Random Politics Thread

[Jaguar]

I want my investment bank bailout now daddy!

I wasn't for that bailout, either.

 

[Lark]

And that is why when it comes to basics it is easiest to just giver everyone the benefit. Since in that case there are no entitled people, also since everyone gets the same offer there is very little paper work ... plus the problem is hold under control. So that people can focus on the more advanced goals. Which basically provide the money for the basic benefit program(s).

Universal Basic Income.

 

[Jaguar]

.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I wonder what the books Bin Laden had actually were, just encyclopedias?

I can help! There's a list here: Osama Bin Laden’s eclectic and paranoid collection of books.

 

[ceecee]

This is something I've talked to several people about in the last year and I usually get a confused look. The House has not grown meaningfully in size since the 1920s, which means that a representative, on average, speaks for 770,000 constituents, rather than the 30,000 the Founding Fathers mandated. If we demonstrate that a virtual Congress can do its job as well or better using 21st-century technologies, rather than 18th-century ones, perhaps we could return the house to the 30,000:1 ratio George Washington prescribed.

Opinion | A Congress for Every American - The New York Times

A virtualized House sent back to their home districts, permanently, to be accessible to their constituents, will also assist in the reapportionment and expansion in the above article. This is already happening to a degree due to COVID, they can't claim it's impossible now.

 

[Virtual ghost]

This is something I've talked to several people about in the last year and I usually get a confused look. The House has not grown meaningfully in size since the 1920s, which means that a representative, on average, speaks for 770,000 constituents, rather than the 30,000 the Founding Fathers mandated. If we demonstrate that a virtual Congress can do its job as well or better using 21st-century technologies, rather than 18th-century ones, perhaps we could return the house to the 30,000:1 ratio George Washington prescribed.

Opinion | A Congress for Every American - The New York Times

A virtualized House sent back to their home districts, permanently, to be accessible to their constituents, will also assist in the reapportionment and expansion in the above article. This is already happening to a degree due to COVID, they can't claim it's impossible now.

Ok but that isn't really the problem (in my book). The problem is that your system doesn't allow that multiple parties/people can grab seats in certain area, since every time there is only one winner for the position (red or blue). Therefore I would rather fix that, especially since that would do much more for fixing the representation. Although this can be done in combination with rising the amount of seats.


(if we dream about big ideas)

 

[Jaguar]

TX has no term limit for Governors. Not good.

 

[Jaguar]

Dominion is going after the 'My Pillow' guy. Good for them.

 

[Totenkindly]

Dominion is going after the 'My Pillow' guy. Good for them.

There needs to be more accountability, that's for sure.

These people can shoot off their mouths as much as they want on their talk radio and cable TV and other partisan rags, but in a court of law, what flies in public discourse doesn't fly at all. You actually have to legitimately support your claims and can be charged for lying or speaking carelessly.

If it takes dragging people into court to cut through all the noise and terrible mistruths, then so be it.

 

[Stigmata]

Republican leaders have Stockholm syndrome as it relates to Trump. Lindsay Graham is going to Mar-a-Lago to try and play peacemaker so that Trump will endorse/campaign for the 2022 elections ahead of his planned 2024 reelection bid. He believes Trump can be a "Kingmaker".

Uh, what? Since he has been elected the Republicans have lost both Congress and the executive. I don't understand why they think he is so vital to their success going forward. Sure, he probably brought out voters to vote they may not have voted prior, but he has also lost a bunch of longtime GOP voters who aren't all that interested in what comes with becoming the Trump party while further moving away from actual conservative principles. They have so much confidence in a man who has yet to produce any sort of positive results for the party since being elected.

They're doubling down on the Trump train, and if he doesn't win reelection in 2024 (which I think after the Capitol siege I don't think is possible anymore), that entire bet will have failed them miserably.

The GOP deserves to be the permanent minority party, yet I just can't understand why they are intentionally doing that to themselves if the goal is to maintain power. I am quite fearful of what the 2024 election cycle will bring, though.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Republican leaders have Stockholm syndrome as it relates to Trump. Lindsay Graham is going to Mar-a-Lago to try and play peacemaker so that Trump will endorse/campaign for the 2022 elections ahead of his planned 2024 reelection bid. He believes Trump can be a "Kingmaker".

