Random Politics Thread

[Totenkindly]

I googled those and they look awesome!

<pics>

LOL, apparently he includes an erlenmeyer flask (usually a symbol for the natural sciences) among the "dark occult practices"?

Wow, thanks for the memories. I remember these panels now that I've seen them again! But this was stuff being peddled to me as a child, as routine. What's funny is that my mom didn't necessarily believe all the hardcore weird stuff... she never paid much attention to specific content, it just must have been good because it was "Christian." And she had no problems with me reading secular comics either; again, she never really paid attention to content. So in addition to all of this crazy stuff, I was also allowed to read a lot of fantasy and scifi and play Dungeons & Dragons. But I am sure in my area a lot of reading was policed more strenuously by parents, so all they had were "Christian" books and comic books.

I remember one splash page of the Revelation reference to a "cloud of locusts rising out of the pit," except it was being interpreted as Russian or Chinese helicopter squadrons. For whatever reason, visually, that memory lodged in my head.

Oh, hey, I remember The Rapture panel too...

Oh, this is amusing -- another reference to the Rapture, except clueless about popular slang...

 

[Jaguar]

.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Ya know SNL had Donald Trump host twice (and yes, one of those was when he was running for President).

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Solarpunk as Anarchist Infrapolitics – Solarpunk Anarchist

 

[ceecee]

Trump and the Republican revolt against democracy, explained in 13 charts - Vox

I think what got my attention more than anything was this chart.

The GOP is up there with Turkey’s AKP (a regime that is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists), and Poland’s PiS (which has threatened dissenting judges with criminal punishment) - all radical right and anti-democratic

The verdict of these experts is clear: The Republican Party is one of the most anti-democratic political parties in the developed world. The people that like to give all the excuse as to why they really don't align with the GOP - then why are you standing up to be counted with and voting with them? Taxes? Human abuse foreign and domestic policy? Scared to death of black and brown people? Convinced that most people think they way you do when it's abundantly clear they don't but you have to continue to lie to yourself anyway?

The only way the GOP can continue to win is via gerrymandering and voter suppression (see slew of new bills in GA and TX). 5 years ago some may have been able to use ignorance as an excuse but not anymore.

 

[Coriolis]

Curious: is it true that in US Catholics are visibly more likely to vote for the Democrats ?

It's a tossup. Those who prioritize caring for the less fortunate are more likely to vote for Democrats. Those who prioritize limiting reproductive and LGBT rights are more likely to vote for Republicans.

 

[ceecee]

It's a tossup. Those who prioritize caring for the less fortunate are more likely to vote for Democrats. Those who prioritize limiting reproductive and LGBT rights are more likely to vote for Republicans.

Interesting..

8 facts about Catholics and politics in the U.S. | Pew Research Center

..although #6

 

[Virtual ghost]

Trump and the Republican revolt against democracy, explained in 13 charts - Vox

I think what got my attention more than anything was this chart.

The GOP is up there with Turkey’s AKP (a regime that is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists), and Poland’s PiS (which has threatened dissenting judges with criminal punishment) - all radical right and anti-democratic

The verdict of these experts is clear: The Republican Party is one of the most anti-democratic political parties in the developed world. The people that like to give all the excuse as to why they really don't align with the GOP - then why are you standing up to be counted with and voting with them? Taxes? Human abuse foreign and domestic policy? Scared to death of black and brown people? Convinced that most people think they way you do when it's abundantly clear they don't but you have to continue to lie to yourself anyway?

The only way the GOP can continue to win is via gerrymandering and voter suppression (see slew of new bills in GA and TX). 5 years ago some may have been able to use ignorance as an excuse but not anymore.

If I can add a word of wisdom:


If you are trying to slam the GOP as "bad people" don't just go against "the radical right" because you will sound partisan and lose some audience right in the start. Especially since you are mostly talking to people that naturally lean right. For example here you can also mention Czech Communist party that is just bellow GOP on that graph (CZE_KSÄŒM). Also you can add SVK-SME that is basically nothing more than renamed Communist party of Slovakia, which is a little bit to the left on the graph. I mean you get the point. Plus you can say how many of those problematic parties are openly Fascist and left-overs of such system. I mean in the US that is often considered left wing. In other words if you approach it like that the people are more likely to listen, since it wouldn't sounds so partisan (and it is makes a point). Since authoritarian is authoritarian at the end of the day. Right wing gas chamber vs. left wing firing squad ... the final result is the same.

 

[Lark]

Amazon.co.uk
[MENTION=20113]Tellenbach[/MENTION] I think you'd like this book ^

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Capitalism loves freedom too much to tolerate something like a homeowner's association, lol.

(What the hell is the point of working and saving to buy your own home just to have a bunch of people arbitrarily telling you what you can and can't do with it?) I dare someone to defend the existence of Homeowners Associations and convince me that they're something other than yet another example of how the idea of America as the land of freedom is a crock of shit (unlike socialist hellholes like Scandinavia or the E.U).

Judy Cobgobbler says I can't have a pink flamingo on my lawn because it's a tacky eyesore but her giant inflatable Frankenstein she puts up every Halloween is perfectly ok. What an existence to aspire to.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh and they really do play an important role in preserving property values and aren't just a space for petty busybodies desperate for some kind of authority to dominate.

 

[Jaguar]

A death warrant for Texans.

Add them to the 44,000+ killed as he failed to confront the pandemic & botched the vaccine rollout.

And those who froze to death because he cares more about energy companies’ profits than keeping Texans alive.

Abbott is killing the people of Texas.

So, are you going to run or what?

