Random Politics Thread

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

At least one more US state set to decriminalize weed this year. It may not be legalization but it's a step in the right direction.

We just legalized it.

 

[Jaguar]

Fuck off, Bern. You've lost your goddamn marbles.

 

[anticlimatic]

Fuck off, Bern. You've lost your goddamn marbles.

Looks like you might be voting for him....

 

[Jaguar]

Looks like you might be voting for him....

Bite me.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

We just legalized it.

Are you smoking? We should hang out

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

So jag, if Bernie is nominee, who are you voting for in the general?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Are you smoking? We should hang out

No.... not right now.

 

[Lark]

We just legalized it.

I'm predicting a future for the US that may resemble Britain's manipulation of China during the Opium Wars.

That is if the actual opiates epidemic in the US doesnt eclipse the likely control of the population by big tobbaco controlled cannabis/canniboids/THC.

The US ought to be a cautionary tale about what happens when your health services and economy become dominated by big pharma with links to companies whose products are induce illness through prolonged exposure. Selling the poison and the anti-venom, selling, selling, selling, always selling. And buying.

 

[Virtual ghost]

EU unveils new consumer protection rules for digital economy

 

[Jaguar]

The Trump administration insists it was forced to "act in self-defense" and kill Soleimani to prevent an attack on the US within "days," but has provided no information about the specific threat.

Is this 2020 or 2002? You can move the numbers around but the stupidity going on is still the same:

In October of 2002, 9 months before the US-led invasion of Iraq, the CIA produced a document summarizing relevant intelligence on Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programs. The document became the basis for the Bush Administration's public statements about the extent of Saddam's WMD program and was also distributed to members of Congress.

The intelligence estimate was used to support the Bush administration's case that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program represented an imminent threat, which became perhaps the leading justification for the US-led war.

 

[ceecee]

We Talked to Navy Sailors in Every Active Fleet. Almost All of Them Expressed Little Confidence in Navy Leadership. — ProPublica

The responses by the sailors — consistent, repeated — can be jarring to read:

Are you getting enough sleep? “No.”

Do you feel well-trained to do your job? “No.”

Have there been scenarios in which you or your bosses had concerns about the safety of the ship and crew but felt they could not say no to new tasking? “Yes.”

Please rate your confidence in Navy leadership in the Pentagon. “I am not confident.”

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'm predicting a future for the US that may resemble Britain's manipulation of China during the Opium Wars.

That is if the actual opiates epidemic in the US doesnt eclipse the likely control of the population by big tobbaco controlled cannabis/canniboids/THC.

The US ought to be a cautionary tale about what happens when your health services and economy become dominated by big pharma with links to companies whose products are induce illness through prolonged exposure. Selling the poison and the anti-venom, selling, selling, selling, always selling. And buying.

Who really knows, but there's a long history in the U.S. of locking up people, especially minorities, just for possession. Usage is already really common, anyway. I think the benefit to legalizing it will be shown to outweigh the harm. After all, people can ruin their lives with alcohol, and that's legal.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Peter Branche's answer to When has the media been horrifically wrong? - Quora

Answer to When has the media been horrifically wrong? - Quora

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Habib Fanny's answer to Do black people really fear police, even if they are an upstanding individual in the community? - Quora

 

[Virtual ghost]

....

A little bit random question. What do you think about the claim that Bernie would fit fairly nicely into the CDU or EEP in general ? (European center right)

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I'm predicting a future for the US that may resemble Britain's manipulation of China during the Opium Wars.

That is if the actual opiates epidemic in the US doesnt eclipse the likely control of the population by big tobbaco controlled cannabis/canniboids/THC.

The US ought to be a cautionary tale about what happens when your health services and economy become dominated by big pharma with links to companies whose products are induce illness through prolonged exposure. Selling the poison and the anti-venom, selling, selling, selling, always selling. And buying.

We're already not far off from that. We're controlled via endless entertainment and pleasures and distractions. Huxley was more or less right in his predictions, righter than Orwell.

