Ghost Leviathan posted:

More lining up their favourite scapegoats.

BiggerBoat posted:

A very significant percentage of the population believes that the direct cash payments are directly responsible for the current inflation problem.

BiggerBoat posted:

Primary Biden with whom? A quick look at the long list of awesome, inspiring and viable candidates starts with:

1. Tumbleweed blowing by
2. Hillary loving Clinton
3. _____________?

punk rebel ecks posted:

As someone who has worked in a field of where at times you needed to restrain teenagers, I never in my wildest dreams understood why you would kneel on someone’s neck.

PeterCat posted:

So? He kneeled on her for all of 30 seconds, can't tell if it was on her neck since the video resolution is so low. And handcuffing is the easiest was to control her.

Getting rid of resource control officers has done nothing but increase violence in schools.

Jaxyon posted:

If you're going to make a claim about the positive effects of school cops, while defending a grown person kneeling on a child, you better come with better than a local news story.

Gumball Gumption posted:

The whole video is in the article. He hit his head because he pulled her and himself to the ground. The girls were literally slap fighting.

Bishyaler posted:

Because if there was revolution in the US it would be happening by-and-large on its own citizens' terms, whereas sanctions are the US government trying to impose its will on other nations.

DarkCrawler posted:

You all get that United States is not the only party sanctioning Russia, right?

DeadlyMuffin posted:

Cutting out "if you are pro-sanctions you are pro massive amounts of hardship." because it's simply a strawman.

DeadlyMuffin posted:

My initial comment, and the responses I was responding to are below.

The "no one is saying this routine" about things people are actually saying gets really old in this thread.

Willa Rogers posted:

The big question is how much bang for the buck defense companies will get in exchange for their lobbying & donations:

A rising tide "lifts all boats" in the defense industry is my new favorite nonsensical euphemism.

FlamingLiberal posted:

Personally I think DeSantis is way more dangerous than Trump

He mostly avoids personally getting involved in controversial issues and leaves it to underlings. But he’s been able to accomplish most of his goals here in FL. The courts have blocked some of it, but a lot of it succeeded.

FizFashizzle posted:

Surely this is just grift. She’s barely coherent at this point.

Heck Yes! Loam! posted:

100% agreed. Any solution or ideology that dissolves the agency of individuals is doomed to fail. America sucks because Americans want it to suck in that way. The only progress comes from convincing a voting majority that something needs to be done about it as well as agree on what. :

selec posted:

You can’t detect racism in how safety and home security is messaged in safe white neighborhoods, you think you can go after what most Americans perceive to be a monoethnic state without getting racist.

I think Dems can’t identify racism without someone they trust (Obama) telling them directly that this is a racist thing. This is a product of politics without ideology, a brand rather than a set of principles.

We have a long way to go as a country.

Willa Rogers posted:

It'll be interesting to see how extensively Obama campaigns on behalf of candidates this year, especially since Biden's been labeled as campaign poison by moderate Dems (speaking off the record, of course).

I wonder if Obama would still be a motivator for GOTV among youngs as he was during his presidency, given that the youth vote looks to be dropping off.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Danny is a 47-year old realtor born in America.

In no reasonable world has a realtor been working 14-hour days, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 20 years straight.

Willa Rogers posted:

Are people seriously doing twexits over this?

eta: lol at the "twitter is a shithole, but it's been our shithole" sentiments I'm seeing online.

Willa Rogers posted:

^^^ Nah, meltdowns from tech bros aren't interesting in the least.

Twitter itself isn't unionized, in spite of @jack's undeserved reputation as a lefty.

Maybe Elon will spur a successful unionization.

Lib and let die posted:

I remember when Musk proposed building tunnels under Miami.

Miami.

Gumball Gumption posted:

The popularity of "Defund the police" is some "everyone loves the ACA but hates Obamacare" stuff. Everyone hates "Defund the police" since they assume the quiet part is "do nothing and let everyone die" but it's popular policy if it's presented as reform and changing the way public protection works.

Main Paineframe posted:

The entire point of a slogan is to be understandable and persuasive to someone who's never heard anything more than the slogan. If the slogan requires explanation, that's on the same level as a politician on a debate stage telling people to go to hillaryclinton dot com for info on their policies.

nine-gear crow posted:

It is nothing short of amazing that a man who only speaks one sentence every five years somehow finds a way to say the absolute worst possible thing at the absolute worst possible time whenever he deigns to open his mouth.

PeterCat posted:

Seems like a bad idea to defund law enforcement in the middle of a huge increase in murder.

Gumball Gumption posted:

Eh, I don't think it's making GBS threads on them. It's just a pretty sober and understanding statement from virtualcolorBOY that if the police are there keeping the Justices safe with no threat it's probably not going to change anyone's minds. And there's nothing factually incorrect about what Bishalyer said if you don't read it as a personal insult.

The protests are definitely good through and if people stay angry they will likely escalate, especially if the current safety they're feeling galvanizes people like Thomas to continue to act like a god king giving orders from the eternal tomb.

Heck Yes! Loam! posted:

Hopefully, the cops didn't take him to burger king before jail this time.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The two police engaged him before he went into the school and were both shot.

It was basically an ideal "good guy with a gun" scenario that didn't play out like the people who espouse that theory say it always will.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

They were shot and injured. Doesn't say how seriously.

CmdrRiker posted:

Main Paineframe posted:

This is how the US political system has always been, though. The practical impossibility of having more than two viable parties at the same time has traditionally forced both parties into being big-tent coalitions representing a wide variety of views.

