US Politics IV

[LuckyNumber7]

I wish people would stop giving him the time.

 

[BEAL]

Virginia gov race will be telling i think. GOP candidate is playing the race and fear card, and is winning

 

[anitram]

I think that he'll lose very clearly in the end.

 

[nbelcik]

DSA candidate and a transgender woman are winning in Virginia, the way forward for the Dems is to move left.

 

[namkcuR]

Northam won in Virginia. Murphy also won in New Jersey.

Good night for the left. Good night for America if it is a harbinger of the midterm results a year from now.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Awesome news about that VA race . Please, please let this be a sign of things to come.

My mom and I went out and voted in our local elections this evening. There's a 19 year old guy who's up for mayor of our town. Be interesting to see how that race might play out.

 

[Iggy Fizz]

But Obama said one more than occasion that he hoped to be a transformational president, like Reagan...and unlike Bill Clinton.

Well, Bill Clinton transformed the Democratic Party by getting it to steer centrist. Whether you like/agree with that or not being beside the point...

He did not transform the country, but the window of opportunity for any president to do that nowadays I believe is firmly closed.

 

[BEAL]

Stand corrected. Well done people of Virginia

 

[dazzledbylight]

Northam won in Virginia. Murphy also won in New Jersey.

Good night for the left. Good night for America if it is a harbinger of the midterm results a year from now.

Alright!!! In subway (WiFi) playing catch up with my e-m, fb and here so hadn't checked the news yet!

irving yeah, I heard about Gillespie's ads on public radio- Good riddance, EG!

And buh-bye Christie lieutenant gov!

 

[DaveC]

Yes! I was considering mentioning it, because on one hand Gary was brilliantly fearless in confronting him - and virtually cornered him - and on the other it was clear that despite how odious Spencer is, he is really an intellectual lightweight who deserves to be punched as much as possible.

"if africans never existed, world history would be exa- almost exactly the same as it is today"
- dick spencer

yes, i'm sure if ancient egypt had not existed for 5000 years of human history, things would have turned out *almost* exactly the same as it is today, you brain dead sack of dogshit.

let him be the "friendly face" of the nazis alt right. he's the intellectual equivalent of a loud wet fart in a truck stop strip club.

 

[Irvine511]

Is it weird that I mildly enjoyed Trump backing up the bus over Gillespie a few times on twitter? Like, it’s such a fitting end as well as a warning to everyone else — Trump doesn’t care about anyone other than Trump.

 

[DaveC]

crazy to think that one year ago at this moment i was certain it would be a clinton landslide. what an absolutely insane year this has been.

 

[kiwilad]

let him be the "friendly face" of the nazis alt right. he's the intellectual equivalent of a loud wet fart in a truck stop strip club.

Unfortunately there appear to be millions of people quite willing to take their cues from said fart.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

crazy to think that one year ago at this moment i was certain it would be a clinton landslide. what an absolutely insane year this has been.

Stephen Colbert made note of the fact that tomorrow marks a year since the election, and that completely threw me for a moment. It feels like it's been an eternity.

Was reading up on the one Virginia race involving Roem and Marshall, and the Wikipedia entries about both of them, and woooooooow. This Marshall guy sure sounds like a real piece of work, so the fact that Roem beat a dipshit like him is beautiful. Congrats to her.

(Found out she's the same age as me, too, so that's kinda neat .)

 

[mama cass]

Yes! I was considering mentioning it, because on one hand Gary was brilliantly fearless in confronting him - and virtually cornered him - and on the other it was clear that despite how odious Spencer is, he is really an intellectual lightweight who deserves to be punched as much as possible.

Gary Younge is an absolute hero, omg i don't know how he did it (not punch him haha)

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Northam won the 18-29 demo by +39
Clinton won the same by +15
McAuliffe by +5


Perhaps there is still hope for the future.

 

[trojanchick99]

Basically, Trump supporters are low information, closet racists. Also, Fox News is a cancer.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...rump-johnstown-pennsylvania-supporters-215800

 

[U2inUtah]

Hey we're almost 1/8th of the way through Trumps presidency guys

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Hey we're almost 1/8th of the way through Trumps presidency guys

A quarter. Don't be so morbid.

 

[trojanchick99]

Yeah, the silver lining to the fact that 30% of Americans will vote for the Orangutan in Chief no matter what, is that based on the turnout in VA, the rest of us are pissed off enough to actually show up and vote.

