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jackyl posted:I'm curious: you have like 50 posts in this thread. Would you say your posts or your vote is more important to picking teh next president of the US? Probably my posts, though in actuality they are both equally worthless. TEAYCHES posted:What are your political beliefs, in summary? Please don't reply with anything ironic. The question hanging over all of that of course is taxes and spending. Spending decreases could be possible I guess, though they aren't very likely politically speaking (especially the reigning in of military spending that desperately needs to occur.) But what we really need are tax increases- which are even more unlikely.
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Feb 20, 2015 02:45
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fade5 posted:Say hi to my representative, Joaquin Castro: that is a celestial, not a mexican
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Feb 20, 2015 02:51
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Business Gorillas posted:If Cruz somehow wins the nomination, I'm going to start referring to him as Rafael E. Cruz. It is his name, after all. When I worked for state elections we would get calls from citizens who were livid that Voting Registration forms were offered in Spanish
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Feb 20, 2015 03:18
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ComradeCosmobot posted:So in somewhat relevant news, Wisconsin's government is doing so badly they're going to skip a debt payment. You never miss a debt servicing obligation. Like, debt dont mean poo poo so long as you dont miss a debt servicing obligation. I think we should learn from the Germans and prepare for a Wiscexit.
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Feb 20, 2015 03:26
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Cliff Racer posted:Conservative Democrat. On personal issues I'm more of the type that would want to be left alone. So a lot of social issues stuff would have me as a libertarian but then there would be things like wanting to require opt-ins from users before websites could sell userbase data, or wanting a strong public education system (that you could then opt out of for homeschooling or private ed. if you wanted to) that would place me more towards the positions of a more left-wing style government that gets involved in issues. Economically, unlike a lot of "conservative Democrats" I actually like government, I grew up in a "government town" and see all of the good things that it does for the whole of society. But thats the whole thing, do the things the government does or wants to do benefit us enough to make up for their costs? Often times the answer is no. I tend to place foreign policy (including the trade aspects of economic policy) as a third dimension on the political chart- separate from the traditional social and economic axises. I'm for more involvement in world affairs- provided that it is done in a fiscally sensible way (no more Iraq-esque boondoggles.) I'd love to see a return to economic hardball in the form of tariffs and restrictions on goods and businesses that receive undue support from their home countries. what do you think about NSA oversight, privacy rights, and the drone wars in syria, pakistan, and yemen? whats the place for US imperial power and what does imperial power mean - is imperialism even a legitimate descriptor of united states attempt at hegemony, or a good description of how the united states intervenes? how would you define it?
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Feb 20, 2015 03:26
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Blue Raider posted:that is a celestial, not a mexican Are you Al Swearingen or something?
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Feb 20, 2015 04:32
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TEAYCHES posted:what do you think about NSA oversight, privacy rights, and the drone wars in syria, pakistan, and yemen? I don't really care about NSA oversight too much, as long as its done properly, legally and personal information is never leaked or sold to the public. I find a lot of the whining about it (things like the guy in Virginia who sees me naked at the airport or whatever) to be annoying and reactionary. I wish more was done to legitimately protect privacy but a lot of this anti-NSA stuff feels like whines from the usual suspects. Oh and hey thats the next question. So privacy rights, I don't really want government peering into my private life, particularly without a warrant, but know that its a necessary part of this modern world. I feel that we have much more to fear from corporate and personal (so ex-boyfriends, rear end in a top hat neighbors, etc.) invasions of privacy than from government ones because in general the government has proven better about keeping that information out of the public sphere. Think of it like this, I'd be okay with the entirety of some alien species on the other side of the galaxy seeing my dong but would hate for my neighbors to. The aliens seeing it would have no effect on my life, neighbors seeing it would. Unfortunately with the rise of online communications (so both social media and things like your employer, stores you shop at, schools you went to etc. storing your information in a place accessible from online) the only way, it would seem, to protect privacy in either sense would be to enact legislation that mandates tougher security standards or an opt-in