I mean really. Our world is now messed up. Everything is divided between left and right, liberal and conservative, Trump hating and Trump supporting/tolerating, white and other, extremist and normal, Muslim loving and Muslim hating, Israel loving and Israel hating, man caused climate change and natural climate change, pro-choice and pro-life, pro-LGBTABC and anti-LGBTABCD, pro- same sex marriage and anti-same sex marriage, gender optional and gender bio-determined, etc, etc. Everyone is aligned along pretty much the same lines of thought, one side or the other, no matter how unrelated they are.

Trump haters love everything Trump is against and hate everything Trump loves. The Trump haters hate Trump so much they literally love the things they once hated because now Trump works to stop those things they once hated. Oh how the left, being supporters of women's rights, support Muslim ways of thinking simply because Trump wanted to stop immigration from six countries designated by Obama as being high risk related to sending terrorists into the country. I mean really, who in the world are more misogynist and anti-woman's rights than Muslim men??

No matter what Obama brought to the table and left us with; (mostly racism if you ask me); no matter how the GOP worked to defeat Obama, which they did, we now have the new norm of anti-Trump sentiment which goes even further, dominating everything from religion to 90% of the media to the minds of democrats who really aren't liberal democrats anymore, but who are now trying to undermine the country which we fought and died for; undermining it's very constitution and it's establishing principles. We see candidates for president openly doing this, openly wanting to defeat freedom through the establishment of socialism which is only a hairs breath away from communistic ideals.

No one can be convinced and no one will change who they are because one side is so fully brainwashed into the cult of anti-Trump thinking that the other must swing fully to the other extreme to come close to balancing out what is an increasingly greater move towards the dissolution of the USA. Extremists dominate. Pretty much the only thing the media will cover is extremism. They openly publish lying accounts of current events and the things people say and do, even to the point of wanting to repress and suppress those who have opinions differing from those of the left and the anti-Trumps. Leftists now openly want to stop any media outlet from publishing any opinions or science which doesn't promote the leftist climate change agenda, no matter what it is. They want to control what the masses are allowed to see and hear and this is just the tip of the ice berg. Whistle blowers from Google have openly admitted that google has been altering internet content to the point of actually believing that they are able to take credit for over 2 million votes for Hillary Clinton. And sadly, they are able to do this because of the gullibility of the masses, they having bought into the only things they have ever heard; leftist anti-Trump rhetoric and propaganda.

In other words, 90%, at least, of what the media produces in the form of "news" is nothing less than leftist propaganda. Nothing less than that!

Let's face it, we live in a world gone mad; madder than any previous world we ever had.

Humans, as a species, seem destined to continue with the trends we see here; rising conflict leading ultimately to violence. Look at us now. Violence reigns. It lives in our sources of entertainment, our escape areas; TV, movies, fiction, games, everything!

Where do we go from here?

Thinking is a hate crime, isn't it? You'd be a felon if you actually thought about what you are saying.

During my career as a firefighter, our wages were paid with tax revenues, our fire fighting equipment and fire houses were paid for with tax revenues. Same with the police. However, we provided emergency services for any and everyone in the community, we did not respond to the needs a particular class or group of people. Rich, poor, white, black, brown, man, woman or child, when they needed us, we responded.

When someone in distress called, our fire and police dispatchers did not ask them if they were insured; the dispatchers didn't ask the caller to identify his or her race, religion, economic status or political affiliation.

And, surprisingly, the people we helped truly appreciated all that we did for them.

Do you really think that the examples of "socialism" you allude to compare in any way to the extremely destructive socialist policies now being proposed by the hard core Marxist progressives?

Here's something obviously nobody has ever explained to you... Socialism has existed in this country for decades and a lot of people have benefited from it... Do you have a police force where you live? Payed for by tax payers dollars (socialist) Do you have a fire Dept where you live? Payed for the same way (socialism) did you attend a public school, or ever use a public library? (Socialism) do you know anyone receiving a social security check? Yep! You guessed it (socialism) so why is this such a scary concept now?