That said, the war on marijuana has been costly and ineffective. Prohibition is never a reliable means of curtailing drug abuse. Millions of nonviolent offenders have been locked up through the years over minor marijuana offenses; an unending flow of prisoners convicted of drug charges keeps the private prison industry fat and wealthy. The war on drugs has affected the African American community disproportionately, contributing to an epidemic of single parent homes, which correlates strongly with increased crime and incarceration rates in minority and poor communities. The current state of affairs with millions of nonviolent offenders providing cheap slave labor as prison inmates isn't too far off from the days when debtor prisons provided a legal way to have an army of slave laborers with little legal recourse to ever break from those chains.


Also, if the choice were between a nation of pillheads taking designer drugs and a nation of potheads smoking what has been reported by doctors for years to be mostly harmless, I'd take the latter. I'm not a fan of big pharma and I dread them taking over the pot industry, but it's preferable to demonizing people who at worst are harming themselves by using marijuana. At some point, you have to let people make their own bad decisions, suffer and hopefully learn from the consequences. The added level of criminalizing those people doesn't help anyone, and makes those people more likely to resort to other crime to survive once they have the stigma of a conviction hanging over their heads and tarring their records.

 

[Red Herring]

A little bit random question. What do you think about the claim that Bernie would fit fairly nicely into the CDU or EEP in general ? (European center right)

I'd have to look into his agenda in more detail but off the cuff I'd say that's bullshit. He seems like an old school socialdemocrat.

The CDU does not care much about the environment, women or minorities and aproaches any social or technological change with an "as little disruption as possible" approach. Comparisons are hard to make though as the key issues on both sides of the pond are so different. Religion and abortion are pretty much irrelevant to German politics, for example, and only the far right fringe doubts manmade climate change. There is more acceptance of taxes, subsidies, welfare programs and government meddling on both sides of the aisle as there tends to be a bit more trust in the state.

Even most conservatives see the need for a green new deal, it's more about what that is supposed to look like. And nobody really likes the military or wants to see it in action.

 

[Red Herring]

The main political topics here are climate change and migration. Sometimes hard to regulate problems the lack of personell in the healthcare and retirement home sector or emotionally charged mini-topics like a speedlimit for highways dominate the headlines, but that happens year after year without getting resolved.

In the long run the main problems Germany faces are (in my opinion):
- climate change
- Demographic change (we have too few children and would shrink and eventually die out without net immigration). Immigration however needs to be guided to ease integration.
- technological change - there was a point when we could have become world leaders in renewable energy and slowly let that replace our sick and dying but very important automotive sector. We missed that chance due to the government being too hesitant and now the Chinese fill that position, it's infuriating
- the future of the EU - we pay a lot into the EU but are net benefitters in so many ways. A strong and unified Europe standing its own ground without getting bullied by Russia, China or the USA is key for a decent life in this part of the world

 

[Virtual ghost]

I'd have to look into his agenda in more detail but off the cuff I'd say that's bullshit. He seems like an old school socialdemocrat.

The CDU does not care much about the environment, women or minorities and aproaches any social or technological change with an "as little disruption as possible" approach. Comparisons are hard to make though as the key issues on both sides of the pond are so different. Religion and abortion are pretty much irrelevant to German politics, for example, and only the far right fringe doubts manmade climate change. There is more acceptance of taxes and government meddling on both sides of the aisle as there tends to be a bit more trust in the state.

You don't have to study point by point, I am just asking about general vibe. He seem to be more moral than EPP, however I just don't see this left wing extremist vibe that some media are trying to portray. European center right actually enforces a good chunk of what he wants to introduce over the pond. Minorities and gender issues are the only things where I see some kind of clear left lean. I mean I am from left wing environment in economic sense and I am just trying to grasp my bias.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

A little bit random question. What do you think about the claim that Bernie would fit fairly nicely into the CDU or EEP in general ? (European center right)

He seems like European center-right, based on some of his positions. He has a fairly hands-off approach to business (at least compared to European socialists), for instance look at his position when asked in 2016 on whether victims of school shootings ought to be able to sue gun manufacturers (his position was NO, although maybe he's changed his views on it since then).

Regardless, he's not quite the far left socialist the American right portrays him as. One could never get elected in a state like Vermont, which could at best be characterized as a civil libertarian stronghold with some socialist leanings.