system. Neither seems likely now and thats probably not going to change any time soon in this country. I actually majored in SRA and care a lot about the issue of data security. Unfortunately it seems that no-one else does so welp. I like the drone wars because they are cheap, which I've really hammered my love of last post, and do not have the lingering after-costs that something like an occupation would. A lot of people on the left hate them because of things like being unable to avoid the occasional mis-targetting but the truth is that they would hate special forces ground strikes in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and those scattered other places even more so. Drone strikes aren't the answer to solving the problem of global Islamic terrorism but they are a way to lessen its effect on America. The actual answer, of course, would be getting Arab governments to stop being corrupt shitholes which take their peoples' countries' wealth and give most of them back nothing in return. Then as standards of living improve, secular (so things like math and science, even if it takes place in a religious setting) education gets better, young people have more faith in their national government than in their religious or tribal leaders and other such social issues improve the problem should just wrap itself up. Of course... that would be a very expensive problem to fix, would take more than a generation to be fixed and might well get derailed into something even worse than the current situation. There's no way to do it so the strikes are the best current alternative. Imperial power? All nations try to project their interests in foreign affairs, even so-called neutral ones. Imperial power, I suppose, comes when a nation has enough strength that it can use threats of military force when pushing those interests. I don't find it to be a bad thing, or a good thing, its just a tool that can be used well or misused. People who tend to use that term a lot tend to hate any use of it, regardless of merit. Those who would go "How dare you call the US an empire, blah blah blah go where eagles dare," tend to just be blandly in favor of whatever stupid bullshit the government wants at the time. Like I said, I like to see the US involved in foreign affairs and pursuing its interests. I just wish that "its interests" were actually its interests more often than they really are. I'm sick to death of the constant Iran talk, I hate seeing the official list of state sponsors of terrorism's continued divergence from reality and would like to see much better use of American power at the UN both in vetoing less of the Israel stuff and refusing to water down our resolutions- even if they result in Chinese/Russian vetoes. I'd also like to see the US come out much more strongly in favor of strong universal regulations against tax havens and tax dodgers, corrupt businessmen and foreign government officials, environmental/human catastrophes caused by deliberate negligence, destruction of cultural artifacts, flags of convenience, allies who sponsor criminal gangs or dissident re-education centers and other sorts of transnational crimes committed by individuals and corporations. A lot of those things probably sound like they are currently beneficial to the US and fighting against them would be the United States acting against its interests but I disagree. Fixing issues such as the above would improve the entire planet so much that America would be all the richer for it, even if it loses some current benefits. Additionally, as mentioned before I would love to see tariffs roar back when certain countries continually gently caress with US businesses to the advantage of local ones OR have very low minimum wages OR engage in wide-scale patent theft. Furthermore, since I seem to be coming off like a filthy hippie here, a lot of the stuff the conservative side of any given issue says is right. For example, giving anything at all to the North Korean government is a waste of money and serves only to legitimize it. They have the money to buy enough food to keep everyone above starvation level, and have for over fifteen years now. They just don't, and they never will because its not in their interests to do so. Giving food aid only means that they can redirect what money they would have spent there into other things. And yet there'll always be this guy or his equivalent taking the other guy's side on everything because Amerikkka. Similarly I don't really want a lot of economic migrants over here. I can totally understand Australia's "stop the boats" stuff or the concerns of southern EU countries. The United States is unlucky in that, as a global superpower with allies all over the world, its hard to avoid being entangled in these situations even when it does not want to be there. Imperialism has its downsides too, primarily in the cost of maintaining the system. And yet it is also lucky in that it has played a large, if not the largest, roll in creating the current international system... and I like the system. I like freedom of the seas, I like not redrawing lines on the map without popular approval, I like the relative lack of war between nation-states, I like that even unabashed dictatorships make noises towards the Democratic ideal- even if they are just empty gestures, I like having a largely free internet (though I would like to be able to opt out of data sharing things.) Of course the international system will only stay like that if America and a like-minded coalition on any given issue retains the military and economic power to keep it as such. I am sorry to the rest of the thread that none of this has anything to do with the 2016 presidential primary.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:43
