US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1957

On December 16 2019 05:12 BerserkSword wrote:


Which is why I said I don't know what their end game is. Or perhaps they won't impeach him for an action that benefits special interests? Only for actions that harm special interests (like withholding military aid is bad for military industrial interests)

This whole thing crumbled hard for democrats, at face value. Quid Pro Quo --> bribery and extortion --> "abuse of power"

This thing is going to go out with a whimper, and will probably cost dems seats in congress, perhaps the 2020 election

On December 17 2019 11:34 JimmiC wrote:


I don't think it is realistic to think it will happen soon, but I hope over time we will see that things like safe injection sites both admit we can't solve the problem through criminalizing and don't do enough because they keep all the money involved in drugs heading into the wrong way.

Legalizing and highly regulating creates a situation where we are saying "we understand the problem around drug addiction is that drug addiction is the symptom and we are going to use the money generated to actually deal with the causes".

Over time the hope is that no one wants to do heroine and those that do instead get the help they need, or always have it available to them.

Funny you say that. Your opinions on Drugs and Guns is far right of me. It does appear you like fake socialist dictators much much much more than me. But when it comes to actual policy you are maybe slightly left of center for the US.

Funny how when pressed to defend their hatred of capitalism, ostensible 'socialists' revel their right-wing conservative individualism from which their views emerge.

On December 16 2019 08:08 Fleetfeet wrote:


That's entirely unrealistic, though, and awful for a plethora of reasons.

On December 17 2019 12:09 JimmiC wrote:

Are your own words not clear enough to you?

Your positions are right of mine on how to deal with the drug program and guns. By your own logic that you just used, in a very insulting a disrespectful way, you are there for hiding right-wing conservative views . In fact you might actually be more of a authoritarian with a centrally planned economy than a true socialist.

On December 18 2019 00:27 JimmiC wrote:

I was not hoping to march away. I was hoping to show you that when you take a couple of a persons view's and then pain that entire person a certain way it is both unfair and frustrating. This is what you do people often, and you do it in a way that is disrespectful and condescending. The same way you holding views that are more right than me on drugs and guns does not make you a secret right wing person, the world is complicated place and we are all complicated people so can hold different views on different issues. It might frustrate you that your views are right of me on these issues but they are, that is just fact, deal with it.

So perhaps if you feel it is unfair when people do it to you, stop constantly doing it to other people. And please when we are having a good discussion on something don't heave in a "capitalism is the devil" and derail it. That would be much appreciated.

On May 25 2019 07:32 Plansix wrote:
True, he is far from perfect. Nor am I. But he isn’t an asshole about it. The problem with the thread is that people are being assholes, refusing to reign in their bullshit.

Edit: the complaining in this thread is what it has always been, people trying to get the posters they disagree with banned. Conservatives, liberals and leftist alike, everyone wants to see the the posters they dislike banned. Just own up to it and drop the faux concern about quality posting and logical errors.

On December 18 2019 00:27 JimmiC wrote:

I was not hoping to march away. I was hoping to show you that when you take a couple of a persons view's and then pain that entire person a certain way it is both unfair and frustrating. This is what you do people often, and you do it in a way that is disrespectful and condescending. The same way you holding views that are more right than me on drugs and guns does not make you a secret right wing person, the world is complicated place and we are all complicated people so can hold different views on different issues. It might frustrate you that your views are right of me on these issues but they are, that is just fact, deal with it.

So perhaps if you feel it is unfair when people do it to you, stop constantly doing it to other people. And please when we are having a good discussion on something don't heave in a "capitalism is the devil" and derail it. That would be much appreciated.

On May 25 2019 07:32 Plansix wrote:
True, he is far from perfect. Nor am I. But he isn’t an asshole about it. The problem with the thread is that people are being assholes, refusing to reign in their bullshit.

Edit: the complaining in this thread is what it has always been, people trying to get the posters they disagree with banned. Conservatives, liberals and leftist alike, everyone wants to see the the posters they dislike banned. Just own up to it and drop the faux concern about quality posting and logical errors.

What has not been learned from the 2008 crisis is that an economic crisis neither unites those most affected in favor of a progressive politics nor does it offer any political guarantees regarding the direction of social change. Instead, the emotions that fueled massive public anger toward elites and globalization gave rise to the celebration of populist demagogues and a right-wing tsunami of misdirected anger, hate and violence toward undocumented immigrants, refugees, Muslims and people of color.

The 2008 financial crisis wreaked havoc in multiple ways. Yet there was another crisis that received little attention: a crisis of agency. This crisis centered around matters of identity, self-determination and collective resistance, which were undermined in profound ways, giving rise to and legitimating the emergence of authoritarian populist movements in many parts of the world, such as United States, Hungary, Poland and Brazil.

At the heart of this shift was the declining belief in the legitimacy of both liberal democracy and its pledges about trickle-down wealth, economic security and broadening equal opportunities preached by the apostles of neoliberalism. In many ways, public faith in the welfare state, quality employment opportunities, institutional possibilities and a secure future for each generation collapsed. In part, this was a consequence of the post-war economic boom giving way to massive degrees of inequality, the off-shoring of wealth and power, the enactment of cruel austerity measures, an expanding regime of precarity, and a cut-throat economic and social environment in which individual interests and needs prevailed over any consideration of the common good. As liberalism aligned itself with corporate and political power, both the Democratic and Republican Parties embraced financial reforms that increased the wealth of the bankers and corporate elite while doing nothing to prevent people from losing their homes, being strapped with chronic debt, seeing their pensions disappear, and facing a future of uncertainty and no long-term prospects or guarantees.

In an age of economic anxiety, existential insecurity and a growing culture of fear, liberalism’s overheated emphasis on individual liberties “made human beings subordinate to the market, replacing social bonds with market relations and sanctifying greed,” as noted by Pankaj Mishra. In this instance, neoliberalism became an incubator for a growing authoritarian populism fed largely by economic inequality. The latter was the outcome of a growing cultural and political polarization that made “it possible for haters to come out from the margins, form larger groups and make political trouble.” This toxic polarization and surge of right-wing populism produced by casino capitalism was accentuated with the growth of fascist groups that shared a skepticism of international organizations, supported a militant right-wing nationalism, and championed a surge of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-democratic values.

This apocalyptic populism was rooted in a profound discontent for the empty promises of a neoliberal ideology that made capitalism and democracy synonymous, and markets the model for all social relations. In addition, the Democratic proponents of neoliberalism, such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, participated in the dismantling of the social contract, widening economic inequality, and burgeoning landscapes of joblessness, misery, anger and despair.

At the same time, they enacted policies that dismantled civic culture and undermined a wide range of democratic institutions that extended from the media to public goods such as public and higher education.

Such policies have produced massive inequities in wealth, power and income, while further accelerating mass misery, human suffering, the rise of state-sanctioned violence and ever-expanding sites of terminal exclusion in the forms of walls, detention centers and an expanding carceral state. An impending recession accentuates the antagonisms, instabilities and crisis produced by the long history and reach of neoliberal ideologies and policies.

A new economic slump would further fuel forces of repression and strengthen the forces of white supremacy, Islamophobia, nativism and misogyny. In the face of such reactionary forces, it is crucial to unite various progressive forces of opposition into a powerful anti-capitalist movement that speaks not only to the range of oppressions exacerbated by neoliberalism, but also to the need for new narratives that speak to overturning a system steeped in the machineries of war, militarization, repression and death.