Random political thought thread.

[Burning Paradigm]

I don't think there's any escaping that the US-China friction is poised to be another Cold War.

 

[Virtual ghost]

I don't think there's any escaping that the US-China friction is poised to be another Cold War.

Yeap, therefore the bigger question is how long this is going to last. 2 and a half years or we are again in the saga that will last for decades.

 

[ceecee]

The National Review claimed the monarchy was "a valuable political inheritance" to which Americans owed a debt.

Now Heritage Foundation calls the monarchy a "cornerstone of Western Democracy."

There is an anti-monarchy clause in the US Constitution but conservatives have no issue shitting on something they don't appear to have the ability to grasp. Which is yet another reason the right is entirely lost and void of any redeeming factors. But it would be super helpful for anyone unfamiliar to read about William F. Buckley and his Christofascist brother in law Brent Bozell to get a better sense of how damaging the right has been for years.

 

[The Cat]

 

[ceecee]

This is a really good one.

 

[ceecee]

I don't think there's any escaping that the US-China friction is poised to be another Cold War.

Just don't buy into the media propaganda. It's Iraq war justification 2.0 revving up.

Not saying we are going to war. Just don't believe the next idiot that claims we're getting invaded. Or that China is attempting to surpass the US or replace western powers or some other kind of shit.

 

[The Cat]

Just don't buy into the media propaganda. It's Iraq war justification 2.0 revving up.

Not saying we are going to war. Just don't believe the next idiot that claims we're getting invaded. Or that China is attempting to surpass the US or replace western powers or some other kind of shit.

Theyre going to be really trying to otherise a lot of people and places to take the heat off of themselves...

 

[Virtual ghost]

Just don't buy into the media propaganda. It's Iraq war justification 2.0 revving up.

Not saying we are going to war. Just don't believe the next idiot that claims we're getting invaded. Or that China is attempting to surpass the US or replace western powers or some other kind of shit.

I have seen this attitude around American left but I just don't agree with it. Saying that all security issues are just covered up imperialism is just simplistic worldview. Especially since it presumes that no one else can do "imperialism" and that the country is invincible. What in the end is a form of American exceptionalism the American left hates so much. Plus as I said I don't need media to see that American influence has visibly decreased in these parts and that we are getting eastern investments and take overs, as the dictatorships popping all over the place (my thread is full of post about that). As a matter of fact your country is in ruins to this degree exactly because someone took the effort that you export your manufacturing (which is real economic power). The fact that the Taliban even after 20 years still didn't run out of ammo probably also isn't a pure coincidence. It is also a fact that in US just about every trend is unsustainable and that makes it kinda inevitable that someone else will try to take the helm globally. Even your own allies are creating all kinds of new alliances among themselves since you are no longer seen as a factor of stability you can count on. What makes you replaceable basically by definition.

 

[Lark]

I don't think there's any escaping that the US-China friction is poised to be another Cold War.

I know, boring.

Its disappointing how quickly and easily this seems to be happening too since during the actual cold war the US and China were largely great allies against Russian aggression. It feels like a lot of social capital has been dispensed with and really ruined.

I would expect some sort of embarrassment or humbling in some third world theatre of conflict/war to follow from it becoming clearer and clearer that the US can not maintain its "we're number one". To be honest I think that this may be more psychological than anything else and it could be interesting to see how the anglo-sphere negotiates it, its not done well so far.

The relationship between Russia and China will be one to watch, China seems to favour order whereas Russia prefers disorder and authoritarianism. Those things appear to be fundamentally at odds to me.

 

[Virtual ghost]

I know, boring.

Its disappointing how quickly and easily this seems to be happening too since during the actual cold war the US and China were largely great allies against Russian aggression. It feels like a lot of social capital has been dispensed with and really ruined.

I would expect some sort of embarrassment or humbling in some third world theatre of conflict/war to follow from it becoming clearer and clearer that the US can not maintain its "we're number one". To be honest I think that this may be more psychological than anything else and it could be interesting to see how the anglo-sphere negotiates it, its not done well so far.

The relationship between Russia and China will be one to watch, China seems to favour order whereas Russia prefers disorder and authoritarianism. Those things appear to be fundamentally at odds to me.

I never realized why people in the west see Russia and China as something that is quite different one from another. One is Communist and the other one is kinda reformed Communist, but every day it looks less and less "reformed". Plus more importantly they both know that this split lost them the Cold war. Therefore they are unlikely to make this mistake again, especially since the west is weaker than ever and now is the time to expand at it's expense. While "our personal differences" can wait.