 

[BEAL]

That article was a frustrating read. Is there anything that will change your mind/vote? NOPE.

So basically they just want to see someone stick it to the system. Even if it means their way of live doesn't get better, or gets worse.

It's only about pissing off liberals, the elite (maybe the same thing?), and the establishment

We are potentially held hostage by this 30%

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Yeah, the silver lining to the fact that 30% of Americans will vote for the Orangutan in Chief no matter what, is that based on the turnout in VA, the rest of us are pissed off enough to actually show up and vote.

Needs to stay that way through 2020 though, which may be harder if Trump is removed from office. Might seem like Mission: Accomplished.

Also need to not destroy the Democratic Party with bickering and infighting in that same time.

 

[anitram]

That article was a frustrating read. Is there anything that will change your mind/vote? NOPE.

So basically they just want to see someone stick it to the system. Even if it means their way of live doesn't get better, or gets worse.

It's only about pissing off liberals, the elite (maybe the same thing?), and the establishment

We are potentially held hostage by this 30%

It totally validates what I have been saying since the election - that a lot of these people are exactly the sort of freeloading unambitious types that they rail against in their racist tirades. I mean the businessman can't find 150 people to hire because the locals are unqualified and when offered re-training (they are all former miners) they don't want to be re-trained, they want to go back to working in the mines. What do you even say to that? They don't want to help themselves EVEN WHEN help is offered. So we are supposed to feel empathy for them and "come to understand" the plight of the disenfranchised middle America whites?

No, sorry. They want to be ignorant and left behind, fine. Plenty of votes to get outside of this group and maybe they'll eventually catch on that their intransigence is one of the reasons that they are stuck in the situation they are stuck in.

Also not at all surprised at the open and thinly veiled racism expressed by them. Just gross.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

That "NFL" comment at the end of that article. Holy shit . And the 'Obama is the Antichrist" nonsense. Remind me again why we're not supposed to call Trump supporters racist?

(To say nothing of how laughable it is that they're railing against disrespectful millionaires while supporting one themselves. But Trump's white, so it's okay for him to be disrespectful.)

“I think he’s doing a great job, and I just wish the hell they’d leave him alone and let him do it,” Schilling said. “He shouldn’t have to take any shit from anybody.”

Yeah, how dare he take shit from anyone else! It's not like we've had to take shit from him, after all, right?

He added: “Some of these things are like that thing he said to Billy, Billy Bob, Billy Bud”—searching, unsuccessfully, for the name Billy Bush—“on the bus, that comment he made.” Del Signore shrugged. “He’s a human male. I’m glad he wasn’t saying, ‘Hey, I like little boys.’ You know? So he’s not perfect.”

“Sometimes I’ll be sitting there listening to all this Fox stuff, and I’ll say, ‘Maybe they aren’t right, maybe I’ll flip to CNN

So close...

but every time I’ve found that Fox has been correct, and CNN is definitely fake news.”

...and yet so, so far away.

It seems, at this point, the only thing that would make Trump's supporters turn on him is if he went completely liberal and started praising and emulating Obama and Clinton, and cozying up to those "disrespectful" NFL players. It's a cult mentality with them, it really is. He's got a disturbing hold over his supporters, to where they'd forgive him literally anything, and find some way to excuse or justify his behavior. No wonder Trump feels he never has to answer or be held accountable for anything.

Yeah. That article was heartbreaking. In so many ways.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Was he dismissed for being a distraction to a potential case? [emoji23]

 

[Irvine511]

It’s such a better day today. A friend of mine posted this:


“Dear right wing. You came for our relationships and the backlash led to marriage. You came for our trans brothers and sisters and we elected 7 of them to office in an off year. Come for what next? We will beat you there too.”

 

[VintagePunk]

It totally validates what I have been saying since the election - that a lot of these people are exactly the sort of freeloading unambitious types that they rail against in their racist tirades. I mean the businessman can't find 150 people to hire because the locals are unqualified and when offered re-training (they are all former miners) they don't want to be re-trained, they want to go back to working in the mines. What do you even say to that? They don't want to help themselves EVEN WHEN help is offered. So we are supposed to feel empathy for them and "come to understand" the plight of the disenfranchised middle America whites?

