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The General 'Murican Politics Thread


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21 hours ago, SenEDtor Missile said:

I suppose. 2016 has just been an exhausting year; everytime something positive comes along, stuff like Trump and the GOP drag it 100 steps back. The fact that the elections reveal so many people supporting the ideals of the GOP also makes me realize that for the 50% of America that embraces diversity and non-prejudicial behavior, there's at least nearly that many who despise my very existence for not being a white (I'm Asian), straight (sexuality I'm not sure of), and Christian (not religious) male and would love to embark on a crusade to destroy all progress just to send America back to the imaginary perfect world they want, all the while in reality being nothing more than pawns in the grand schemes of the white corporate elite who just trash the world without a care for short term profit.

More than 50%, technically. People who are against the GOP are the majority-- they're merely feeling demoralized or are actively being silenced. Though I will admit that my experiences have been largely in deep blue areas where racism, at least of the overt variety, is a great way to get fired from your job and be seen as blighted big time unless you've sufficiently cleaned up your act and proved it. A lot of what I'm hearing on the internet about disenfranchisement and intimidation campaigns backs what I'm saying though-- and the cult of white supremacy, sexism, etc., which many people are trapped in and want to escape but can't and thus feel like they have to pretend to agree with the herd, can't be denied as an influence.

Progress always has enemies-- there are always those who fear what they don't understand as well as those who fear being left behind. Yet, to paraphrase Galileo, it moves. Globalism and diversity is vital for a society to be able to succeed in modern times, and those racist isolationist white folk can't do a thing about that. They'll have to adapt or die, or otherwise be thrown out of power. Demographics shifts are happening across the US too-- anti-immigration people can only do so much to prolong the inevitable, and if you buy the argument that illegal immigrants become more numerous in a country with overly strict regulation due to the difficulty of leaving, some of the their regulation may actually hasten the demographic shift. Technology is moving forward too-- solar panels are rapidly becoming viable as the technology behind it is progressing to match the pricing and the standards set by natural gas. The world is moving forward socially too -- in the time of Andrew Jackson, nobody would have stood up for minorities but minorities and even they.were pretty much powerless. In the early 20th century, nobody would have stood up for women but women, and nobody stood up to the Japanese at all when they were being thrown into camps. The concept of being happy, successful, ethical and gay wouldn't have registered with a lot of people-- and people didn't even recognize that transsexuality exists. But that's changed. People are more likely to express support now than ever before. They're even getting there with the environment in spite of heavy propaganda-- baby steps of course, and we may be past the point where we can reverse climate change but we can at least make it suck less. I can't promise you that the next four or eight or more years are going to be fun or great, or that Trump and his cabinet of greed are going to aid progress (because mark my words, they won't), but I can promise you that what we've built isn't going down without a fight, and once a progressive leader gets in, we're apt to put back much of what was lost and push forward.

If we have to go into civil war to stop Trump and what he stands for, or if countries must ally to stop the US government, then that's the unfortunate reality of the situation. At least we tried to settle things peacefully so that any war that resulted would not be senseless, and the white supremacists will learn just why its a bad idea to mistaken kindness for weakness. Remember Germany, but also don't forget that we're in a better position now than Germany was post-WWI.

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Identity politics thing. So I was having a discussion with someone on a Facebook status, and he had, let's just say strong views regarding rights of certain people and what that entailed. And I just can't understand some of the things he brings up. A few of the points he's to me. This is regarding the rights of LGBT.

1. We've already achieved equal rights

2. It's not a moral question if same sex marriage is kept or not as marriage was foundationed on the idea of man x women

3. All other rights being argued and fought for aren't needed and are just to boost LGBT and progressives egos.

regarding the specific rights I bring up to him that are still proving that basic human rights are not achieved(economic inequality, work discrimination, general treatment towards minorities by many in society, and laws in many states limiting rights of LGBT) he argues that there's no actual issue with economic inequality and that the economy will never be equal, and that due to freedom of speech establishments and people can and should be able to discriminate as they wish and that it isn't a human right to be seen as equals by people. As for the laws bit, he essentially said "well that's your problem, sort it out" as if that somehow helped his point that it wasn't a human right to be treated equally by the law. I just cannot understand how this way of thinking continues to process in the minds of many.

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As it stands we should be able to. Almost every other major country, including China and Russia, are on board with curbing our emissions so we don't hit that 2+ degrees mark. Trump and the Republican congress can TRY to fight the world, but it's not likely to end well for them. Shit, they'll have to fight corporations too. Big oil might have Trump's ear but it's a futureless industry, anyone with a brain is already looking into making money off of alternative energy.

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I am kind of concerned of having the government run by billionaires. I am sure taxes on the homeless and poor might go up while rich get huge tax cuts. I only hope that Trump stays as antiestablishment candidate. Also Trump got very lucky since he ran against a very unpopular candidate. He was easily beatable but democrats showing how they love to shoot themselves in the foot blew it.