I mean really. Our world is now messed up. Everything is divided between left and right, liberal and conservative, Trump hating and Trump supporting/tolerating, white and other, extremist and normal, Muslim loving and Muslim hating, Israel loving and Israel hating, man caused climate change and natural climate change, pro-choice and pro-life, pro-LGBTABC and anti-LGBTABCD, pro- same sex marriage and anti-same sex marriage, gender optional and gender bio-determined, etc, etc. Everyone is aligned along pretty much the same lines of thought, one side or the other, no matter how unrelated they are.

Trump haters love everything Trump is against and hate everything Trump loves. The Trump haters hate Trump so much they literally love the things they once hated because now Trump works to stop those things they once hated. Oh how the left, being supporters of women's rights, support Muslim ways of thinking simply because Trump wanted to stop immigration from six countries designated by Obama as being high risk related to sending terrorists into the country. I mean really, who in the world are more misogynist and anti-woman's rights than Muslim men??

No matter what Obama brought to the table and left us with; (mostly racism if you ask me); no matter how the GOP worked to defeat Obama, which they did, we now have the new norm of anti-Trump sentiment which goes even further, dominating everything from religion to 90% of the media to the minds of democrats who really aren't liberal democrats anymore, but who are now trying to undermine the country which we fought and died for; undermining it's very constitution and it's establishing principles. We see candidates for president openly doing this, openly wanting to defeat freedom through the establishment of socialism which is only a hairs breath away from communistic ideals.

No one can be convinced and no one will change who they are because one side is so fully brainwashed into the cult of anti-Trump thinking that the other must swing fully to the other extreme to come close to balancing out what is an increasingly greater move towards the dissolution of the USA. Extremists dominate. Pretty much the only thing the media will cover is extremism. They openly publish lying accounts of current events and the things people say and do, even to the point of wanting to repress and suppress those who have opinions differing from those of the left and the anti-Trumps. Leftists now openly want to stop any media outlet from publishing any opinions or science which doesn't promote the leftist climate change agenda, no matter what it is. They want to control what the masses are allowed to see and hear and this is just the tip of the ice berg. Whistle blowers from Google have openly admitted that google has been altering internet content to the point of actually believing that they are able to take credit for over 2 million votes for Hillary Clinton. And sadly, they are able to do this because of the gullibility of the masses, they having bought into the only things they have ever heard; leftist anti-Trump rhetoric and propaganda.

In other words, 90%, at least, of what the media produces in the form of "news" is nothing less than leftist propaganda. Nothing less than that!

Let's face it, we live in a world gone mad; madder than any previous world we ever had.

Humans, as a species, seem destined to continue with the trends we see here; rising conflict leading ultimately to violence. Look at us now. Violence reigns. It lives in our sources of entertainment, our escape areas; TV, movies, fiction, games, everything!

Where do we go from here?

[Irony Alert]
You've convinced me. Your job as a firefighter should have been privatized, taken out of the control of inefficient government and run as a for profit business. So how would we run this business? Perhaps a subscription service? Customers would pay a fee that would allow a specified list of services. The very rich could buy platinum plan service;...;the very poor would have no service.

Perhaps fee per service system? Customers would pay at the time of service (of course, a credit check would be run before service is rendered). This system would also allow for an associated business: an arson service (needed for customers who fail to pay their bill). The arson service could also drum up business when the fire service isn't meeting its quarterly projections.

Some of the business costs would be:
facilities - located to provide quick service to platinum customers
equipment - trucks, ladders, hoses, protective gear, etc.
supplies - water, extinguishers, oxygen (for rescue operations of platinum customers), etc.
training - going training of labor in firefighting techniques
labor - a major on going cost due to labor intensive nature of firefighting

Profits could be increased by reducing costs: lower quality equipment, limiting per incident supply use, limiting training, lowering labor costs, etc.

