US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2414

On October 16 2015 09:42 KlaCkoN wrote:


I agree with your premise - not with the conclusion. Speaking as a social democrat - yes hillary is terrible. She will continue the trend of massive wealth transfer from the middle class to the goldman sachs brass, while paying lip service to the idea of social mobility - maybe with some talk about education for all. But that doesn't mean that a hillary victory (which is, lets face it, the by far most likely outcome of this election) would be the end.
The winds ARE changing. The inexorable shift of the political "middle" to the "right" (meaning fewer people to have a larger share of society's output) that started with the Thatcher/Reagan era and led to right wing moderates like Clinton and Blair being elected as representatives of the left seem to finally be challenged.
In the US Obama Care survived 2 presidential elections and a number of supreme court cases. The conservative elite in the US are terrified of the white working class understanding the benefits of government assisted healthcare - to the point where conservative states are deliberately denying their poor access to it by refusing federal funding for the program or better yet, by making it illegal to even inform people of their new options http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/florida-bans-obamacare-navigators_n_3913979.html . Because the day when the american white working class sees the benefits of "socialism" is the day when the conservative power base vaporizes over night.
And to add salt to that wound there is now a self described social democrat making actual noise in the dem primaries.
Meanwhile in the UK Millibrand may have lost, but labour didnt go back to a right wing moderate, they went further left and found an intellectual leftist radical.
I really do believe the winds are changing, and another Clinton victory wont mean a reversal, only a slowdown.

On October 16 2015 10:00 mahrgell wrote:


It should be noted, that police officers in most of those countries do not have to assume Random Joe carrying a weapon within reach. In Germany a cop just pulling his weapon is already causing an internal investigation. Not even talking about pointing it at someone or using it.
But I can understand that this is certainly not feasible in the US for reason of self protection.
And thus the US officer has to guard himself against much worse than his european counterpart when approaching someone. And this sets the tone for the following scene.


Surely, most citizen getting in contact with the police would prefer them to use a European "style". But sadly I'm quite sure, that those officers would not last 10 years before getting shot to the face.

On October 16 2015 10:00 mahrgell wrote:
It should be noted, that police officers in most of those countries do not have to assume Random Joe carrying a weapon within reach. In Germany a cop just pulling his weapon is already causing an internal investigation. Not even talking about pointing it at someone or using it.

On October 16 2015 10:05 notesfromunderground wrote:


A couple of points:

1) a Clinton victory is worse than a republican victory as it means we have to wait 8 more years to nominate another democrat rather than 4.

2) Obamacare is a terrible law and is pretty much worse than nothing at all since it can be presented as a "fix". I think it might not be possible to design a worse healthcare reform than this one

but I do agree.. the times they are a changin'

On October 16 2015 10:00 mahrgell wrote:


It should be noted, that police officers in most of those countries do not have to assume Random Joe carrying a weapon within reach. In Germany a cop just pulling his weapon is already causing an internal investigation. Not even talking about pointing it at someone or using it.
But I can understand that this is certainly not feasible in the US for reasons of self protection.
And thus the US officer has to guard himself against much worse than his european counterpart when approaching someone. And this sets the tone for the following scene.


Surely, most citizen getting in contact with the police would prefer them to use an European "style". But sadly I'm quite sure, that those officers would not last 10 years before getting shot to the face.

On October 16 2015 10:15 notesfromunderground wrote:
The idea that Obamacare is all that's standing in the way of huge numbers of people falling over dead in the street is hyperbolic and silly. It's a sweetheart deal for the Big Pharma, end of story.

The federal government issued a report (PDF) on Thursday urging families and therapists to abandon the use of “conversion therapy,” or attempting to change sexual orientation or gender identity, on youths.

The government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) said it created the report to help parents and mental health practitioners decide how to best help adolescents who discover that they may be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

The authors, who are psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers from SAMHSA and the American Psychological Association said there is no credible evidence that “conversion therapy” has any effectiveness in changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The practice has been promoted by some religious groups but is widely panned as harmful by medical and psychological groups, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Conversion therapy perpetuates outdated views of gender roles and identities as well as the negative stereotype that being a sexual or gender minority or identifying as LGBTQ is an abnormal aspect of human development,” the authors wrote in the report released Thursday. “Most importantly, it may put young people at risk of serious harm.”

The report said LGBT youths face increased risk of depression, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts and victimization from their peers when they are not accepted or supported by their families and communities. Any therapy or treatment that attempts to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity may contribute to those risks, the report added.

