US Politics Mega-thread - Page 9617

On January 02 2018 04:24 thePunGun wrote:

The sad thing is that neither conservatives nor liberals are smart enough to see through the bullshit that is US politics nowadays. I guess that's what living in an echo chamber does to you...
To me it seems the only goal of the US government is to destroy the middle class and keep the poor and uneducated divided so the rich can remain in charge until this whole system collapses.
Because no economy can survive without a middle class and with net neutrality gone I fear for the worst to be honest.
Now the media will feed their propaganda unchallenged by small independent news outlets.
The only thing, that will remain of the free voice of the internet will be to quote Simon and Garfunkle: the sound of silence....

The arrival of the new year in California brought with it broad legalization of marijuana, a much-anticipated change that comes two decades after the state was the first to allow pot for medical use.

The US’s most populous state joins a growing list of other states, and the nation’s capital, where so-called recreational marijuana is permitted even though the federal government continues to classify pot as a controlled substance, like heroin and LSD.

Pot is now legal in California for adults 21 and older, and individuals can grow up to six plants and possess as much as an ounce of the drug.

But finding a retail outlet to buy non-medical pot in California won’t be easy, at least initially. Only about 90 businesses received state licenses to open on New Year’s Day. They are concentrated in San Diego, Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Palm Springs area.

Los Angeles and San Francisco are among the many cities where recreational pot will not be available right away because local regulations were not approved in time to start issuing city licenses needed to get state permits. Meanwhile, Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside are among the communities that have adopted laws forbidding recreational marijuana sales.

Just after midnight, some Californians were raising blunts instead of champagne glasses.

Johnny Hernandez, a tattoo artist from Modesto, celebrated New Year’s Eve by smoking “Happy New Year blunts” with his cousins.

“This is something we’ve all been waiting for,” he said. “It is something that can help so many people and there’s no reason why we should not be sharing that.”

Hernandez said he hoped the legalization of recreational marijuana would help alleviate the remaining stigma some still believe surrounds marijuana use.

“People might actually realize weed isn’t bad. It helps a lot of people,” he said.

For those who worked for this day, the shift also offered joyful relief.

“We’re thrilled,” said Khalil Moutawakkil, founder of KindPeoples, which grows and sells weed in Santa Cruz. “We can talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of the specific regulations, but at the end of the day it’s a giant step forward, and we’ll have to work out the kinks as we go.”

The state banned “loco-weed” in 1913, according to a history by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the pot advocacy group known as NORML. The first attempt to undo that by voter initiative in 1972 failed, but three years later felony possession of less than an ounce was downgraded to a misdemeanor.

In 1996, over the objections of law enforcement, President Clinton’s drug tsar and three former presidents, California voters approved marijuana for medicinal purposes. Twenty years later, voters approved legal recreational use and gave the state a year to write regulations for a legal market that would open in 2018.

Today, 29 states have adopted medical marijuana laws. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana. Since then, five more states have passed recreational marijuana laws, including Massachusetts, where retail sales are scheduled to begin in July.

Even with other states as models, the next year is expected to be a bumpy one in California as more shops open and more stringent regulations take effect on the strains known as Sweet Skunk, Trainwreck and Russian Assassin.

The California Police Chiefs Association, which opposed the 2016 ballot measure, remains concerned about stoned drivers, the risk to young people and the cost of policing the new rules in addition to an existing black market.

“There’s going to be a public health cost and a public safety cost enforcing these new laws and regulations,” said Jonathan Feldman, a legislative advocate for the chiefs. “It remains to be seen if this can balance itself out.”

At first, pot shops will be able to sell marijuana harvested without full regulatory controls. But eventually, the state will require extensive testing for potency, pesticides and other contaminants. A program to track all pot from seed to sale will be phased in, along with other protections such as childproof containers.

On January 02 2018 06:29 Gahlo wrote:

That ship has already sailed. American internet is slow and expensive.

On January 02 2018 06:39 thePunGun wrote:
I guess my prognosis for 2018 was a tad pessimistic or even nihilistic, but I strongly believe that the current situation won't get better any time soon. It's not all down hill from here but it's better to be prepared than disappointed

On January 02 2018 06:45 mozoku wrote:

Good Lord, I would love to know how you arrived at this conclusion.