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Cliff Racer posted:I don't really care about NSA oversight too much, as long as its done properly, legally and personal information is never leaked or sold to the public. I find a lot of the whining about it (things like the guy in Virginia who sees me naked at the airport or whatever) to be annoying and reactionary. I wish more was done to legitimately protect privacy but a lot of this anti-NSA stuff feels like whines from the usual suspects. Oh and hey thats the next question. So privacy rights, I don't really want government peering into my private life, particularly without a warrant, but know that its a necessary part of this modern world. I feel that we have much more to fear from corporate and personal (so ex-boyfriends, rear end in a top hat neighbors, etc.) invasions of privacy than from government ones because in general the government has proven better about keeping that information out of the public sphere. Think of it like this, I'd be okay with the entirety of some alien species on the other side of the galaxy seeing my dong but would hate for my neighbors to. The aliens seeing it would have no effect on my life, neighbors seeing it would. Unfortunately with the rise of online communications (so both social media and things like your employer, stores you shop at, schools you went to etc. storing your information in a place accessible from online) the only way, it would seem, to protect privacy in either sense would be to enact legislation that mandates tougher security standards or an opt-in system. Neither seems likely now and thats probably not going to change any time soon in this country. I actually majored in SRA and care a lot about the issue of data security. Unfortunately it seems that no-one else does so welp. thats a really loving long post to explain how you are an authoritarian imperial shithead. but its really, for real cool, to see someone who believes in literally nothing and embrace the surveillance state and imperialism with so many weak caveats to liberalism the united states is indeed unlucky in its imperial superpower status, and what a burden we hold. the system is worth maintaining, however, surely? we tortured some folks (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 20, 2015 04:49
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Cliff Racer posted:I am sorry to the rest of the thread that none of this has anything to do with the 2016 presidential primary. Nah it's cool dogg, today we learned David Brooks is a goon.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:54
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you gave some token reference to middle east dictatorships, but what do you think about our support of theocracies and monarchies like bahrain and saudi arabia? at what level can we support what most of us would consider horrific oppression for the benefit of imperial policy?
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Feb 20, 2015 04:54
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comes along bort posted:Nah it's cool dogg, today we learned David Brooks is a goon.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:54
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TEAYCHES posted:you gave some token reference to middle east dictatorships, but what do you think about our support of theocracies and monarchies like bahrain and saudi arabia? at what level can we support what most of us would consider horrific oppression for the benefit of imperial policy? As if the alternative is any better. You rant about authoritarianism and imperialism in one post and then at the very next one you are there arguing that we cut off aid and/or invade nations which do things we dislike. You can't have it both ways.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:59
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Cliff Racer posted:As if the alternative is any better. You rant about authoritarianism and imperialism in one post and then at the very next one you are there arguing that we cut off aid and/or invade nations which do things we dislike. You can't have it both ways. i dont think we should invade any nations we dislike unless they are a direct existential threat to the mainland united states its really hosed up to view the world as your playground of ideology and imperial power
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Feb 20, 2015 05:03
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lmao THS is going to loving own you idiots, have fun
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Feb 20, 2015 05:06
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TEAYCHES posted:its really hosed up to view the world as your playground of ideology and imperial power Everybody does it. Seriously, they all do. What do you think about nations in Asia voting on issues related to South America in UN resolutions. They are voting based on their ideology and what their world view is, even if it the debate is only on an issue that directly affects people on the other side of the world? What about people "staying neutral" during genocide-that is akin to tacit endorsement of it. If international politics is a playground its one where all the kids run around ganging up and kicking at each other. I'd rather us be leading that gang.