No, sorry. They want to be ignorant and left behind, fine. Plenty of votes to get outside of this group and maybe they'll eventually catch on that their intransigence is one of the reasons that they are stuck in the situation they are stuck in.

Also not at all surprised at the open and thinly veiled racism expressed by them. Just gross.

I agree with all of this, and always have. I'm pretty sure that this has been posted before, but there have been studies and scholarly publications done regarding people who support authoritarian leaders, and it is virtually impossible to change their minds. Bob Altemeyer from University of Manitoba has done extensive work in this area. This article is very good, and cites his work and provides links to a full text book that he has provided online.

https://verdict.justia.com/2017/07/07/altemeyer-trumps-supporters

The other thing I find interesting in all of this, are the parallels to the Rob Ford situation in Toronto a few years back. I'm pretty sure that the number of supporters who remained in his camp even after the truth came to light is very similar to the numbers who remain loyal to Trump. There seems to be a segment of society that is primed to get caught up in this bullshit, and probably nothing will change that.

It's for that reason, a long time ago, that I decided that anyone with this outlook isn't worth my time. They are simply too ignorant and backward for me to associate with. Our core values are too different for me to engage with them, in any meaningful way. Thankfully, there were very few people in my life who fall into this category, but the couple who did have been cut out.

Tl;dr - Fuck them, and concentrate on getting the people who aren't mindless drones out to vote. Wasting energy on them is pointless. Try to instill critical thinking skills into any young people you come into contact with. Discuss media literacy.

 

[dazzledbylight]

tc99 thanks ( I think for that article. How depressing!

VP
Read article. Didn't realize at first that John Dean had written it! (JD turned on Nixon and testified against him re: Watergate).

There was someone on public radio post election that pointed out that children raised under authoritarian parents and stayed that way (I don't think that they discussed much about those that changed) were attracted to Trump. And that was a factor that made it possible for college educated people to vote for him.

There was an article in Politico back 1/17/16 by Mathew MacWilliams that said the one "weird" trait that predicted a Trump voter was having authoritarian inclinations. It was beyond race, gender, age, income, education etc.

The writer mentioned a Marc Hetherington ( political scientist) who said that there used to authoritarian types among Democrats and Independents but through the decades; many/most of them had moved to the Republican Party because of ideological changes in the Democratic Party (supporting civil rights, LGB(+TQI later on) rights, employment protections etc ideas that valued freedom and equality.

A different article pointed out authoritarians tended to be very ethnocentric, and more aggressive towards outsiders. (never totally thought about that aspect , exactly, but yeah, that makes sense).

 

[dazzledbylight]

Hey , Vlad I never answered a question you asked me months ago, but since I see you here now I will.
RE: how would I go about creating more affordable housing.

 

[dazzledbylight]

So...... (I'm posting a bit at a time so i don't lose stuff

I'd start with raising taxes shock on Corporations , Multimillionaires, billionaires and trillies. Back in ?Eisenhower's days the corporate tax rate was about 90%! JFK reduced it to about 50%. During times many corporations did more for their surrounding communities.

I'd definitely tax is it called "micro transactions"(?) the super high speed computer transactions in stock etc trading.

I raise taxes a bit for upper middle incomers but grading it along single
(w/wo kids), couples wo kids, with kids (# of) etc.

Developers holding vacant lots over a specified time (except during certain economic conditions) would then have to pay " holding vacant lot" fees, or build affordable housing.

As to the housing itself.....
when I was a tween my family visited Montreal to see the '67 World's Fair . Among thea pavilions there was a modular housing display. It was .Habitat ?_______ something.

I am a artist, designer, assemblage sculptor and devotee of architecture. So since your original question I've turned the visuals around in my mind.

I think I could come up with a variable modular set of designs that would have certain features that would more easily make it easy for
low income person(s) to turn it into a friendly home.

I am a lower income person (was ([very early on till I was 7 yt old] lower end of upper-middle class, but soon after my mom got sick went to usually middle middle class earlier in my life) and as a creative person visualizing ways to make a nice modular type home.

When we lived in a middle class nabe of apt buildings our land lord (2 yes after we moved in
) decided to let our jrating , and elevator raids slide into semi-slum like conditions. Plus there was the 3 summers he kept trying to arson up the garbage storage area. And he was a genuine slum lord in the low income areas.

So those are my thots .