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On 12/28/2016 at 11:49 PM, SenEDtor Missile said:

I suppose. 2016 has just been an exhausting year; everytime something positive comes along, stuff like Trump and the GOP drag it 100 steps back. The fact that the elections reveal so many people supporting the ideals of the GOP also makes me realize that for the 50% of America that embraces diversity and non-prejudicial behavior, there's at least nearly that many who despise my very existence for not being a white (I'm Asian), straight (sexuality I'm not sure of), and Christian (not religious) male and would love to embark on a crusade to destroy all progress just to send America back to the imaginary perfect world they want, all the while in reality being nothing more than pawns in the grand schemes of the white corporate elite who just trash the world without a care for short term profit.

Man, don't let the electoral college vote fool you like that, the margin's much different than that going off of the actual popular vote.

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Yeah we can. For one, environment is largely based in personal choices and so there's things everybody can do regardless of what the government has to say-- reduction of water use is simple enough with measures like taking short showers instead of baths or long showers. Reducing food waste is good too-- economic depression might mean that you're buying less food than usual and scrouging what you can, but even if you're not forced to, you can eat smaller portions, make a serious effort to finish what food you buy, and look up ways to use the most possible of available foods to you. Using less electricity reduces the consumption of natural gas or coal/oil, and you might want to look into using alternative energies too-- solar power is becoming increasingly cheaper and more effective and seems to be the next big energy source, but wind power is also a common option if you have access to windmill power generators, and geothermal power, though much more limited than the last two options, is making its way up there too. Plus Trump and his cronies don't have much stake in alternative energy, so you get the bonus of impeding on at least some of their conflicts of interest. You should also be on the lookout for bad advice-- for example, vegetarianism/veganism will not reduce anybody's environmental impact in any significant way, yet its commonly touted by vegans and vegetarians as doing just that. Its not uncommon for companies like Whole Foods to lie about or exaggerate their environmental aid either. Practice due diligence and do not let them get away with harmful lies.

In other news, I must commend WaPo for not being afraid to challenge Trump. Plus its not doing that stupid "if its not rock solid proven to be a lie, don't call out a falsehood" thing that Wall Street Journal is currently planning on doing (Protip: Intentional or not, a falsehood is still a falsehood and there's no excuse not to treat it as such). Unfortunately, I worry that other MSM journalists, with their hands in the pockets of corporations that Trump holds much influence over, will not be so strong or willing to learn. That in turn leaves WaPo more open to attack and smear campaigns-- not that a Trump supporter would read WaPo anyway. We should find alternative, more reliable sources of info and support them ASAP, because I have a feeling the MSM will fail us until their corporations give them reason not to (which would be never under Trump). This is the article that made me think of that btw: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/02/yes-donald-trump-lies-a-lot-and-news-organizations-should-say-so/?utm_term=.57f28d1396ca#comments

Another good article from WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-year-to-protect-democracy/2017/01/01/ec384014-ce98-11e6-a87f-b917067331bb_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.af91a9dd8bfe The fight against extremism will be largely centered around this year. I think a lot of turning points will be hit-- and while I hope they'll be turning towards good, the truth is we'll have to face the consequences of what 2016 wrought upon us, and that will likely include a few turns for the worse. I fully expect Trump to try something big the moment he gets into power, and for this to be the year that he and his extremist supporters test the limits of their newfound power. Limit them as much as possible.

For that, vigilance is key, but so is something that the far right crippingly lacks in high quantities-- creativity and the motivation to refine and expand on tactics that work instead of just using them in the same way again and again. For an example of this, I found some creative uses of Twitter bots. We have a Twitter robot called @ImposterBuster that outs white supremacist accounts pretending to be a race they're not to mock those races and lend themselves false credibility to non-savvy social media users. It works by having the good journalists over at Tablet collect and update a list of fake accounts reported to it by savvy users, then having the bot make a short post explaining that the account is phony after every post and reply the fake account makes. This is a clear expansion on the common alt right tactic of sending in bots to spam up feeds critical to Trump with propaganda, but its done ethically (it is not programmed to spam hashtags or fake accounts with messages or force an ideology on people, just expose fraudulent accounts), updated frequently, and is so far pretty effective in pressuring Nazis to give up the facade and delete the account or revert to expressing their true selves (which are still capable of harassment and abuse but are more overt about the racism and thus easier to fight and much harder to be fooled by). Similar bots are @arguetron and @good_opinions, who will spew random progressive arguments designed specifically to attract alt righters looking to battle on their page then autoreply with yet another random progressive argument to whoever takes the bait-- some have been sucked into debates that last for literal hours, time wasted on a robot that could have been spent harassing or having a non-productive conversation with a real person. And there's yet another bot that posts quotes from notorious Italian dictator Benito Mussolini but attributes them to Donald Trump that managed to trick Trump himself into retweeting one of them as his own-- bringing to light both Trump's tendency to steal the credit to what he perceives as others' good deeds and thoughts as well as his similarities in ideology to dictators. More stuff like that, plus any creative solutions anybody else can come up with, should be encouraged and done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/arts/on-twitter-a-battle-among-political-bots.html?_r=1

