US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2778

On January 22 2016 15:12 GreenHorizons wrote:


Source

Day late and a dollar short, but better late than never.

On January 22 2016 12:25 xDaunt wrote:

Yep, just like how none of them is white or Christian, or knows what to do with the business end of his manhood.

On January 22 2016 13:14 Souma wrote:
Scapegoated?

Get Snyder out of theeeeeeeeere.

Hillary Clinton left her audience cold in Iowa City on Thursday night, after she spoke for less than five minutes to a crowd of more than a thousand people, some of whom had lined up for more than an hour to see her.

After a day marred by a new poll showing Bernie Sanders leading her by eight points in Iowa, Clinton might have been expected to go for broke during a rally at the University of Iowa, which featured a performance by popstar Demi Lovato.

But Clinton did not refer to the Vermont senator, or much else, in her speech. The lack of length and substance of her address appeared to upset some in the crowd.

“It was like a political commercial,” said Allison Steigerwald, a 24-year-old graduate student at the university. “I thought she was saying goodbye to Demi and then she’d start her speech. But it never happened.”

“It was very short,” said Jennifer Marks, 22. “There were a lot of statements. Like: ‘We are we going to make things happen.’” Marks said. “No actual how.”

“I just feel bad for the people who got here at five,” she said.

Clinton made no mention of Sanders, or the CNN/ORC poll released on Thursday which showed the Vermont senator leading her by 51% to 43% in Iowa.

A bill introduced Thursday in the New Hampshire state assembly seeks to add post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the list of ailments eligible for medical marijuana treatment, which was legalized in 2013 but remains hard to obtain in the Granite state.

The proposed legislation comes as New Hampshire grapples with an opioid and heroin addiction and overdose crisis. Medical marijuana advocates argue that better access to cannabis would offer an alternative means of pain relief to people now using painkillers or heroin. In 2015 the state’s medical examiner attributed 385 deaths to opiates, almost double the 192 fatalities in 2013, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

Also, adding PTSD to the list of illnesses approved for cannabis treatment could provide another option to people who’ve found no relief with standard anti-anxiety or antidepressant medication, advocates say.

A University of New Hampshire poll last year found strong backing for the legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana, with support levels growing each year.

Joe Lachance, a Republican state assemblyman who co-sponsored the PTSD measure, is one of the 62 medical marijuana cardholders in the state of 1.6 million people. A military veteran and former police officer, Lachance said he suffers from chronic pain and PTSD, ailments only marijuana has helped ease. He also said marijuana helped him kick an opiate habit.

“I can tell you, yes, it does work,” Lachance told Al Jazeera. “We have an opioid overdose crisis, and by allowing legal access to cannabis we could reduce overdose rates by 30 percent,” he added. “You don’t get addicted to marijuana. But you get addicted to opioids physically.”

Opioid painkillers including hydrocodone and oxycodone are all legal for prescription in New Hampshire, but widespread dependence on them led the state’s medical board last November to restrict how much doctors can prescribe. Lachance said this move prompted some painkiller addicts to turn to heroin.

Vets Are Furious Sarah Palin Blamed Her Son’s Domestic Violence On PTSD

n the night of Jan. 18, Sarah Palin’s 26-year-old son, Track, returned to his home in Wasilla, Alaska. Drunk, he allegedly beat his girlfriend, held an AR-15 to his head and threatened to kill himself, according to a police report on the incident. Two days later, his mother, stumping on behalf of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, made political fodder out of her son’s actions.

...

The “damaged vet” trope has a tendency to rob veterans of their identity, said David Chasteen, a co-founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The stigma associated with PTSD can make it more difficult to find employment and seek necessary treatment, said Chasteen, who nonetheless gave Palin’s comments the benefit of doubt: “It’s easy to see Palin as a caricature, but she is also a military mom,” Chasteen said. “She’s clearly hurting. It’s hard for her to go through this.”

Others were less generous. “Here we have Sarah Palin yakking about PTSD, and she’s talking about it in a context that is extraordinarily harmful,” said Brandon Friedman, head of the public affairs firm The McPherson Square Group, a veteran of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and author of the memoir The War I Always Wanted. “She’s basically saying, ‘Of course my son beats his girlfriend, because he has PTSD like all the veterans.’”

