US Politics Thread

[urban.spaceman]

Second amendment nutter doesn’t understand what an amendment is:

 

 

[urban.spaceman]

Also:

 

 

[leicsmac]

5 hours ago, SO1 said:

The more things change the more they stay the same or get worse.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/biden-first-month-marked-by-broken-promises/275480/

Dude, I know the "both of 'em are the same" stuff is good in the more edgy circles, but anything more than a cursory look at some aspects of policy reveals it isn't so.

 

There's really no need to keep banging the drum, especially when doing so gives Trump supporters something to hang their hat on.

 

2 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

Second amendment nutter doesn’t understand what an amendment is:

 

 

There really should be a civics class as a prerequisite for running for elected office.

[Guest SO1]

55 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Dude, I know the "both of 'em are the same" stuff is good in the more edgy circles, but anything more than a cursory look at some aspects of policy reveals it isn't so.

 

There's really no need to keep banging the drum, especially when doing so gives Trump supporters something to hang their hat on.

 

There really should be a civics class as a prerequisite for running for elected office.

I'm going to continue to remind and inform those here my observations of American government and politics. The endless propaganda we're fed by the main stream media, run and owned by those who own our government(Federal State Local) You're welcome to continue to blame all of the United States problems on Trump. Trump is just a diversion as the ruling class continue to turn the US and the rest of the West into a Neo Liberal Wasteland.

 

Follow the money..... and where and to whom it goes. And for what. What people do is more important than what they say.

 

Civics? For the ruling class that means rape, pillage, and plunder the rest of us. For centuries.

Time to end the slavery and exploitation of the masses.

 

 

Edited 20 February 2021 by SO1

[leicsmac]

16 minutes ago, SO1 said:

I'm going to continue to remind and inform those here my observations of American government and politics. The endless propaganda we're fed by the main stream media, run and owned by those who own our government(Federal State Local) You're welcome to continue to blame all of the United States problems on Trump. Trump is just a diversion as the ruling class continue to turn the US and the rest of the West into a Neo Liberal Wasteland.

 

Follow the money..... and where and to whom it goes. And for what. What people do is more important than what they say.

 

Civics? For the ruling class that means rape, pillage, and plunder the rest of us. For centuries.

Time to end the slavery and exploitation of the masses.

 

 

Fair enough.

 

I'll continue to make a distinction between those in government and those who vote for them who think women should be obedient housewives and LGBT folks are an abomination (though they won't actually say it) and those who do not, thanks. Little differences and all that.

[Innovindil]

8 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Dude, I know the "both of 'em are the same" stuff is good in the more edgy circles, but anything more than a cursory look at some aspects of policy reveals it isn't so.

 

There's really no need to keep banging the drum, especially when doing so gives Trump supporters something to hang their hat on.

Curious to see if you'd be so nonchalant over this guys concerns if it was environmental policy that was being rowed back on and not the things aimed at helping general Americans and foreign policies. 

 

Tbh, from the little I've seen from Americans on various social media's I'd say this guy isn't the only one unhappy with the new boss, who bar the outrageous twitter account seems very similar to the old boss. 

[leicsmac]

22 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Curious to see if you'd be so nonchalant over this guys concerns if it was environmental policy that was being rowed back on and not the things aimed at helping general Americans and foreign policies. 

 

Tbh, from the little I've seen from Americans on various social media's I'd say this guy isn't the only one unhappy with the new boss, who bar the outrageous twitter account seems very similar to the old boss. 

It's a good question to ask, and my answer would be no, I would not be nearly so nonchalant, for the reason that environmental policy, long term, affects more lives than any of those other policies combined (short of starting an WMD-related war, of course).

 

So yes, it is a critical policy difference and I make no apologies for claiming that both sides are not the same because of it alone. However, there are also other differences - such as repealing legislation that limits union powers, promoting a bigger federal minimum wage, many differences in immigration policy including rescinding the Muslim travel ban and taking steps to dismantle some of the discriminatory legislation against LGBT folks that Trump came up with.

 

Of course I'd much rather he be going further with what he has too - the article mentions several U-turns that are very disappointing - but the "new boss, same as the old boss" line is categorically, empirically incorrect, for the above reasons as well as others.

