Politics and world news

[Guard Dog]

I can fix illegal immigration right now: work permits for anyone who wants them. And as long as you are employed (within a reasonable amount of time) they don't expire. Why is there a demand for illegal immigrant labor? Because they have no leverage. You can screw them on money and they can't do anything about it. Make them all legal and you have to pay them minimum wage (at least). If the war on drugs has taught us anything (spoiler alert: it hasn't) it's that you can't get rid of a thing in demand by attacking the supply of the thing. But you CAN get rid of the supply be attacking the demand. Plus not having people treated like slaves is a very good thing.  

[Guard Dog]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

What would be the minimum income needed for this?

Some of the proposals I've heard is everything over $40k. But I'd start at $15k. And yes that means people in poverty pay taxes. Right now, they don't. Well, if the stuff the government does with the money it takes from us by force is so goddamed awesome that men with guns will take everything you have, kidnap you and lock you in a cage if you don't pay then everyone who benefits from it should bear 15% of the burden of paying for it. 

But that's just me.

[Gromnir]

"build the wall"

is a three-word slogan which is easy to remember and resonates with folks. gd needs a three-word slogan which resonates if he has any chance o' success.

make america great?

taken.

one thousand dollars?

just as dumb as the above, but also taken.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Guard Dog]

1 minute ago, Gromnir said:

"build the wall"

is a three-word slogan which is easy to remember and resonates with folks. gd needs a three-word slogan which resonates if he has any chance o' success.

make america great?

taken.

one thousand dollars?

just as dumb as the above, but also taken.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Leave us alone

Stop Spending Money

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Guard Dog

[Gromnir]

unfortunately, the gadsden flag and its sentiment has already been co opted.

HA! Good Fun! 

[Guard Dog]

2 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

unfortunately, the gadsden flag and its sentiment has already been co opted.

HA! Good Fun! 

And that is a shame!

[Zoraptor]

11 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

well, Trump made one assassination and started demonstrations against government which target of that assassination was part of. If this is not win win I don't know what

Those protests have been going on for months and started well before the assassination (mostly due to a fuel tax increase, this round). Indeed, there's been a cycle of protests in Iran roughly every couple of years since the success in 1979 which was an order of magnitude larger than anything since. Post 1979 they're always overhyped by western media, and since then they have always failed.

The good thing about how the media handles it is that you can pretty much guarantee that if there are pictures of a large protest- eg the anti Ahmedinajad ones from about a decade ago- they absolutely will be shown. But so far there have been lots of pictures taken at ground level where the crowds could be a hundred, or a thousand or tens or even hundreds of thousands; however if they were tens of thousands+ there would be pictures shown from a higher angle to show rather than obfuscate the numbers. Apart from that the media have focused entirely on 'memes' like a couple of people tearing down Soleimani posters and some people refusing to step on US/ Israeli flags. Things could change, but these protests are not large, especially so in a city which is multiple millions in population and look far weaker than other, failed, protests were (barely scraping 1% of the big ones eg 2009 by the looks of things).

The ultimate problem with protests in Iran is twofold: that the protesters are generally young, urban and well educated which doesn't represent anywhere near the bulk of the population and that the hold of the government over the security services is pretty much unshakeable. The tertiary problem is that the main supporters of 'revolution' are countries like the US and UK which are very easy to paint as being 'imperialists' because, well, by any objective measure they are and their record towards Iran is not a difficult one to make effective propaganda out of.

[Guard Dog]

Corey Booker has dropped out of the running. : https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-cory-booker-suspends-presidential-campaign/story?id=67472609

Marianne Williamson dropped out the other day too. I had no use for her and small use for Booker. Of all the Democrats left (with a realistic shot) Klobuchar is the most tolerable from my perspective. I can't say I'd endorse her because my endorsement seems like the kiss of death. Sorry Tulsi. 

