The Political Thread - Hobbes Edition

[Guard Dog]

[SonicMage117]

Ted Cruz wins Texas! Far better than the alternatives

[Guard Dog]

The Dems take the House, the Pubs extend their majority in the Senate. That suits me just fine. Now they will paralyze each other in gridlock for the next two years and we can get on with living our lives relatively free of their interference. The sniping and name calling that will go on as they all stew in their own venom up in Sodom-on-the-Potomac will just be the icing on the cake. 

[SonicMage117]

Nevermind, it is so. And so shall it be!

Edited November 7, 2018 by SonicMage117

[BruceVC]

Yes I think the overall results were fine, both sides gained in there own ways

 

But I predict some legal inquiries and requests coming Trumps way, like him producing his tax records 

[Chilloutman]

Good job Mama Merkel, thanks for bringing back Third Reich:

 

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-increasingly-prejudiced-against-foreigners-muslims/a-46180880

[Gfted1]

^I know this sounds silly but its a legit question. So the guy in the picture in the above link has his right arm raised and his right hand is in a fist. If that right hand would have been flat, then that becomes a nazi salute(?), which afaik, will get you locked up in Germany. Can the guy in the picture get arrested or thats not technically a nazi salute?

[Chilloutman]

^I know this sounds silly but its a legit question. So the guy in the picture in the above link has his right arm raised and his right hand is in a fist. If that right hand would have been flat, then that becomes a nazi salute(?), which afaik, will get you locked up in Germany. Can the guy in the picture get arrested or thats not technically a nazi salute?

 

I am not german but I think its not technically nazi salute (even tho it never was originally nazi salute but Roman salute)

[injurai]

Before the Nazis took it, it was an American flag-salute as America was modeled off the Roman Republic.

[Guard Dog]

Before the Nazis took it, it was an American flag-salute as America was modeled off the Roman Republic.

For real? Never heard that one. Still I can see abandoning historical symbols because they have been appropriated by folks I'd rather not be associated with

 

[Malcador]

Before the Nazis took it, it was an American flag-salute as America was modeled off the Roman Republic.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute

 

Funny image out of context.

 

[Chilloutman]

 

Before the Nazis took it, it was an American flag-salute as America was modeled off the Roman Republic.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute

 

Funny image out of context.

 

 

 

Is it that usuall 'how high can your dog jump?'

[Elerond]

Good job Mama Merkel, thanks for bringing back Third Reich:

 

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-increasingly-prejudiced-against-foreigners-muslims/a-46180880

 

Isn't that more thanks to Merkel's opposition or is logic that Germans have become more prejudiced against foreigner because Merkel has been too accepting of foreigners or that Merkel has actually preached anti-foreign message even though people accuse her to be too accepting of foreigners? 

[Chilloutman]

 

Good job Mama Merkel, thanks for bringing back Third Reich:

 

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-increasingly-prejudiced-against-foreigners-muslims/a-46180880

 

Isn't that more thanks to Merkel's opposition or is logic that Germans have become more prejudiced against foreigner because Merkel has been too accepting of foreigners or that Merkel has actually preached anti-foreign message even though people accuse her to be too accepting of foreigners? 

 

 

Depends on how you look at it I suppose but lets be clear, no matter your view on it, truth is - if there were not mass immigration to germany - largely supported by Merkel at least at start, there would be hardly anti immigration tendencies, Agree?

[HoonDing]

why do all neo nazis look like utter degenerates?

[Hurlshort]

Yes, I suppose it is easy to be accepting of immigration when there aren't many immigrants around. Doesn't really justify prejudice though.

[Elerond]

 

 

Good job Mama Merkel, thanks for bringing back Third Reich:

 

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-increasingly-prejudiced-against-foreigners-muslims/a-46180880

 

Isn't that more thanks to Merkel's opposition or is logic that Germans have become more prejudiced against foreigner because Merkel has been too accepting of foreigners or that Merkel has actually preached anti-foreign message even though people accuse her to be too accepting of foreigners? 

 

 

Depends on how you look at it I suppose but lets be clear, no matter your view on it, truth is - if there were not mass immigration to germany - largely supported by Merkel at least at start, there would be hardly anti immigration tendencies, Agree?

 

 

It is possible, but anti immigration especially prejudice against foreigners has been on rise all over even in countries which have seen quite little of immigration. So it is difficult to say how much fearmongering against immigrants there would have been without Merkel's decisions, especially when you take in consideration that immigration debate in USA would have most likely still been as fierce as it has been now and that Merkel's policies aren't behind the mass immigration from Africa which is cause behind problems in Southern Europe which is source for lots of the anti-immigration sentiment. Also lots of anti-immigration sentiment behind brexit was caused by Polish workers, also in here Finland big sunk of the anti-immigration sentiment comes from idea that cheap workers from the Estonia and Poland will replace Finnish workers, that sentiment long before refugee crisis and Merkel's decisions.  So I would say that Merkel and her decisions are just easy targets for sentiments and developments that would have existed without her.