Uh, what? Since he has been elected the Republicans have lost both Congress and the executive. I don't understand why they think he is so vital to their success going forward. Sure, he probably brought out voters to vote they may not have voted prior, but he has also lost a bunch of longtime GOP voters who aren't all that interested in what comes with becoming the Trump party while further moving away from actual conservative principles.

I think the amount of Republicans who actually care about more about conservative principles than simply "owning the libs" or wearing a flag lapel or some other bit of creaky symbolism or bullshit posturing is much smaller than some make it out to be. They exist but I don't think there's all that many of them. The truth is that it probably makes a great deal of sense politically for them if they wish to be elected.

If most GOP voters cared so much about "conservative principles" or "conservative values" how did Trump get the nomination in the first place?

Not trying to start a fight with you here, but I have a lot of skepticism regarding the alleged values and principles of GOP voters that keep on failing to materialize in the people they worship as God-Emperors. They don't just vote for people like Trump, they worship them.

 

[Jaguar]

Lindsey has 5 faces. And they rotate. I believe nothing of what he says.

 

[Stigmata]

I think the amount of Republicans who actually care about more about conservative principles than simply "owning the libs" or wearing a flag lapel or some other bit of creaky symbolism or bullshit posturing is much smaller than some make it out to be. They exist but I don't think there's all that many of them. The truth is that it probably makes a great deal of sense politically for them if they wish to be elected.

If most GOP voters cared so much about "conservative principles" or "conservative values" how did Trump get the nomination in the first place?

Not trying to start a fight with you here, but I have a lot of skepticism regarding the alleged values and principles of GOP voters that keep on failing to materialize in the people they worship as God-Emperors. They don't just vote for people like Trump, they worship them.

I actually agree with you on this. I think the modern iteration of the party is an obstructionist, white nationalist cult masquerading as an actual political party. That's why I've mentioned here lately that they don't even have any real interest in governing and are unable to come up with an actual platform outside of "owning the libs".

If they actually cared about conservative principles, Romney would still be a prominent figure within the party. Favoring conservatism as a concept is actually pretty prevalent amongst Americans as a whole, yet what we're seeing now from the GOP isn't it. I think a lot of those old guard conservatives are either voting Democrat because they recognize that at least the democratic want to preserve our democracy, and feel they can be a catalyst for change to push the Democratic party more right from within, or have just chosen to step away from politics altogether.

 

[Jaguar]

.

Trump isn't a conservative. Never has been, never will be.
Someone should start a party that is actually conservative. Sen. Ben Sasse would be in that party.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I actually agree with you on this. I think the modern iteration of the party is an obstructionist, white nationalist cult masquerading as an actual political party. That's why I've mentioned here lately that they don't even have any real interest in governing and are unable to come up with an actual platform outside of "owning the libs".

If they actually cared about conservative principles, Romney would still be a prominent figure within the party. Favoring conservatism as a concept is actually pretty prevalent amongst Americans as a whole, yet what we're seeing now from the GOP isn't it. I think a lot of those old guard conservatives are either voting Democrat because they recognize that at least the democratic want to preserve our democracy, and feel they can be a catalyst for change to push the Democratic party more right from within, or have just chosen to step away from politics altogether.

Yeah, instead Romney is a traitorous RINO. BTW, I remember the same talk going around during the Dubya administration about John McCain, and he was way less critical of Dubya than Romney was of Trump. IIRC, the main beef they had with him was that he didn't think torture was good and didn't think money was free speech.

Like wow, dude, imagine having the nerve to say torture is bad. HE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN GAY MARRIED TO SADDAM.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Republican leaders have Stockholm syndrome as it relates to Trump. Lindsay Graham is going to Mar-a-Lago to try and play peacemaker so that Trump will endorse/campaign for the 2022 elections ahead of his planned 2024 reelection bid. He believes Trump can be a "Kingmaker".

Uh, what? Since he has been elected the Republicans have lost both Congress and the executive. I don't understand why they think he is so vital to their success going forward.

Sad but true: without Trump they have NOTHING.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

There needs to be more accountability, that's for sure.

These people can shoot off their mouths as much as they want on their talk radio and cable TV and other partisan rags, but in a court of law, what flies in public discourse doesn't fly at all. You actually have to legitimately support your claims and can be charged for lying or speaking carelessly.