[ComradeYellow]

Can we just fast forward time already and see Bernie dropping out to Biden and Bernie endorsing the Green candidate?

This anticipation is killing me.

The Dems are a lost cause sure but I'd rather get in bed with them then filthy Republicans, as coalitions are mandatory in a Democratic society, especially in these crazy times.

 

[Skarpen]

Bernie cannot be a candidate in presidential election. He is a misogynistic, sexist pig. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/13/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-meeting/index.html

[Hurlshort]

I think Warren has a shot at the nomination. She's got the moolah.

edit: nvm, just noticed Biden is up to 26%. Yikes.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Hurlshot

[Chilloutman]

with US election, I feel like you guys start next campaign right after previous vote is done xD

[ComradeYellow]

53 minutes ago, Chilloutman said:

with US election, I feel like you guys start next campaign right after previous vote is done xD

Kinda hard not to be with fascism and Trumpism exploiting our idiotic media/status quo/gambit etc and successfully winning an election because of it.  These misogynists and racists deserve no mercy whatsoever.

And the Democrats and their pathetic response to it all just cements the "We need a 3rd Party champion now more than ever" soliloquy more than ever before.

[Gorth]

Australia set to get hit twice by smoke... the very same smoke that is. They really need to work on what they recycle down here

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-13/bushfire-smoke-plume-expected-to-lap-the-globe-nasa-says/11863298

[Blarghagh]

Man, if Biden gets the nom you guys might as well skip the election because that old codger is as passionless and uninspiring as Hillary Clinton was last time. We've seen how that one turns out. 

[Bartimaeus]

Naturally, literally just a couple of days after Bernie takes a projected lead in Iowa for the first time a couple of weeks before the primary (with Elizabeth Warren in second), a story leaks about how he claimed a woman would not be capable of becoming president directly to Elizabeth Warren. Ignoring that he asked Elizabeth Warren to enter the 2016 race (before he did so himself when she declined), ignoring that he campaigned for Hillary in 2016 after he was defeated, ignoring that he has been saying publicly for 30 years now that a woman absolutely could and should become president. What a dirty bit - politics are so fun.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[Malcador]

Seems a pretty tame hit as well. He said something vague enough that is more indicating the US populace is backwards than anything else.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Malcador

[Gromnir]

17 hours ago, Malcador said:

Seems a pretty tame hit as well. He said something vague enough that is more indicating the US populace is backwards than anything else.

context is important. warren has  issued a statement in which she says, speaking o' a conversation with bernie, "I thought a woman could win; he disagreed." 'course, ask Gromnir if he thinks a woman could win in 2020 and we would agree with bernie, but not 'cause o' gender. the actual female candidates and their policy positions look wrong to us, but likely for different reasons than bernie would articulate. 

early we thought kamala harris looked like a moderate alternative to biden, but her tough-on-crime history which made her more palatable to independents and even republicans were increasing used to undermine her support from democrats. her second amendment position lost gd's vote and more than a few independents who might have otherwise considered voting for harris. also, we thought harris' campaign were too trump-like and caustic to succeed with those folks tired o' trump.  no real signature program or slogan worthy position neither.

tulsi gabbard has a slogan worthy signature policy position which resonates. stop endless wars. is everything else 'bout her which is terribad. 

klobuchar is capable and experienced senator whom most americans know little but she don't appear to bring anything unique to the 2020 campaign. no slogan worthy signature policy or program. 

don't get us started on marianne williamson.

etc.

warren is too liberal for independents to embrace. am thinking she is smart and  has well articulated policy positions, but her slogan worthy program is gonna be something along the lines o' tax the rich. tax the  _______ is gonna discourage moderates and even a few liberals. tax is not a good start.  'course is doubtful bernie saw warren as too liberal.

if at the start o' the 2020 Presidential campaign we were asked if a woman could win, we likely woulda' said harris were a possibility, but such hope died fast and ugly. context is important. the thing is, regardless o' context, gender would not have been a major concern. twenty years ago if you asked us which would Americans be more likely to vote for President, a white woman or a minority man, we woulda' tabbed the fairer sex w/o any hesitation. 