[LCFCCHRIS]

 

🤣🤣

[Guest SO1]

1 hour ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

 

🤣🤣

All the Republicans have to do is run that non-stop for the mid term elections and they will own the House and the Senate. Same as during Obama's 1st term when he had control of both houses and passed Unaffordable Healthcare for all. And bailed out the ruling class and financial services to the tune of over 20+ trillion dollars.

The government is broken and not capable of serving the majority of it's citizens because of widespread corruption.. Sadly voting will not solve this problem and I don't know what will.

 

 

 

[leicsmac]

5 hours ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

 

🤣🤣

 

3 hours ago, SO1 said:

All the Republicans have to do is run that non-stop for the mid term elections and they will own the House and the Senate. Same as during Obama's 1st term when he had control of both houses and passed Unaffordable Healthcare for all. And bailed out the ruling class and financial services to the tune of over 20+ trillion dollars.

The government is broken and not capable of serving the majority of it's citizens because of widespread corruption.. Sadly voting will not solve this problem and I don't know what will.

 

 

 

And all the Dems need to do is run the footage of the Capitol storming non-stop to keep them both.

[Guest SO1]

57 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

 

And all the Dems need to do is run the footage of the Capitol storming non-stop to keep them both.

... and that's the sadness of it all. Neither side willing to do the work or make the decisions necessary to move the country in a positive direction. A direction that works for all of its citizens not just the managerial and ruling classes. Back and forth and nothing gets done no matter what they say......and the world continues turning in its orbit around the sun. Things will change.

[leicsmac]

34 minutes ago, SO1 said:

... and that's the sadness of it all. Neither side willing to do the work or make the decisions necessary to move the country in a positive direction. A direction that works for all of its citizens not just the managerial and ruling classes. Back and forth and nothing gets done no matter what they say......and the world continues turning in its orbit around the sun. Things will change.

I honestly can't say that I share that level of cynicism, mate.

 

But I do see where you're coming from.

[leicsmac]

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/19/969497398/georgia-republicans-file-sweeping-elections-bill-to-limit-early-and-absentee-vot

 

Disenfranchisement, of course, being the best and often the only way for Repubs to win.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56157745

 

Perhaps you shouldn't have thought political appointments to the Supreme Court would bail you out, Don.

 

I have to admit though, I thought that they might have done, too. Glad to see it isn't the case.

[Guest SO1]

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/02/deathbed-confession-fbi-and-nypd-responsible-for-malcolm-x-assassination.html 

The US government and its institutions hard at work with its assassination programs both home and abroad.

A leader in peace and democracy

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, SO1 said:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/02/deathbed-confession-fbi-and-nypd-responsible-for-malcolm-x-assassination.html 

The US government and its institutions hard at work with its assassination programs both home and abroad.

A leader in peace and democracy

COINTELPRO wasn't the half of it, was it?

[Guest SO1]

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/02/biden-commits-to-forever-war-on-afghanistan.html#more

Onwards and backwards. More war it is then.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56174489

 

But the Black Lives Matter movement is, of course, entirely unnecessary.

[Detroit Blues]

9 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56174489

 

But the Black Lives Matter movement is, of course, entirely unnecessary.

It's funny you should say that. I listened to a podcast (Five Four podcast, check it out) about McCleskey V Kemp that really resonated with the state of the criminal justice system, and conservatives lack of interest in making it more "fair" for people of color.

 

This is what one of the podcast hosts (Peter "the law boy") had to say:
 

    "They’re deeply concerned about playing Jenga with the social hierarchy. This shit is so deep in conservative psychology because it’s fundamental to the protection and justification of the status quo. If what you want out of politics, if your political project is the ongoing defense of existing social and political hierarchies, then you can’t concede that there are deep structural flaws within the system that produce those hierarchies. So everything has to be the result of the individual failures to adhere to the rules of those hierarchies. The system can never fail you, you can only fail the system. So everything that resembles injustice must be explained away as an individual failure, less the system be questioned and the hierarchy disturbed.
 