If it takes dragging people into court to cut through all the noise and terrible mistruths, then so be it.

I've been thinking about this. The downside of not having witnesses for the impeachment trial (and putting chips on potential criminal trial instead, which is what I've been doing) is that a criminal trial won't be publicly broadcast and won't offer the transparency of proving all the "allegations" Cruz wouldn't shut up about (as if the sheer number of allegations was sufficient proof of fraud) were nothing more than lingering hot air from Emperor Blowhole. Or will it be public? I think OJ's trial was broadcast, but I'm not sure.

I keep thinking that shaving the sane outskirts of Trump's base might happen if there were either a public broadcast of a trial (for the reasons you mention) or very patient but diligent journalists breaking down all the "evidence" of fraud. If people could actually see the reasons why the cases got thrown out of court instead of 'trusting' the court system, and they were allowed to comb through it with a fine tooth comb (looking for this proof, and obviously ultimately just not finding it), they *might* start questioning the wild "deep state" claims. Right now they're all fueled on blind faith that the evidence is there, and that's all Trump has. There should be a lot more transparency. I sorta don't understand why that's not already happening.

 

[Lark]

I actually agree with you on this. I think the modern iteration of the party is an obstructionist, white nationalist cult masquerading as an actual political party. That's why I've mentioned here lately that they don't even have any real interest in governing and are unable to come up with an actual platform outside of "owning the libs".

If they actually cared about conservative principles, Romney would still be a prominent figure within the party. Favoring conservatism as a concept is actually pretty prevalent amongst Americans as a whole, yet what we're seeing now from the GOP isn't it. I think a lot of those old guard conservatives are either voting Democrat because they recognize that at least the democratic want to preserve our democracy, and feel they can be a catalyst for change to push the Democratic party more right from within, or have just chosen to step away from politics altogether.

There's a guy in the UK who's an able writer but whose politics I dislike who has written about this at length, he wants to revive some older conservative ideas about cyclical history (this is not to do with demography, so far as I can tell) or cycles of degeneration and regeneration, in society at large but also among elites, to explain it all.

Its full of all the usual, you never had it so good, condemnation of the masses rather than the classes, ranting about poor people's entitlement.

The thing is if you apply it all primarily to politicians in particular it could explain a lot but most of the time its not applied to them but used as an excuse by them to defend their privilege.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Republican leaders have Stockholm syndrome as it relates to Trump. Lindsay Graham is going to Mar-a-Lago to try and play peacemaker so that Trump will endorse/campaign for the 2022 elections ahead of his planned 2024 reelection bid. He believes Trump can be a "Kingmaker".

Uh, what? Since he has been elected the Republicans have lost both Congress and the executive. I don't understand why they think he is so vital to their success going forward. Sure, he probably brought out voters to vote they may not have voted prior, but he has also lost a bunch of longtime GOP voters who aren't all that interested in what comes with becoming the Trump party while further moving away from actual conservative principles. They have so much confidence in a man who has yet to produce any sort of positive results for the party since being elected.

They're doubling down on the Trump train, and if he doesn't win reelection in 2024 (which I think after the Capitol siege I don't think is possible anymore), that entire bet will have failed them miserably.

The GOP deserves to be the permanent minority party, yet I just can't understand why they are intentionally doing that to themselves if the goal is to maintain power. I am quite fearful of what the 2024 election cycle will bring, though.

What mystifies me is that people still don't see the extent to which there's no floor on the loyalty Trump expects, and he WILL throw someone under a bus the minute they aren't "loyal". His demands have already exceeded insane parameters. Do these people who want his support think it'll be clear sailing for the next two years? Just when it seems like his expectations for loyalty couldn't possibly get more blatantly traitorous or criminal, they do. A lot can happen in even one week. These people are signing on for two years. What the fuck is wrong with them?

 

[Lark]

What mystifies me is that people still don't see the extent to which there's no floor on the loyalty Trump expects, and he WILL throw someone under a bus the minute they aren't "loyal". His demands have already exceeded insane parameters. Do these people who want his support think it'll be clear sailing for the next two years? Just when it seems like his expectations for loyalty couldn't possibly get more blatantly traitorous or criminal, they do. A lot can happen in even one week. These people are signing on for two years. What the fuck is wrong with them?

For most of them that's precisely the sort of thing they look for in a leader though. They think its good leadership or good management.