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Feb 20, 2015 05:09
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Cliff Racer posted:I'd rather us be leading that gang. You're not David Brooks, you're Putin. Cliff Racer/MIGF 2016 Realpolitik ticket
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Feb 20, 2015 05:19
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Cliff Racer posted:Everybody does it. Seriously, they all do. What do you think about nations in Asia voting on issues related to South America in UN resolutions. They are voting based on their ideology and what their world view is, even if it the debate is only on an issue that directly affects people on the other side of the world? What about people "staying neutral" during genocide-that is akin to tacit endorsement of it. If international politics is a playground its one where all the kids run around ganging up and kicking at each other. I'd rather us be leading that gang. We directly support violent state oppression when it is beneficial to our economic and political interests. We support states who execute people for sorcery and lesbianism and condemn those who do the same purely based on cynical economic and political power calculations. If you want to argue that international politics is simply a game of might-makes-right, that if you have the power, then That Is the Ethics - that this is cool and good, that it is right, good for you. empower yourself along those realistic lines of torturing folks to death for the ultimate end of, uh, American hegemony. If that is your view never argue anything past that. Embrace empire. Take it full on as you have. If ethics is something meaningful beyond geopolitics - if there's a bad guy, or if it's wrong to do a thing, if you aren't a piece of poo poo, then it's more complicated. Right now that means horrific torture and rendition of prisoners to secret CIA black sites, it means drone assassinations, it means indiscriminate surveillance of everyone without even the pretext of legitimate suspicion. That is fascism, it is ideology over what is ethical. It is practicality over the right thing. It is wrong What you advocate is literally "well everyone else is doing it" - and it is the justification of the school yard bully, it is the justification of the dictator, the justification of the authoritarian.
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Feb 20, 2015 05:24
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comes along bort posted:Nah it's cool dogg, today we learned David Brooks is a goon. Ahahaha bradburypancakes posted:You're not David Brooks, you're Putin. Putin has a strategic goal other than sticking his fingers in everyone's eyes just to show them who's boss That's more of a means than an end in his case, anyway
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Feb 20, 2015 05:32
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TEAYCHES posted:We directly support violent state oppression when it is beneficial to our economic and political interests. We support states who execute people for sorcery and lesbianism and condemn those who do the same purely based on cynical economic and political power calculations. quote:What you advocate is literally "well everyone else is doing it" - and it is the justification of the school yard bully, it is the justification of the dictator, the justification of the authoritarian.
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Feb 20, 2015 05:39
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Cliff Racer posted:Everybody does it. Seriously, they all do. What do you think about nations in Asia voting on issues related to South America in UN resolutions. They are voting based on their ideology and what their world view is, even if it the debate is only on an issue that directly affects people on the other side of the world? What about people "staying neutral" during genocide-that is akin to tacit endorsement of it. If international politics is a playground its one where all the kids run around ganging up and kicking at each other. I'd rather us be leading that gang. everyone else in the world is a sociopath, why won't you let me be one too?  no seriously, you're a sociopath. seek mental help, and stay away from politics
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Feb 20, 2015 05:40
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Cliff Racer posted:We cannot afford to die on every hill. You seem to love to complain about this stuff but I suspect that your proposed solutions would destroy any power the United States actually has to enact those solutions. Then you'll sit back and bitch about how awful the world is when someone starts giving captured women away as brides or buries a bunch of mining accident victims rather than rescue them. I didn't directly mention things like killing witches and gays but I mentioned the hypocrisy shown in things like the official state sponsors of terror list- which reads more like the "states which sponsored terrorism some time in the 90s and have never managed to have good relations with us at any point since" list. The right thing to do is not always possible or would make the world worse, etc. etc. Dealing with that isn't hypocrisy its working within the confines of reality. Actually the correct thing to do is not be an imperial power, not control the extraction of resources when it's convenient for us, and not to torture and kill hundreds of thousands of people for political and economic gain.
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Feb 20, 2015 05:40
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Secretary Clinton, what is your party's vision for America's role in teh world?
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Feb 20, 2015 05:43
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If your interpretation of politics justifies the murder of a lot of people and props up horrific dictatorships, if the realpolitik compels you to defend torture and cynical economic exploitation - you might be a total piece of poo poo, within the confines of reality
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Feb 20, 2015 05:44
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Cliff Racer posted:Its also true, and not only is it true, it is literally impossible to do anything else. If imposing your will on people is your version of imperialism then even doing nothing is a form of it- you are tacitly endorsing whatever side currently has the upper hand. Uh, you know Desmond Tutu made literally this exact point once, right? e: course he used it to arrive at a vastly different worldview 
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Feb 20, 2015 05:47
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I'm not surprised. Its not only a perfectly valid point, its the literal truth. Anyone who argues differently is either lying or ignorant of how the world works.
