US Politics XXIV: Your Country Sucks

[cobl04]

Sorry, couldn't pass up the opportunity.

__________________

[Moonlit_Angel]

Fine by me . Sounds reasonable.

ETA, from the last thread, regarding this CNN article: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/polit...rns/index.html

In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

So. Why. Aren't. They. Doing. Anything?

God, I am so sick and tired of reading about how "concerned" people who are working in or have worked in this administration are and not reading about any major action taken to stop him or just get him out of here. They either just up and quit and later write books talking about how awful he is or they just speak of their concerns anonymously or whatever. FUCKING DO SOMETHING ALREADY IF YOU'RE THAT WORRIED. Where were all of you during the impeachment hearings?

[LemonMelon]

I think "sucks" is a charitable descriptor.

[cobl04]

I'd also like to declare that Australia also has many things that suck, like our racism, the culture wars, classism, susceptibility to bushfires, lack of AFL teams in Northern Territory and Tasmania, but, it does suck less than the USA, mostly due to our healthcare system, lack of passion for guns and seemingly a much lower percentage of insane people. I can't wrap my head around those fuckwit white lawyers who were pointing killing machines at protestors yesterday.

[monkeyskin]

Originally Posted by cobl04

I'd also like to declare that Australia also has many things that suck, like our... AFL team (the Geelong Cats)....

Tightened that up for you.

[cobl04]

I’ll kill you.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

https://twitter.com/JimLaPorta/statu...613321728?s=19

Get this fucking traitor off my god-damned lawn

[Hewson]

Thread title sucks.

[MrsSpringsteen]

I never thought my country sucked before Trump. Yes there have always been things about it that sucked.

But now sadly I agree, my country sucks. Still some good people in it, but yeah it sucks.

[MrsSpringsteen]

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

https://twitter.com/JimLaPorta/statu...613321728?s=19

Get this fucking traitor off my god-damned lawn

Trump should have been impeached for that. Bolton knew and wouldn't testify because "it wouldn't have mattered"? He's a damn traitor too.

But nobody has been tougher on Russia than Trump

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Our country does, indeed, suck.

One could also make a thread title Australian Politics I: Your country sucks, too, and U2 won't be playing any rattle and hum songs when they come back to Australia in 20 years, either.

[Jerry Dunk]

[BEAL]

Let’s not forget about the mortgage relief that was given. People expected to pay the six months up front when its lifted.

Unless that was changed and missed it ?

I think something will get passed, but it’ll be last second

[iron yuppie]

Originally Posted by Jerry Dunk

Meanwhile mortgage applications and average home loan amounts are rising. This is drawing into sharp contrast the gulf between people who do and don't have access to property buying.

Still seems to me the most logical and humane thing to do is freeze rent and mortgage payments. I don't understand why that isn't being considered.

[anitram]

I think that due to some technicality, many people's benefits expire on July 25. Meaning there are less than 4 weeks for Congress and the obstructionist do-nothing Republicans to act.

[Irvine511]

I suppose there’s some measure of hope in the fact that — despite all the well known, listed problems and the horror show of the past 3.5 years — making fun of the US is still widely understood as punching up.

We may survive.

Maybe.

[Jerry Dunk]

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

Meanwhile mortgage applications and average home loan amounts are rising. This is drawing into sharp contrast the gulf between people who do and don't have access to property buying.

Still seems to me the most logical and humane thing to do is freeze rent and mortgage payments. I don't understand why that isn't being considered.

They don't want to even give a taste to anyone of what the world might look like with a social safety net. If, in a time of crisis, you give the things to people that they need to live (like housing and healthcare), they might start asking why you don't give those things to them all the time.

[BEAL]

It’s the same with the stupid argument on how unemployment pays more than their job.

Doesn’t that raise a red flag about their job ??? Why does a actual job pay less than unemployment???

[anitram]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

I suppose there’s some measure of hope in the fact that — despite all the well known, listed problems and the horror show of the past 3.5 years — making fun of the US is still widely understood as punching up.

We may survive.

Maybe.

Honestly, the concept of American exceptionalism has been terribly toxic globally for decades. It's easy for most Americans to forget what the direct and indirect consequences of this have been for people all around the world - from Latin and South America, to Asia to the Middle East. And the fact that many Americans now are probably going to question this concept if not outright reject it, is in my view, a positive.

The US isn't the devil, but as a country it is ABSOLUTELY no better than comparable Western democracies.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by anitram

Honestly, the concept of American exceptionalism has been terribly toxic globally for decades. It's easy for most Americans to forget what the direct and indirect consequences of this have been for people all around the world - from Latin and South America, to Asia to the Middle East. And the fact that many Americans now are probably going to question this concept if not outright reject it, is in my view, a positive.



The US isn't the devil, but as a country it is ABSOLUTELY no better than comparable Western democracies.

But it certainly is bigger and more influential. It’s in all of our interests for the US to function well. It’s vastly preferable to a world dominated by Russia and/or China. Most global problems aren’t going to be addressed without US leadership.

What do you take to mean by American exceptionalism? Because I wasn’t thinking about that at all in my comment.