On January 22 2016 15:12 GreenHorizons wrote:


Source

Day late and a dollar short, but better late than never.

@Ticklish: He literally said



Then people wonder why people make big deals out of history books doing things like calling slaves "immigrants" and getting rid of the phrase "slave trade" or GW's birthday cake...

It's because they produce more people thinking ignorant things like slaves were paid or that the government didn't use them.

Then we have to explain basic facts that should be common knowledge before we can even agree that there's a problem with what people think they know

I wish I could say such ignorance was a failing of the educational system, but every news story about white washing history reminds me that it's actually a feature.

People shouldn't feel guilty about slavery, they should feel guilty about refusing to do anything to correct it's legacy.

Generally speaking, slaves enjoyed few material benefits beyond crude lodgings, basic foods and cotton clothing. Still, some plantation slaves were able to earn small amounts of cash by telling fortunes or playing the fiddle at dances. Others sold poultry, meats and liquor or peddled handicrafts. In some cases, slaves could earn money from their master if they performed tasks with particular skill.

The masters, for their part, saw small cash incentives as a way to encourage productive work habits. In the towns, cities and manufacturing areas of the Upper South, slaves were able to earn money thanks to another way to manage labour: the hiring-out system. Contracts differed in terms of food, conditions and treatment, but most slaves hired out to work for others could expect to earn wages for working beyond what was considered a working day. In the tobacco factories of Richmond, Virginia, for example, they would complete their daily quota of work and receive ‘bonus pay’ for anything after that.

Some were also allowed to hire themselves out. Brokering their own deals, they paid their masters a monthly fee and kept anything they earned above the amount. Wages varied across time and place but self-hire slaves could command between $100 a year (for unskilled labour in the early 19th century) to as much as $500 (for skilled work in the Lower South in the late 1850s). Skilled cabinetmakers and joiners could sometimes earn as much as white workers; a select few could even afford to buy themselves out of bondage.

On January 22 2016 15:30 IgnE wrote:


Trump knows what to do with a dick.

On January 22 2016 23:19 Plansix wrote:
Deathstar, I really don’t see your argument? Like what is the point you are trying to make? Because every post you make on this subject comes off as a slaver apologist saying “it wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be.”

I don’t know if it is a miscommunication or that is the argument you are trying to make.

On January 22 2016 23:43 Deathstar wrote:


Look at GH's posts against me. He is obsessed over a sentence I made on another point. If you're going to say I'm wrong then have the proper evidence.

Think about for a moment how distorted your perception of slavery has to be that you actually thought that slaves got paid to do work, and you managed to make a post about it without it ever triggering in your brain that slaves are slaves in part because they don't get paid (among other things).

On January 23 2016 00:03 ragz_gt wrote:


I don't agree with a lot of GH's post, but you try to use the fact that some slave owners are not completely evil arseholes as somehow a mitigation factor is pretty insulting to everyone's intelligence.

On January 22 2016 19:17 zeo wrote:

I don't know why anyone would blame Snyder for this. The city had a democrat mayor and an all democrat council that bankrupted the city with 'programs' over the course of a decade while at the same time spiking taxes. They appointed a democrat emergency manager to fix things. Democrat mayor and council severed ties with the water company and cuts large costs by getting water from a river.... They blame the republican governor for the consequences?

edit: It's like Democrat and Republican voters are physically incapable of blaming their elected leaders for anything. How did these incompetent people even get voted into office? It's like their voters will always vote democrat because if they didnt they would lose their only defining character trait. It's not the end of the world if you actually look who you're voting for, this is also a huge problem in my country. People don't even look who they are voting for in local elections, just what party they come from.

edit2: I would say both parties are wrong here, but with stories like these people just jump to the conclusion who the bad guy is depending on what party they are affiliated with.

On January 22 2016 23:28 ragz_gt wrote:
I have to say I find that Reps are aiding Trump because they absolutely hate Cruz is funniest thing in this primary so far (and by god there are a lot of funny things).