full disclosure:

little over a year has past since we were, for the first time, accused of mansplaining. had a case involving a catholic school and a 1st amendment issue. methodist parents were angry 'cause o' curriculum and treatment o' their daughter.  were not our first rodeo, so at very start o' our work we provided the parents with a written list o' simple dos and don'ts. we went over the list with parents and we made sure they understood. we then we had parents sign so they understood importance o' the list.

two months later we had to have a discussion with same folks and explain that their behavior had serious jeopardized the case... they had multiple times engaged in highlighted "dont's" actions. 

again, not our first rodeo, so we had a prepared speech we gave to folks sitting 'cross the desk from us when we explained, as polite as Gromnir possible, how they were sabotaging a case in exact ways we had recent warned 'em. took us near twenty years o' refinement to get our speech to level o' perfection we were satisfied.  thankful we didn't need use the speech too often, but were often enough such that we developed the bit o' rote and we had used it to correct the behaviour o' men and women and even a transgender client. so imagine our surprise when mrs. _________ accused us o' mansplaining.  

have no idea what went down 'tween bernie and warren, but our personal mansplaining incident bothered us more than we woulda' guessed it should. maybe bernie is a closeted misogynist and has been hiding such for decades, but am also recognizing how innocent observations can be taken outta context particular where gender and race is at issue.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Gromnir

[Guard Dog]

I'd be satisfied if the next President is quiet, competent, knows and follows the limitations of the office, does not start any new conflicts abroad nor deliberately antagonizes anyone at home. That is the kind of leader we need right now. And we are not going to get it.  

In fact such a person could never get nominated. 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Guard Dog
And another thing

[Raithe]

Not an actual quote by Herzog, but by the fake twitter account WernerTwertzog... Still, a somewhat valid concept.

[Gromnir]

58 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

 

In fact such a person could never get nominated. 

President nominee runs on a platform o' Congress should work?

pretty much everything Presidents promise is stuff Congress is s'posed to do... or state and local governments. have a President try and sell notion the public should be looking for a chief executive to do little more than manage bureaucracy, deal with actual emergencies and negotiate with foreign powers is so 18th century. 

part o' the problem is a century long trend o' Congress increasing doing as little as possible. President and the Courts has needed step in to fill the void and Congress has been far too willing to do the three wise monkey routine as the chief executive has been the obvious power to keep government running while legislators instead focus on getting reelected.

am not seeing a way back to previous norms w/o cataclysm.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Gromnir

[Gorth]

You first saw it here... monarchy to be reintroduced in the US. Soon both the Canadian and US dollars will have Elizabeth II on them

 

Obviously joking, but if history has taught us anything, it's that nothing is permanent other than death and taxes.

 

[Bartimaeus]

CNN debates make me want to blow my brains out. I think Fox News may legitimately hold (mildly) better ones...

Edited January 15, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

35 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

CNN debates make me want to blow my brains out. I think Fox News may legitimately hold (mildly) better ones...

y' mean other than fox execs giving debate questions to preferred candidates before the event?

am also thinking the last decent debate mod still at fox would be chris wallace. could you imagine a debate, any debate, moderated by hannity, carlson and ingraham? might as well have wallace, joe buck and troy aikman do the next fox debate... which could actual be entertaining.

HA! Good Fun!

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I may have gotten a little a hyperbolic there, but man, CNN's was just so bad.

Joe Buck and Chris Wallace would definitely be better options. I read once that an organization called the League of Women Voters used to be the hosts for presidential debates in the 70s-80s and supposedly were much better at it (but I didn't see them, so don't quote me on that), but both the Republican and Democratic parties started demanding ridiculous stuff of them and they kicked them to the curb. Too bad.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Bartimaeus