 

[Virtual ghost]

A death warrant for Texans.

Add them to the 44,000+ killed as he failed to confront the pandemic & botched the vaccine rollout.

And those who froze to death because he cares more about energy companies’ profits than keeping Texans alive.

Abbott is killing the people of Texas.

So, are you going to run or what?

Funny, since the incumbent governor is being presented as an idiot over this even in my local MSM, that are on the other side of the globe.
(the report kinda shocked my family)

 

[ceecee]

U.S. diplomat openly calls for Christian nation-states, rails against Jews - POLITICO

A State Department official for several years has been publicly calling for the establishment of Christian nation-states, warning that white people face “elimination” and railing against Jews as well as Black Lives Matter and other social movements.

Fritz Berggren, a mid-ranking Foreign Service officer, openly uses his name and image as he espouses these and other controversial views, according to a review of his online postings.

This ^^ is the Christian Identity Movement/Army of God. Older than the internet. It very much overlaps with American Exceptionalism and British Israelism ( belief that the people of the British Isles are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel). It's not the same as the pagan White nationalism/supremacy movements.

CI is also very much passed off as "conservative Christian values" and it's absolutely not. For example;


Christian Identity vs. Evangelicalism

In the simplest terms:

Evangelicalism: Jesus' atonement provides redemption; faith in Christ is the source of salvation

Christian Identity: White Americans are the true Chosen people and Children of Israel.

Christian Identity vs. Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism: Anyone can be saved through belief in Christ.

Christian Identity: Only whites can be saved. Jews are "Satan's children," and manipulate minorities to disenfranchise the white "Chosen" people.

Christian Identity vs. Evangelicalism

The End Times (very basic):

Evangelicalism: Christ will return and be victorious at the End of Days (interpretations vary)

Christian Identity: End of Days entails a race war obligatory on all believers to fight (details vary)

Abortion in CI theology (somewhat self-explanatory):

-White people are under attack by Jews and minorities via reproduction / "demographic threats" etc.
- White majority control is divine-right; fighting those who threaten it is religiously obligatory
-Abortion itself is often coded as a Jewish conspiracy to erode the white majority's divinely ordered control
-more orthopraxic v. orthodox (action over belief); believers are obligated to fight 'evil' with action

I really wish everyone would pay more attention because these fucking people should never be in government, should never be part of American or world society at all. Now that the extremists have everyone's attention, it's high time people start understanding what they're looking at and what they're not looking at.

 

[ceecee]

I'm going out on a limb and saying that the person complaining about the Dr. Seuss "wokeness" have zero clue as to what is being cancelled.

I'm sure lots of people have never seen this before but when you start doing the knee jerk reactionary thing - consider doing some homework first.

 

[Red Memories]

I'm going out on a limb and saying that the person complaining about the Dr. Seuss "wokeness" have zero clue as to what is being cancelled.

I'm sure lots of people have never seen this before but when you start doing the knee jerk reactionary thing - consider doing some homework first.

I actually never read dr. seuss as a child. this may shock some people.

man that last one is...in a children's book?

I dislike the idea of completely no longer having something anymore due to images of the time, because I think they have historical context and should be taught as such. "This is how poorly we viewed african-american people in the past. We work to stop this association". Outright removing everything is a chance for someone to try and just outright delete history and isn't gonna help either.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I'm going out on a limb and saying that the person complaining about the Dr. Seuss "wokeness" have zero clue as to what is being cancelled.

Charlotte Clymer posted a thread yesterday listing a few studies about Dr. Seuss done over the recent years, and pointing out that the clear majority of recently banned children's books have been banned by conservatives (8/10 were for LGBTQ reasons).

It's almost fascinating that these people who trip over themselves to clutch their pearls about "cancelling" don't see the extent to which they're doing the same thing (overzealously policing others for that delicious moment when they can point out someone else doing something 'wrong').

 

[ceecee]

I actually never read dr. seuss as a child. this may shock some people.

man that last one is...in a children's book?

I dislike the idea of completely no longer having something anymore due to images of the time, because I think they have historical context and should be taught as such. "This is how poorly we viewed african-american people in the past. We work to stop this association". Outright removing everything is a chance for someone to try and just outright delete history and isn't gonna help either.

Oh, I think we can do a good job of explaining how poorly we VIEW African-Americans without the help of these illustrations.

 

[Coriolis]

Oh, I think we can do a good job of explaining how poorly we VIEW African-Americans without the help of these illustrations.

That's like being confident we can still teach people about the Holocaust without preserving sites like Dachau and Auschwitz as museums/memorials.

 

[Red Memories]

Time for the Jazzy needs educated session.

my grandfather, we have been low middle class, is saying if Biden reinstates the estate tax, that they would tax us at 25% on the equity in the home and if I cannot pay this I will lose the house upon him leaving it to me.

Should I freak out then?

 

[Coriolis]

Time for the Jazzy needs educated session.

my grandfather, we have been low middle class, is saying if Biden reinstates the estate tax, that they would tax us at 25% on the equity in the home and if I cannot pay this I will lose the house upon him leaving it to me.

Should I freak out then?

No. That sounds like misinformation to me. From Forbes:

Biden has proposed restoring estate and gift taxes to their 2009 level: $3.5 million per person for the estate tax, $1 million for the gift tax, and a top rate of 45%.

So, even if Biden's proposal is implemented, if your grandfather's estate is worth less than $3.5M at the time of his death, there will be no estate tax. The current exemption is $11.7M, which was more than doubled by Trump. This is federal estate tax. You should check on whether your state applies its own estate taxes.