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Feb 20, 2015 05:56
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Cliff Racer posted:I'm not surprised. Its not only a perfectly valid point, its the literal truth. Anyone who argues differently is either lying or ignorant of how the world works. hitler thought the same way
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Feb 20, 2015 05:57
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"i love fascism and mass surveillance and brutal american imperialism. a lot of death but hey. it is realistic" - cliff racer, 2-19-2015
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Feb 20, 2015 05:58
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-i love putting words into other peoples mouths calling people who disagree with me shiteads and not using correct punctuation /TEAYCHES 2192015
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Feb 20, 2015 06:08
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Cliff Racer posted:-i love putting words into other peoples mouths calling people who disagree with me shiteads and not using correct punctuation /TEAYCHES 2192015 lol owned much
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Feb 20, 2015 06:09
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Cliff Racer posted:-i love putting words into other peoples mouths calling people who disagree with me shiteads and not using correct punctuation /TEAYCHES 2192015 imagine four world powers on the edge of a cliff. realpolitik works the same way
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Feb 20, 2015 06:10
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i cant believe people are taking literally what i said minutes earlier "Everybody does it. Seriously, they all do." "If international politics is a playground its one where all the kids run around ganging up and kicking at each other. I'd rather us be leading that gang." excellent argument, a+ on ethics and addressing the criticism of it being morally wrong. yes, its cool because all the other kids are doing it. kill arabs for money and support monarchs because i love to poo poo into the collective mouth of our future. a wise and good viewpoint for subsequent generations to emulate. its been working well for the past few decades, and the future looks good america, the top gang
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Feb 20, 2015 06:16
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welcome to the republican party
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Feb 20, 2015 06:19
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Cliff Racer posted:I'm not surprised. Its not only a perfectly valid point, its the literal truth. Anyone who argues differently is either lying or ignorant of how the world works. And there I was about to argue that while your position is despicable, at least it's tenable as opposed to the bullshit dog-whistles and fabrications that imperialists tend to hide behind. But then you just had to double down like that.
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Feb 20, 2015 06:37
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Cliff Racer posted:I'm not surprised. Its not only a perfectly valid point, its the literal truth. Anyone who argues differently is either lying or ignorant of how the world works. Ah, ya lost me. You were close to making a valid point, but then you literally went into Rand-world. Sorry dog
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Feb 20, 2015 07:02
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Cliff Racer was asked what his political leanings were. He answered. A follow up question was asked. Cliff Racer responded to that series of questions as well, at length. I dont agree with all of his positions, but he is the only person not being a dick. Asking someones opinion and then attacking them on a topic completely unrelated to the tread is pretty LF. All that said, Cliff Racer seems to hold the same positions as a great many of the democratic voting base, If not further to the left.
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Feb 20, 2015 09:23
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Which is why it's a good thing the Republicans can put the non-Jeb of their choice in the oval office in two years.
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Feb 20, 2015 09:36
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Aramis posted:And there I was about to argue that while your position is despicable, at least it's tenable as opposed to the bullshit dog-whistles and fabrications that imperialists tend to hide behind. But then you just had to double down like that. laffin at ya cuz ur a fuckin freak
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Feb 20, 2015 09:40
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cant wait for rand paul to clean this piece of poo poo country up
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Feb 20, 2015 09:43
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Cliff Racer posted:But thats the whole thing, do the things the government does or wants to do benefit us enough to make up for their costs? Often times the answer is no. lol You're effort trolling, a sociopath, or a borderline literal retard. Which is it? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 20, 2015 09:43
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rands fuckin hot like 2007 obama hot not as muscular but lean and sleek like an otter.
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Feb 20, 2015 09:45
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