 

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Also, yikes! We didn't have to wait very long for the GOP to try to test the limits of its newfound power! Behind closed doors, it approved a plan this weekend to gut the ethics committee for the House of Representatives and replace it with one that doesn't even have ethics in its name and had been criticized before for being soft on actually doing its job of enforcing ethical behavior. We only found out about it today, and this is in spite of Paul Ryan's, media watchdogs, and other top leaders' opposition to the move. The official voting is on Tuesday, and I don't think there's anything stopping Obama from vetoing the measure, but that sets a very scary precedent, especially since Trump is not apt to veto a measure like that (and may even want to gut the replacement as well).

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/politics/with-no-warning-house-republicans-vote-to-hobble-independent-ethics-office.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0&referer=http://m.facebook.com

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9 hours ago, TailsTellsTales said:

He was easily beatable but democrats showing how they love to shoot themselves in the foot blew it.

Clinton won by nearly 3 million votes, but Trump scraped a razor's-edge lead in several counties in three states, handing him the most technical of wins. They hardly blew it - indeed, Trump's record unpopularity as an incoming president puts him at a desperate disadvantage in both 2018 and 2020. He'll have to pull an economic miracle of Chinese proportions out of the bag to stand in good stead later on - and given the fine state of unemployment and the economy, as well as factors like globalization and automation, that will be very hard to do.

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And our fears are coming to reality. Paul Ryan confirms the defunding of planned parenthood. Fuck the republicans. Hard. 

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2018 can't get here soon enough, though even if the Democrats can sweep the 24 seats they might pick up in Congress, and get 2 seats in the Senate while miraculously avoiding losing anything, they'll still be the minority in both houses. But there'll be a slender gap between the two parties in each house - less than 10 seats in either one, IIRC, which should make it difficult for the Republicans to ride roughshod over what little will remain of Obama's legacy in 18 months' time.

The Democrats need to be continually banging the war drums, run almost campaign-style ad blitzes and get really prolific on all the talk shows (political and not) and news programs to raise awareness of the injustices these people will soon be inflicting upon the American people.

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It's no surprise really when you think about it since that ethics policy shit was only a few days ago. Not to mention everyone was pretty much predicting that this would be one of their first targets. Go figure that on top of that, they do one of the most unethical things a few days later and strip women of opportunities that can help them.

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Should we expect the legalizing of rape as a means of "putting women in their proper places", the legalization of killing anyone who isn't white/forcing anyone who isn't white into slave labor with all of them forced to say "yes suh!" to their white masters as "protecting the oppressed white man", the legalization of killing liberals as "protecting true Americans from un-American thoughts", the requirement for the Church to be the only true religion and all other religions banned for the sake of "purifying the land of unholy faiths", and the eradication of the Constitution in favor of the Republican Empire as "Democracy is for the weak"?

I can keep doing this; I have no faith in the Republican Regime to do anything except destroy democracy itself in the name of short-sighted egomania and hatred of anything that isn't their 1950's white guy America fantasyland.

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No, they don't. I recall some reports saying that such a project would be in the billions--even if they did have the money for it, it would be a massive waste to use in on a wall of all things.

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16 minutes ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

No, they don't. I recall some reports saying that such a project would be in the billions--even if they did have the money for it, it would be a massive waste to use in on a wall of all things.

No problem! Trump will just increase the taxes on the average citizen by 1000%, and if they can't pay, they will be put into slav- I mean work without pay on the wall while the elite whips them to "encourage" worker obedience! This will surely work and not backfire in anyway shape or form and is totally not a way to put those damn minorities in their proper place beneath their white masters :D!

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4 hours ago, CD Sanic said:

Is it possible for us to refuse paying the taxes to build this?

Only if you're rich.

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2 hours ago, Nepenthe said:

Only if you're rich.

So in other words, We're all are going to be forced into aiding this racist agenda of building this wall. Is their anyway to fight against this.

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I am going to civil war so hard if all our worst fears for the Trump administration are realized, and cannot be quickly undone when (if?) the Democrats whittle those Republican majorities down in 2018, and obliterate both in 2020... if I can get my citizenship in 2018.

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This is kinda creepy how clearly republicans are the bad guys. Like, I don't see how they're doing some of these things with everyone but themselves in mind

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I'm just waiting to see when and if more of those who voted Trump realize they dun fucked themselves and how many are going to take their arrogant pride to the grave.

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