You have a distorted sense of socialism. I have paid into Social Security since I was 16. Medicare since it was introduced What I receive is not Socialism it is monthly payments from insurance programs. If the crooks on both sides of the aisle didn't steal all the money, it would still be self supporting. Police, highways etc are functions of government required by civilized societies. People have paid taxes since the dawn of civilization. That is not socialism. The government owning everything and giving everyone a portion of the money it makes is socialism. The biggest problem this creates is the loss of incentive to do anything more than the minimum required. I have worked as an Engineer at an electric utility. The union guys have no incentive to work because every electrician makes the same salary. There are union guys who do put forth extra effort but they are bullied by the rank and file. Socialism removes 100% of the drive to do more and requires everyone to do the minimum. That is not a healthy society.

Semper Fi

You have a distorted sense of socialism. I have paid into Social Security since I was 16. Medicare since it was introduced What I receive is not Socialism it is monthly payments from insurance programs. If the crooks on both sides of the aisle didn't steal all the money, it would still be self supporting. Police, highways etc are functions of government required by civilized societies. People have paid taxes since the dawn of civilization. That is not socialism. The government owning everything and giving everyone a portion of the money it makes is socialism. The biggest problem this creates is the loss of incentive to do anything more than the minimum required. I have worked as an Engineer at an electric utility. The union guys have no incentive to work because every electrician makes the same salary. There are union guys who do put forth extra effort but they are bullied by the rank and file. Socialism removes 100% of the drive to do more and requires everyone to do the minimum. That is not a healthy society.

Semper Fi

You have a distorted sense of socialism. I have paid into Social Security since I was 16. Medicare since it was introduced What I receive is not Socialism it is monthly payments from insurance programs. If the crooks on both sides of the aisle didn't steal all the money, it would still be self supporting. Police, highways etc are functions of government required by civilized societies. People have paid taxes since the dawn of civilization. That is not socialism. The government owning everything and giving everyone a portion of the money it makes is socialism. The biggest problem this creates is the loss of incentive to do anything more than the minimum required. I have worked as an Engineer at an electric utility. The union guys have no incentive to work because every electrician makes the same salary. There are union guys who do put forth extra effort but they are bullied by the rank and file. Socialism removes 100% of the drive to do more and requires everyone to do the minimum. That is not a healthy society.

Semper Fi

Blade_Runner wrote, "During my career as a firefighter, our wages were paid with tax revenues, our fire fighting equipment and fire houses were paid for with tax revenues. ...Do you really think that the examples of "socialism" you allude to compare in any way to the extremely destructive socialist policies now being proposed by the hard core Marxist progressives?"

Does that clarify? Blade_Runner provided a service (firefighting) through a government. The government "owned" the means of distribution of the service (a common part of the definition of socialism). He asked that we compare this (government provided service) to "the extremely destructive socialist policies" being "proposed by the hard core Marxist progressives". Instead I compared it to a possible private for profit firefighting service (a capitalist one).

Blade_Runner wrote, "During my career as a firefighter, our wages were paid with tax revenues, our fire fighting equipment and fire houses were paid for with tax revenues. ...Do you really think that the examples of "socialism" you allude to compare in any way to the extremely destructive socialist policies now being proposed by the hard core Marxist progressives?"

Does that clarify? Blade_Runner provided a service (firefighting) through a government. The government "owned" the means of distribution of the service (a common part of the definition of socialism). He asked that we compare this (government provided service) to "the extremely destructive socialist policies" being "proposed by the hard core Marxist progressives". Instead I compared it to a possible private for profit firefighting service (a capitalist one).

Might be a good thing to mention that about 70 percent of America's firefighters are volunteers, and 85 percent of the nation's fire departments are all or mostly volunteer. The smallest communities — those with fewer than 10,000 residents — are almost always served by volunteer departments. I was a volunteer firefighter in a small community--1300 pop--before I moved to a city and was hired as a pro.

When I was with the city dept, volunteer departments in the area helped out on some of the big fires we fought.