Random political thought thread.

[geedoenfj]

Or you could just help and receive both types of refugees (and condemn both invasions)

That’s how it should be, that should be the stance of all of us as humans..
War is no joke, and no one has the right to take advantage of people’s miseries and just throw some humiliating and dehumanizing stuff against another group of people.. These racist comments are pure stupidity and I’m glad they’re being called out by the public

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

anchin block bill to protect the right to abortion
The good news is that there is always a chance to correct course, and reverse the harm done by people like Joe Manchin (and the Republican Party to which he belongs de facto), on issues like abortion and discrimination. Always.

What does the Senate Majority leader even do? I feel like I hear far more from Joe Manchin than Chuck Schumer. The only thing I hear from Chuck Schumer is annoying ads I get telling me to give the Democratic party money.

 

[Kephalos]

What does the Senate Majority leader even do? I feel like I hear far more from Joe Manchin than Chuck Schumer. The only thing I hear from Chuck Schumer is annoying ads I get telling me to give the Democratic party money.

Replace them with people who will enact the Equality Act, the Do No Harm Act, the Women's Health Protection Act, the Voting Rights Act, etc. You put those acts on the party platform and select candidates that run campaigns for the Senate and the Congress that endorse the party platform and who once they get to Congress or to the Senate they enact the agenda.

In short, you have a political party. Schumer, Manchin, Sanders, Pelosi, Biden, Obama, Ocasio-Cortez...none of these people are irreplaceable.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Replace them with people who will enact the Equality Act, the Do No Harm Act, the Women's Health Protection Act, the Voting Rights Act, etc. You put those acts on the party platform and select candidates that run campaigns for the Senate and the Congress that endorse the party platform and who once they get to Congress or to the Senate they enact the agenda.

In short, you have a political party. Schumer, Manchin, Sanders, Pelosi, Biden, Obama, Ocasio-Cortez...none of these people are irreplaceable.

I don't think Chuck Schumer is doing that. It seems like Joe Manchin is calling the shots. I don't believe that there was no leverage Schumer could have placed on Manchin.

As far as I could tell the tactic the Senate Democrats used with Joe Manchin was just to keep cutting back the bill and scaling it back, as though he would have agreed to any amount. I didn't see any evidence that anything else was tried.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

That’s how it should be, that should be the stance of all of us as humans..
War is no joke, and no one has the right to take advantage of people’s miseries and just throw some humiliating and dehumanizing stuff against another group of people.. These racist comments are pure stupidity and I’m glad they’re being called out by the public

Americans elected a man who campaigned partly on not letting Middle Eastern refugees/immigrants into the country. A lot of the people who voted for him once accused anyone not supporting the war of "supporting Saddam" and not caring about Iraqis.

Being an American, I think it is certainly relevant to point that out, especially when we have professional journalists who don't appear to see the double standard employed with regards to Ukrainian war refugees vs Syrian/Iraqi war refugees (and a lot of the Syrian refugees are actually Iraqi).

It's stated as an obvious point that both wars should be condemned but I think it's only hindsight that got Americans there with Iraq. If we started war with Iran tomorrow just because we felt like it, I can bet you a lot of people praising the protestors in Russia would say "we need to stand by our President".

 

[Red Herring]

These last few days have only added to the urgency of a massive investment in renewables.

"Foreign invaders seize windmills", "Hostile nation threatens to end supply of sunlight" or "Fire at waterpower plant" just don't have the same ring to them as what is actually happening here and now, let alone potential szenarios that could still be far worse.

 

[Patches]

The big problem with that is... Quite frankly we can't achieve enough fully renewable energy in the US (or most places) without nuclear energy. And the general public mostly has "nuclear is scary and bad" seared into their brains. That's the hurdle that needs to be overcome to detach fully from fossil fuels. Change public perception on nuclear.

 

[Kephalos]

Anything short of everything is nothing. Worse than nothing.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Speaking of abortion, its gonna be a fun SCOTUS session this year. May issue concealed carry permits will also be dead.