Instead, children do best when their sexualities and identities are affirmed. “Supportive families, peers and school and community environments are associated with improved psychosocial outcomes for sexual minority youth,” the report said.

On October 16 2015 10:19 KwarK wrote:

Those deaths are not the ones that make the news though. The ones that make the news are the ones where two assholes get into a dick measuring competition and then one of them executes the other and is excused because he did it on behalf of the state. And then the American public cries "he shouldn't have been an asshole to a cop, he deserved death".

You should be able to read a situation pretty early on and work out if it's going to go smoothly or if you're going to need to reach into the toolbox. Ignoring the situation, losing all control over it and then resorting to deadly force isn't justifiable.

On October 16 2015 10:22 Gorsameth wrote:

is it? You said no healthcare system at all is better then Obamacare.
That means the ER is somewhat bound to help you if your going to die in the next few minutes but that's all they will do. And when they do you end up paying for it a whole hell of a lot more then you do now because someone has to pay for it when the government helps.
Brake a limb and your life is pretty much over because you cant afford to get it fixed and you cant work anymore.
And lets not even talk about surgery for any of a million things that could happen entirely outside your own ability to influence. Your not paying for a medical bill in the tens of thousands on your own.
And ofc that's ignoring the ability of whatever private insurance you get to dump you the moment you actually need to pay for something like they could do before the ACA.

Complain about hyperbole all your want, your statement is utterly ignorant of what would happen if you really didn't have health insurance as a nation.

Edit: Protection racket? Have you listened to yourself?
If you don't understand the basic principles of shared burden then don't even begin to discuss the subject.

A US tank has forced its way into the shell of the Afghanistan hospital destroyed in an airstrike 11 days ago, prompting warnings that the US military may have destroyed evidence in a potential war crimes investigation.

The 3 October attack on the Médécins sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz killed 10 patients and 12 staff members of the group.

In a statement on Thursday, the medical charity, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said they were informed after Thursday’s “intrusion” that the tank was carrying investigators from a US-Nato-Afghan team which is investigating the attack.

“Their unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear,” MSF said.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported intrusion, which came as new evidence emerged that US forces operating in the area at the time of the attack knew that the facility was a hospital.

US special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on the hospital days before the attack, because they believed a Pakistani operative was using it as his base, according to areport by the Associated Press citing an unnamed former intelligence official.

The analysts had mapped the area and drawn a circle around the hospital, the official was quoted as saying. The Pakistani man, described both as a Taliban suspect and as a worker for the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence directorate, was killed in the attack, the official told the AP.

On October 16 2015 10:05 notesfromunderground wrote:


A couple of points:

1) a Clinton victory is worse than a republican victory as it means we have to wait 8 more years to nominate another democrat rather than 4.

2) Obamacare is a terrible law and is pretty much worse than nothing at all since it can be presented as a "fix". I think it might not be possible to design a worse healthcare reform than this one

but I do agree.. the times they are a changin'

On October 16 2015 09:40 Gorsameth wrote:
American police does not have some of the basic training police have in other area's of the world.
Things like de-escalation tactics, situational awareness and how to act to minimize risk to both yourself and others.

As an Englishman you (Kwark) know how police can and should act in a way that is safe for everyone involved, the problem is Americans have no idea there is even another way. They have never seen it and all they know is the 'wrong' way.

On October 16 2015 11:00 saocyn wrote:


are you seriously implying that that our police force are not as competent as the ones in Netherlands? LOL
i honestly don't want to crucify the stupidity of the comment you just made, but before you speak about another country's competence, you might want to try becoming a cop in america and live in the ghetto neighborhoods.

On October 16 2015 11:15 KwarK wrote:

I'm gonna go with yes. The American police force has normalized a level of violence and abuse towards the American public that would be unacceptable in any other nation. They've become just one gang among many with next to no accountability from a public who spend half the time cheering the violence on as if it's a movie.

We also have some of the lowest standards (particularly around education) of most first world countries for police.

- sad to say but if you're a white cop? and you actually are innocent? you're going to get scrutinized even for 1 mistake.

On October 16 2015 11:30 m4ini wrote:


There's no such thing as being innocent after making a mistake. Just saying.

On October 16 2015 11:30 m4ini wrote:


What are the job requirements as a cop? Anyone?

edit:



There's no such thing as being innocent after making a mistake. Just saying.

On October 16 2015 11:30 m4ini wrote:


What are the job requirements as a cop? Anyone?

edit:



There's no such thing as being innocent after making a mistake. Just saying.