The GOP's monofocus right now is the result of what is basically a populist revolt within the base, which conservative demagogues have been spending decades laying the groundwork for. The coalition has been tamed by very loud voter sentiment, reinforced by a media operation which ensures that even the slightest defiance will be noticed and draw a heated response. The different factions have all more or less fallen in line, with their continued differences papered over by the fact that they have to do very little actual governing - the GOP Senate can mostly sit around blocking any actual action, and leave the details of actually changing policy to the other two branches.

If the progressive voter base was even half as effective at overcoming the party's favored candidates as the GOP's fash wing is, the Democratic Party would be a very different organization.

Fister Roboto posted:

Doubting the cops' story (which has changed multiple times over the past few days) isn't a conspiracy theory, jesus christ.

HonorableTB posted:

Lmao everyone is pissed off and has a bleak outlook for the future and this seems to be a nationwide outlook among everyone and the political class is completely unable to do anything about it. The PNW is the same way. Everything we won in the 2020 protests was just given away at the ballot box. Nothing mattered

BiggerBoat posted:

I also think it's worth noting that THAT MANY crazy people showed up to support not just Donald Trump but honestly believe that the 2020 election results were rigged and stolen. Like REALLY believe it and think they are saving America for Jesus. It was quite an impressive display of a large number of totally delusional people living in a different world in their own reality who largely left all the guns they buy at home...this time.

You guys might read the FREEP thread from time to time maybe, and it's not entirely fringe right now. True believers walk the halls of government and are winning elections. They think that Donald J. Trump is a loving messiah. It's not a majority but it's more than I'm comfortable just laughing at. That's fun and all but I have never EVER seen a politician with the level of dedication that this rear end in a top hat brings out in people. And I'm 55 years old.

Name ONE other politician - who lost an election or otherwise - that has this many people flying huge loving flags from the back of their trucks or at the beach or a park. It's a loving cult, buoyed in supply side Christianity, backed by an alarming number of police, and it's bigger than I'd like no matter how stupid, silly or unbelievable it strikes me on the face of it or how ripe it is to make fun of. Could be just where i live and I'm sure that colors my perception of things a lot but probably the religious undertones of the whole thing is what disturbs me the most.

Nothing more dangerous than a large group of people who think that God is On Their Side and that they are doing his will. It's made worse knowing that DJT is the antithesis of Christ's teachings but they don't seem to think so.

Bishyaler posted:

Border agents just got a waiver to constitutional rights.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Who is going to enforce them? What punishment is going to be given for not obeying these precedents or norms? What punishment has been administered so far?

Bar Ran Dun posted:

This is a big part why it’s not going to work. I mean they don’t want to also establish that we go criminally after our political opponents. But all that’s doing is establishing that there is little to no consequence for attempting to end the transfer of power by the rules (however imperfect) of the system.

I mean people are being punished. Just not trump.

BRJurgis posted:

I don't disagree with any of this except the bolded part. I spoke with somebody recently whose take on things was basically "I live 'right' and it's all I can do, and our inevitable collapse and destruction of our climate and huge amounts of life on it are simply going to happen". I couldn't really disagree with him either!

But I want to loving fight, a lot of people do and there's no tangible clear enemy. I think that is at the roots of a huge part of our culture war and senseless violence. If we could convince people there was a way to fight, there's a whole bunch that would take pride in their lessened material conditions and especially those who already live that way somewhat. They often hate the democrats though! The way forward is somewhere after the dissolution of our status quo, our present systems. I'd rather talk about tearing it down than waiting for it to destroy itself. This is unsustainable, unconscionable, utterly captured and doomed.

People want to feel strong and powerful, independent. We're simply never going to get a critical mass of people on the same page as long as democrats and Republicans are how we understand our relation to power. Frankly it won't happen while our current systems and culture exist in their present state. If the great recession, trump, and covid didnt significantly change them, if this next great economic disaster won't (it won't), what will it take?

I guess I'm just screaming to hear us all say in unison "yes we're, as a country and a species, absolutely hosed until we can somehow spread commune energy to the masses." I know it's failed before, but it's more likely than any solution working through our system from my experience.

To the point of your post, absolutely yeah stop wondering how things will be fixed or preserved, and start doing it yourself. Just never shut the gently caress up about the dire situation we're in or the abandonment of our norms when you're talking to people. This isn't alarming because of the failure of democracy or our systems, it's alarming because the preservation of our "democracy" and systems just means a comfier ride to the end of the world.

Bel Shazar posted:

A left-wing takeover of the democrats is unlikely given the lack of a meaningful mass of leftists in America.

We kinda need new Americans before that would work.

Main Paineframe posted:

I think this is a bunch of excuses, and that an actually meaningful mass of leftists couldn't be excluded from political power so easily. If the left can't even handle the small petty tricks wielded by the decorum-loving Democrats, how the gently caress can they hope to beat the outright fascists who have decades of experience in voter suppression and intimidation? If the left is going to be that helpless, then they're hardly in any position to accuse the Dems of being bad at politics.

I bang this drum a lot here, but being able to turn out real numbers and massive support is crucial. Even straight-up military dictatorships that outright massacre protesters and dissidents en masse still find it extremely difficult to hold onto power in the face of a genuine mass movement.

Gumball Gumption posted:

Quick, let's ask people if they feel safe from the government at left wing protests. Oh they don't? Word, wonder if that impacts their willingness to protest.

TheIncredulousHulk posted:

We're not even 5 years removed from helping install a fascist in Brazil thanks to a project that started with the help of the Obama DoJ lol

RealityWarCriminal posted:

From the HUAC to the Cold War, the government did a spectacular job of making communism and any sort of leftist movement into a dirty word. That's all ended now, but leftists just can't catch a break.