

That’s America’s founding bargain. It still works.

It still keeps doors open, if less so since 9/11, as Switzerland bans minarets, and the French get in a funk about their national identity and its lack of appeal to North African immigrants, and Japan wonders if returning Japanese immigrants from Brazil are Japanese enough to fit, and Asian nations in general begin an uneasy confrontation with the issue of immigration as their societies age and get richer.

There is still a fundamental distinction between a nation that views the newcomer as a potential source of talent and one that finds cause for discomfort in “the other.” After a hard decade, in which its relative power has declined, that distinction (Mexican border walls notwithstanding) is probably the best single reason to believe that the erosion of U.S. influence in the 21st century will not be inexorable. As Richard Hofstadter observed, it is the fate of the United States “not to have an ideology but to be one;” and so America in its lacerating imperfection must ever aim high.

I choose therefore to close this decade in defense of a flawed America and to echo the recent words of Barack Obama: “There has been no Third World War. The Cold War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling a wall. Commerce has stitched much of the world together. Billions have been lifted from poverty. The ideals of liberty, self-determination, equality and the rule of law have haltingly advanced. We are the heirs of the fortitude and foresight of generations past, and it is a legacy for which my own country is rightfully proud.”

from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/opinion/22iht-edcohen.html

Oh shit! You're telling me you've gone from corrupted right wing party to corrupted right wing party lite?!? Holy shit man, i never realized you had such astonishing critical thought abilities!

Id say most people who have taken part in three or more elections could say this, of course you also have those who refuse to vote because the options for representation are not there, but for some reason you refuse to acknowledge that they are saying something as well.

Good critical thought though, you went from Bush to Clinton. Two republicans who were both mentored by war criminal Henry Kissinger and both who hired republican strategist Dick Morris for campaign advisory at points in their career. At this point you should be questioning if that "critical thought" took you to different places, but i already know you refuse to recognize inarguable truths about the democrats, so being critical of them is out of the question.

No that isn't what I said. I've only ever been registered as one party. You missed the point entirely and your conspiracy theories are getting tiresome.

FYI there are state and local elections. The more you know.

I see you are still having critical thinking problems. Why not include your preposterous reading?

I'm 40+ years old. Lived my whole life in Portugal, with the exception of about a year living in a couple of other European countries. Relocated to the US a few years ago for work.

I love the US. Absolutely amazing country.

I like some of the exports but I could say that about other places too so whatever.

To each their own. But I will say this. Europeans have a VERY distorted view of the US. Especially considering how vast and diverse the US is. It's one amazing country, to visit and to live. I personally don't see myself living anywhere else right now.

Don't know if it's distorted but I agree that it's certainly very limited. We only have access to the worst that happens there, but just because we don't see the good it doesn't mean the bad isn't happening, and the bad is enough for me to dislike the way things are going. I'm sure there are plenty of places in the US where most people aren't bible thumping, gun crazed, fast food addicted, proud and ignorant, flag worshipping idiots, but it doesn't reflect well on a country when all of those things exist in such vast quantities, to the point where a about half of the Americans I've met personally so far (don't care about online, everybody is a loon on the internet :P) is at least one of those. Of course, the US is enormous, so there's bound to be a hell of a lot of people in whatever group you can think of and that's why I say I generally like Americans, but I think the whole "America is the greatest country in the world" and "we are who we are and I'm proud of it, warts and all" mentality that a lot of people have is very detrimental for growth in all fronts.

And of course now you have an orange monkey running the show without even being able to form a semblance of coherent speech and he's bringing out the worst in people, not only in the US but worldwide so that's also not going to do you any favours on how the world views you.

All in all, the world tends to see the US as a lot of good people swimming against the current in a river of shit, which is unfortunate.

Always enjoy visiting the US whenever I can; have several friends who live there that are always good to see and the States has some amazing scenery.

LOL don´t worry blue we all know you are a Canadian.

This is true...........

That's pretty much the entire country. See you do fall for generalizations.

Not to mention that most if not all Europeans eat, sleep , watch and drink american.

The rest of the world is the current of shit compared to the US.

Love the food. Would never want to live there though. Ridiculous health care system, even more ridiculous educational system, basically everything is a business. I got the best possible education at university for around $300 per semester which included free use of trains, subways and buses. If I were American I'd still be paying off my debt now.

not sure if it is like this elsewhere but financial success is VERY ingrained in our culture. it's always about the money.

You can not like the president and still like the country

Which would be what exactly? Me mentioning you went from fake right to fake left? How is that preposterous? You said it.

@korvus: you may not realize this but you just proved my point... it’s not just a limited view, it’s severely distorted by the stereotypes you just mentioned. Not to say that there isn’t some level of truth in those stereotypes (stereotypes come from somewhere), it just doesn’t affect the day to day lives of normal people the way you think it does - not even remotely close.

And for the record, I have lived in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and used to have a view similar to yours.

I do realise that and I also realise I sound arrogant and ignorant when I say that you may or may not be right :) Funnily enough what you just said is also what the Dutch tell me; since it doesn't affect a lot of them personally it must not be as bad as others say, except it is for the ones it does affect. Simply living in a country doesn't automatically give anyone omniscience...there's a lot about my home country I never knew until I had to face it through the eyes of others and now living in the Netherlands I find that a lot of Dutch people are completely blind to what happens around them just because it doesn't happen to them directly. Worse still, a lot of them actively resist seeing it and maintain that living in the Netherlands is the equivalent of living in Paradise.

I, myself, have often been guilty of the opposite since I moved here, thinking that "the grass was greener..."; back in Portugal (where I suspect you also come from, by your name) I had no illusion that the country was a good place for blacks or gays (especially being raised as a racist and homophobe and knowing first hand how difficult it was to abandon prejudice), but when I moved to the Netherlands I had the illusion that blacks and gays were considered "just people" and it was only immigrants with tanned skin (such as myself) who were treated like crap. Turns out blacks are still "untrustworthy" and gays are still "disgusting and immoral"; maybe not in such a large scale as in Portugal but still a lot more than I was giving the problem credit for. Guess it was a mix of being so absorbed on the way people were treating me and a need to see as much good in my new country as possible, whether that good was really there or not.

I love visiting the United States. Cheap food and in large portions. It's always a treat when we head down there.