      Underlying all this ideology, and this opinion in particular, is an implication of the hierarchies involved here. This study says the death penalty is disproportionately impacting black people in Georgia.  There are countless studies showing the various other ways that components of the criminal justice system weighs disproportionately on people of color - traffic stops, arrests, conviction rates, sentencing. You can take a step out further and note that black populations in this country are disproportionately concentrated in small, relatively blighted pockets of major urban areas, and as a community, impoverished compared to white populations. When you look at that profound inequity you have to accept one of two conclusions - either this country is a deeply unfair place, or for whatever reason black people are deserving of a lesser position in this society. You have to accept one of those two things is true.
 

      The “Left” has long made its position clear that we live in an unfair society, but I think an open secret of American politics is that the “Right” has a clear position on this too. They believe that the lower socio-political status of black people is deserved, and it is a product of that community’s own failures. So when they gaze upon the vast differences in how the law treats people of different races in this country. It’s not that they don’t “see it.” They “see it,” they just don’t perceive it as unjust because they feel that those communities are reaping the consequences of their own mistakes, just like they credit people at the top of the social hierarchies as having “earned” their position."

 

 

 

[leicsmac]

18 minutes ago, Detroit Blues said:

It's funny you should say that. I listened to a podcast (Five Four podcast, check it out) about McCleskey V Kemp that really resonated with the state of the criminal justice system, and conservatives lack of interest in making it more "fair" for people of color.

 

This is what one of the podcast hosts (Peter "the law boy") had to say:
 

    "They’re deeply concerned about playing Jenga with the social hierarchy. This shit is so deep in conservative psychology because it’s fundamental to the protection and justification of the status quo. If what you want out of politics, if your political project is the ongoing defense of existing social and political hierarchies, then you can’t concede that there are deep structural flaws within the system that produce those hierarchies. So everything has to be the result of the individual failures to adhere to the rules of those hierarchies. The system can never fail you, you can only fail the system. So everything that resembles injustice must be explained away as an individual failure, less the system be questioned and the hierarchy disturbed.
 

      Underlying all this ideology, and this opinion in particular, is an implication of the hierarchies involved here. This study says the death penalty is disproportionately impacting black people in Georgia.  There are countless studies showing the various other ways that components of the criminal justice system weighs disproportionately on people of color - traffic stops, arrests, conviction rates, sentencing. You can take a step out further and note that black populations in this country are disproportionately concentrated in small, relatively blighted pockets of major urban areas, and as a community, impoverished compared to white populations. When you look at that profound inequity you have to accept one of two conclusions - either this country is a deeply unfair place, or for whatever reason black people are deserving of a lesser position in this society. You have to accept one of those two things is true.
 

      The “Left” has long made its position clear that we live in an unfair society, but I think an open secret of American politics is that the “Right” has a clear position on this too. They believe that the lower socio-political status of black people is deserved, and it is a product of that community’s own failures. So when they gaze upon the vast differences in how the law treats people of different races in this country. It’s not that they don’t “see it.” They “see it,” they just don’t perceive it as unjust because they feel that those communities are reaping the consequences of their own mistakes, just like they credit people at the top of the social hierarchies as having “earned” their position."

 

 

 

Spot on.

 

It is the "Every Man an Island" and the "Just World" fallacy both writ large into one package. And it's abhorrent.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56202805

 

Ms Newman and Ms Greene. Two sides of America.

[leicsmac]

12 hours ago, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56202805

 

Ms Newman and Ms Greene. Two sides of America.

 

[LCFCCHRIS]

On 24/02/2021 at 13:48, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56174489

 

But the Black Lives Matter movement is, of course, entirely unnecessary.

Equality is something to always strive towards, yes, BLM the organisation, nope. Probably why the Premier League has dropped the BLM association now. Anti capitalists.

[leicsmac]

4 hours ago, LCFCCHRIS said:

Equality is something to always strive towards, yes, BLM the organisation, nope. Probably why the Premier League has dropped the BLM association now. Anti capitalists.

....And?

 

That UKBLM has anti capitalists within its ranks has zilch to do with the necessity of the organisation as a whole, and it's trotted out far too many times as an excuse to discredit the organisation and reassert the status quo where folks of colour in the US are being institutionally discriminated against by the fuzz.

 

Just another example of it here.

[leicsmac]

 

....I'm sure this was entirely coincidental and not a massive dog-whistle.