[Hurlshort]

Speaking of immigration:

 

[HoonDing]

no matter how many angles, she's still ugly

[Chilloutman]

 

 

 

Good job Mama Merkel, thanks for bringing back Third Reich:

 

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-increasingly-prejudiced-against-foreigners-muslims/a-46180880

 

Isn't that more thanks to Merkel's opposition or is logic that Germans have become more prejudiced against foreigner because Merkel has been too accepting of foreigners or that Merkel has actually preached anti-foreign message even though people accuse her to be too accepting of foreigners? 

 

 

Depends on how you look at it I suppose but lets be clear, no matter your view on it, truth is - if there were not mass immigration to germany - largely supported by Merkel at least at start, there would be hardly anti immigration tendencies, Agree?

 

 

It is possible, but anti immigration especially prejudice against foreigners has been on rise all over even in countries which have seen quite little of immigration. So it is difficult to say how much fearmongering against immigrants there would have been without Merkel's decisions, especially when you take in consideration that immigration debate in USA would have most likely still been as fierce as it has been now and that Merkel's policies aren't behind the mass immigration from Africa which is cause behind problems in Southern Europe which is source for lots of the anti-immigration sentiment. Also lots of anti-immigration sentiment behind brexit was caused by Polish workers, also in here Finland big sunk of the anti-immigration sentiment comes from idea that cheap workers from the Estonia and Poland will replace Finnish workers, that sentiment long before refugee crisis and Merkel's decisions.  So I would say that Merkel and her decisions are just easy targets for sentiments and developments that would have existed without her.

 

 

Well people don't live in bubble of their won country. You don't have to wait to have problems in your country to recognize them in another. Also there is free travel in EU. I know few people who told me that they are for sure not going to Paris in any near future for example. Can't blame them.

[majestic]

Yes, I suppose it is easy to be accepting of immigration when there aren't many immigrants around. Doesn't really justify prejudice though.

 

German long term welfare (which by far and large is the only thing most refugees can look forward to) aims to perpetually lock people in subsistence to serve as a source of cheap labor, not as support beam to help them rise back to their feet. You end up utterly dependent on the state, unable to particiapte in any form of social life and there's no silver lining or light at the end of the tunnel where everything becomes better if you work hard and improve - which is hard enough as it is without the state actively pushing them down.

 

Modern serfdom, in the end - Guard Dog's worst nightmares come true.

 

The people you see on these pictures are afraid that what little they have left will be taken away by foreigners. Their fears aren't completely unfounded. German serfs at least know about their rights and have legal representation or unions attempting to make their lot better. Immigrants fleeing death and destruction or starvation most likely don't care if they're illegally paid below minimum wage.

 

It's easy to look at them from the outside and wonder why they all look degenerate, how they can be prejudiced or downright racist and why they vote for parties that promise them a better future and a common enemy to rally against. The truth is that they have nothing else to look forward to. Nothing else to do.

 

They're right to think that Germany failed them. Right to think that Mutti Angela failed them. It's just not because of all the refugees. That's just a cheap way to unify and direct an otherwise aimless disillusionnment.

[Agiel]

Yes, I suppose it is easy to be accepting of immigration when there aren't many immigrants around. Doesn't really justify prejudice though.

 

Actually I think the reverse is more the case; the places in the US with the greatest backlash against immigration tend to be the ones with the least exposure to immigrants, whereas suburban and even rural places like Erie, PA that have taken them into the fold come around to them. Perhaps the "white male deaths of despair" would not be so prevalent a phenomenon if those disaffected populations learned the joys of shawarma, pho, and tacos de pescado. 

Edited November 7, 2018 by Agiel

[HoonDing]

[Malcador]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46132348

 

Edit : Well not fired, resigned at request of Trump

Edited November 7, 2018 by Malcador

[Agiel]

Excerpt from a piece that I found particularly noteworthy:

 

 

 

Democrats once expected a battle against a “three-headed trident,” as Sena put it, of GOP legislative accomplishments: a tax bill, an infrastructure package and a repeal of Obamacare. (Only the tax law actually materialized.) And despite Hillary Clinton’s strength with moderate, well-educated suburbanites in 2016, some Democrats doubted they could win over those longtime Republican voters down-ticket.

 

That skepticism began to wear off for officials at House Majority PAC, a super PAC with close ties to Pelosi, when it partnered with the Democratic consulting firm Global Strategy Group to conduct a series of conversations with suburban voters who had previously voted for House Republicans but were open to Democrats in 2018.

 

The group had held online discussions with 25 suburban voters followed by in-person focus groups with a similar set of mostly white, college-educated voters in Orange County, Calif., and the Minneapolis suburbs. Even though participants liked some of Trump’s policies and generally credited him for the strong economy, his abrasive style bothered them. “Money can’t buy you class,” one female participant commented.

 

 

Worth remembering that in 2016 Clinton managed to take Orange County, an upper-middle class conservative stronghold that hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since FDR.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Agiel