On January 02 2018 09:04 Excludos wrote:


Right now? I'd say: "The news", "any reasonable political article made the previous year", or "literally having eyes".

On January 02 2018 09:33 mozoku wrote:

So the ~20 year decline of the middle class is the result of Trump's tax plan that went into effect today?

I'm questioning how the eroding middle class is the result of any uniquely US government policy.

On January 02 2018 12:26 Nebuchad wrote:


He obviously doesn't think it's just Trump.

On January 02 2018 13:15 mozoku wrote:

I didn't limit the pool of potential responses to Trump either. I only brought up Trump because Excludos was referring to the present.

I'd like to hear how he thinks there's any unique US government policies that are responsible for the erosion (bifurcation really) of the middle class.

But he went even farther than that and called it the goal of the US government. That's gotta be some argument.

President Donald Trump appeared to know little, if anything, about international trade deals during an exchange with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in March this year. White House officials reportedly characterized the talk as “humiliating.”

The Republican Trump asked Merkel about creating a new, bilateral trade deal between Germany and the U.S., even though, as a member of the European Union, Germany cannot strike such a deal without the other 27 members of the union, according to The New York Times.

Merkel was afraid to fully correct Trump since White House aides told German officials the four-term chancellor had been condescending to Trump during one of their first phone calls.

Instead, Merkel eased into an explanation that an agreement could be reached in concert with the EU.

“So it could be bilateral?” Trump asked Merkel, who nodded, according to those in the meeting. Trump responded: “That’s great.”

Trump then turned to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and said: “Wilbur, we’ll negotiate a bilateral trade deal with Europe.”

German officials were reportedly relieved that no incident occurred, but White House officials told The Times they saw the exchange as “humiliating.”

Before they sat down, Trump claimed not to have heard photographers’ requests for he and Merkel to shake hands, a terse moment captured on video that later was used as an example of Trump’s attitude toward dealing with Europe altogether.

Three months later at a campaign rally, Merkel was candid about Europeans needing to rely on one another rather than other allies.

“We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands—naturally in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain, as good neighbors with whoever, also with Russia and other countries,” she said.

Merkel added: “But we have to know that we Europeans must fight for our own future and destiny.”

Crying “America First,” Trump’s takes on foreign policy and his administration’s work abroad have received vast criticism throughout his first year in office. He challenged members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to pay their “fair share” of defense spending and routinely exchanged ominous threats of “fire” and war with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un–going so far as to call the leader “rocket man” at the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump also pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate accord meant to combat global warming. Most recently, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital–much to the dismay of the rest of the Middle East.

On January 02 2018 13:42 mierin wrote:


It's not the direct goal of the government per se, but it is the goal of the lobbyists et al who have gotten us here. Democracy is a convenient scapegoat for the fact that the ones with money control everything, and as such steer everything toward making it even easier for those with money to stay on top and screw everyone else.

EDIT: This seems less of an argument than a statement like "2+2=4". It's so obvious I'm not sure how to respond if someone disagrees.

On January 02 2018 14:27 mozoku wrote:

Great. Since it's so ubiquitous, you or someone else should be able to easily provide me with a list of government policies that have eroded the middle class. Looking forward to seeing it.

On January 01 2018 19:26 iamthedave wrote:
While I understand Danglars is a controversial figure in this thread, I'm sort of baffled by the series of posts in the last few pages. Sure, maybe he follows an Australian shit heel journalist. So what? This seems the definition of shoot the messenger.

The protests in Iran, irrespective of the lady's intent, seem newsworthy and worth highlighting. It's a (rare) sign of positive change in the Middle East that will surely be good for all of us in the long run? Right?

As to the general topic right now; it's difficult to really parse our nations (UK and US in particular) history with actions in the MIddle East. For my own part I believe most actions were taken with good intent but ended horribly, and are mostly the result of us trying to influence the politics of a region whose politics we don't really understand because they're based on a kind of thinking we haven't employed over here... maybe ever. They are different folk over there, and while it's easy to criticise from the armchair, I can't imagine what those in power go through when an advisor comes to them with some issue from the Middle East and says 'Mr President/Prime Minister, we have to do something about this. What's the plan?'

Just hope one day we can learn from all the disasters and use the knowledge either to know when not to get involved, or to do the right thing if we do.