 

[Kephalos]

Stop romanticizing World War II, a historian urges

Elizabeth D. Samet will make plenty of people angry with “Looking for the Good War.” In her searching analysis of changing American attitudes toward World War II over the course of 75 years, she characterizes its current glorification as “shaped … by nostalgia, sentimentality, and jingoism.” She has nothing good to say about Tom Brokaw’s worshipful account of “The Greatest Generation,” and she is withering about the work of historian Stephen E. Ambrose from which Brokaw drew his inspiration. Ambrose “promulgated a fantasy that American soldiers somehow preserved a boyish innocence amid the slaughter,” she writes, going on to describe one of his paeans to “citizen-soldiers” as “less historical analysis than comic-book thought bubble.” Samet’s real target, it becomes apparent, is the “garrulous patriotism” that Alexis de Tocqueville identified nearly 200 years ago: the insistence that the United States is a uniquely blessed nation, always a force for good, and any discussion of its flaws is unpatriotic. This blinkered view is enabled, she argues, by a collective amnesia that erases the complexities and contradictions that abound in all human experiences.

 

[Red Herring]

Stop romanticizing World War II, a historian urges

Well, the Americans aren't alone in this romanticizing. Just look at how much selfassurance the UK still draws from it.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Well, the Americans aren't alone in this romanticizing. Just look at how much selfassurance the UK still draws from it.

Not to mention Russians, which are still launching major counter attacks against the Nazis. :sarcasm:

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Samet’s real target, it becomes apparent, is the “garrulous patriotism” that Alexis de Tocqueville identified nearly 200 years ago: the insistence that the United States is a uniquely blessed nation, always a force for good, and any discussion of its flaws is unpatriotic. This blinkered view is enabled, she argues, by a collective amnesia that erases the complexities and contradictions that abound in all human experiences.

Yup. It's clear to me now from the recent discourse that this is still the case even after Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently those were just "oopsies", never mind that more people died from those than 9/11 and created a massive refugee crisis too, which unlike this current one, folks in the US wanted nothing to do with.

So many of the people who cheered on those conflicts want nothing to do with handling or even acknowledging the consequences of them. You can include many a pundit in that list. I think I would like to send a great deal of them to live out the rest of their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan so they can get a full understanding of the "oopsies" that they think should just be shrugged off.

 

[FemMecha]

I'm ready for fifth wave feminism when everyone admits that both genders are equally nightmarish. Unequivocal equality and truth = 5th wave.

there's a ton of backstory to this video, but i have all the source documents and backstory - this one is particularly relevant:

COMPLAINT_.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[Red Herring]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw...y-reaction-force-initiative-report/a-59574641

"
Germany and four members of the European Union have launched an initiative to establish a bloc-wide rapid reaction force for future military crises, the German news agency dpa reported on Thursday.

The initiative, which also draws in Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia, aims to expand the existing EU battle groups, which are multinational military units of 1,500 personnel each on standby to respond to crises."


Finally! At least it's a start. I have been suggesting this for twenty years!

 

[Virtual ghost]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw...y-reaction-force-initiative-report/a-59574641

"
Germany and four members of the European Union have launched an initiative to establish a bloc-wide rapid reaction force for future military crises, the German news agency dpa reported on Thursday.

The initiative, which also draws in Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia, aims to expand the existing EU battle groups, which are multinational military units of 1,500 personnel each on standby to respond to crises."


Finally! At least it's a start. I have been suggesting this for twenty years!

That isn't that many member states but ok, that number will almost surely grow fairly fast under the current circumstances. Because this is something that is simply needed even without the current mess in Ukraine. Sometimes you have to respond in ASAP fashion. However merging on European armies is the process that is already on the way since alternatives don't make too much sense in the current world. Therefore this is basically unavoidable part of the process.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Yes, I am being politically naughty.

 

[Kephalos]

"Of the Liberty of the Press", David Hume.

"If the administration resolve upon war, it is affirmed, that, either wilfully or ignorantly, they mistake the interests of the nation, and that peace, in the present situation of affairs, is infinitely preferable. If the passion of the ministers lie towards peace, our political writers breathe nothing but war and devastation, and represent the pacific conduct of the government as mean and pusillanimous."

 

[Red Herring]

Der Postillon (our equivalent to The Onion) just posted that Russia was applying to host the Fifa World Cup 2028... in Moskow, Kijiv and Berlin!

Not sure if this is still funny given some of the "erase all of Europe from the map" rhetoric recently coming from both the Russian government and the Russian media (which at this point is basically the same thing).

 

[Kephalos]

Der Postillon (our equivalent to The Onion) just posted that Russia was applying to host the Fifa World Cup 2028... in Moskow, Kijiv and Berlin!

Not sure if this is still funny given some of the "erase all of Europe from the map" rhetoric recently coming from both the Russian government and the Russian media (which at this point is basically the same thing).

As Stalin once remarked: Tsar Alexander got to Paris.