Plus in practical sense it is good alliance, Russia can provide China with plenty of materials and energy as well as with nuclear shield. While China builds, exports and conquers the countries and areas that are rocked by Russian interference and their local pawns. Plus together they have enough of a mass to attract allies like Iran or support distant countries like Venezuela or Cuba. Therefore they know that if they split that both will lose significant amount of power as well as ability to project it. Therefore in my book the odds that this relationship will fundamentally crack are minimal. Since it is build on self interest and to some degree revenge. Therefore the first worlders must play their cards smart since there is realistic chance that they could lose this "game". Especially if they do this split thing between Anglosphere and EU. Since that is proven to be the losing strategy.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

California Ethnic Studies Curriculum imposes “critical race theory,” excludes Martin Luther King Jr. - World Socialist Web Site


California Ethnic Studies Curriculum imposes “critical race theory,” excludes Martin Luther King Jr. : stupidpol

It's likely been said before but bears repeating, but it's jarring to witness the extent to which MLK would have been similarly out of place in large parts of the current discourse as he was in the last years of his life. He was accused by some in his organization of expressing "ingratitude" towards LBJ and the Democrats by speaking out against the war in Vietnam in 1965 (kind of how Nina Turner was scolded by a white female Hillary supporter in 2016 for supporting Bernie with the words "and after all we've done for you") and was similarly constrained in speaking out against the war by the anti-communist consensus. He was, of course, also accused of being a communist agent as flippantly as many similar anti-capitalist and anti-war speakers are today of being Russian assets. He was also accused by some of his allies in his organization as "diluting" the racial issue by focusing on anti-war (like how the Women's March dismissed Cindy Sheehan's anti-war politics as a distraction in 2018) and didn't live to pursue his proposed alignment with poor and working-class whites (sounds "Nazbol-y" now as some cynics would suggest).

With movements like BLM in even greater lockstep with the Democrats, current hysteria over Russia, and growing sectarian identity politics and segregation of issues, it's hard to imagine he would have been freer to speak today than in his last few years. We're going backwards and it sucks shit.

Jeeeesus

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Racialist Neoliberalism cosplaying as humanism. Sickening.

I mean, I’m glad we got rid of Trump, and Trumpism needs to go, but surely we can come up with a better alternative than what we’re getting now.

But it appears the cycle is starting over again.

 

[ceecee]

California Ethnic Studies Curriculum imposes “critical race theory,” excludes Martin Luther King Jr. - World Socialist Web Site


California Ethnic Studies Curriculum imposes “critical race theory,” excludes Martin Luther King Jr. : stupidpol





Jeeeesus

smh

 

[Burning Paradigm]

What Will Be the Contours of the Biden Administration’s Global Health Agenda? | KFF

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I don’t know what the long term effects of vaping are. All I know is that I can actually run up flights of stairs, walk in the park, ride a bicycle, etc without suddenly being out of breath since I quit smoking combustible tobacco. My breath doesn’t smell like an ash tray. I don’t catch colds nearly as frequently as I did when using cigarettes, and when I do, my body recovers from them faster. My clothes and vehicle don’t smell like an ashtray. I have more energy and higher libido as a vaper at 40 than I did as a smoker at 30

I would not recommend people who’ve never used tobacco start vaping, but it’s been a godsend for ex cigarette smokers. A nationwide vape ban would be terrible for public health and either drive people back to cigarettes, or to questionable black market products. And while I’m not keen on the thought of young kids picking up either habit, if it came down to it, I’d rather catch my kid vaping than smoking a cigarette

 

[The Cat]

 

[ceecee]

They can't win and won't win unless they continue gerrymandering, packing courts with ghouls, mostly illegal PAC money...standard GOP cheating. At least that cockroach is freely admitting to being part of a crime syndicate.

 

[ceecee]

The divine right of wingnuts - Backbencher


For anyone not paying attention, there are new, right-wing historical revisionists who argue the American Revolution was pro-monarchical. Yes you read that right.

On March 25 the conservative Heritage Foundation will host a “virtual event” titled “The Crown Under Fire: Why the Left’s Campaign to Cancel the Monarchy and Undermine a Cornerstone of Western Democracy Will Fail.” Announcement of the event left a lot of people wondering how and when the American right became partisans for the British monarchy. “Quite a plot twist here,” marveled Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. Writing in the liberal Mother Jones, James West scratched his head at the right “tearing up the Declaration of Independence to own the libs.”

Keep an eye on this batch of right wing conservative revisionist crazy.

 

[Kephalos]

[MENTION=40720]General Napissimo[/MENTION]:

A proposal: let the US government buy the patents for the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines against COVID-19 and release them to the public domain. Issue guidances so labs all over the world can produce the vaccines and stipulate that the doses be sold at cost. THAT would earn Biden a Nobel Peace Prize and a place in history.

 

[Kephalos]

[MENTION=4050]ceecee[/MENTION]:

There are no deep reasons for this sudden love for Queen and Country. The political right does have a reactionary, contrarian component: they oppose what they perceive the political left to support by default. For example, I have read for years arguments by right leaning economists that recommend social spending in the form of cash instead of in-kind. Well, a lot of in-kind social services have been replaced by cash payments by Mexico's left-wing government, and a lot of those economists have come out against this. It's mere contrarianism.