Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Starlord]

1 hour ago, Old Man said:

Are you nuts? The man is a ratings goldmine. 

 

Well, I didn't say it was an easy challenge.

[Old Man]

The ratings goldmine has now signed the stimulus bill that was flown to him in Mar-a-Lago last week. Too late to prevent an interruption in unemployment benefits, but averting a government shutdown. 

[unclevlad]

20 minutes ago, Old Man said:

The ratings goldmine has now signed the stimulus bill that was flown to him in Mar-a-Lago last week. Too late to prevent an interruption in unemployment benefits, but averting a government shutdown. 

 

I'm GREATLY relieved.

 

And totally, utterly, completely disgusted with and sick of Trump.  

[Pariah]

It makes me wonder if Moscow Mitch called him and explained to him (in small words) that he was screwing the Party's chances of winning those two Senate seats in Georgia.

[Lord Liaden]

I don't think Trump cared about the bill one way or another. All he ever wants is attention and deference. If McConnell called him and personally begged him to sign (or words that Trump could interpret that way), that would probably be enough to satisfy him that he's still relevant.

[unclevlad]

10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I don't think Trump cared about the bill one way or another. All he ever wants is attention and deference. If McConnell called him and personally begged him to sign (or words that Trump could interpret that way), that would probably be enough to satisfy him that he's still relevant.

 

I don't think it's deference.  I think he simply loves making all the little mice scurry...and that's all he thinks of everyone else, is little mice for him to play with.  They're toys...and disposable ones at that.  What matters is he's pulling the strings;  the consequences for anyone else don't matter.  And there's another angle:  his vindictiveness.  Here, he gets to pull Pelosi's string, to get her to do what he wants:  embarrass the Republicans by continuing to push for the larger stimulus checks.  He doesn't care about the Republican Party any more;  they've failed him by refusing to back his election-fraud 'arguments.'  If it costs the Republicans the Senate...why does that matter to him?

 

Trump is very much "If you make me lose, I will make sure you lose MORE."

[Cancer]

The Trumpist pandemic politics is damaging rural communities' health in multiple ways

 

Compound effects of the phenomenon I posted about earlier: the COVID death rate in rural counties has exceeded that in metropolitan counties since the middle of August.  And when an orchestrated campaign of idiotic defiance makes health care workers depart because they're harassed, it's hard to feel bad for those who've driven them away.

[Matt the Bruins]

That's assuming one cares to try. I'm at the "let them eat cakesee if faith healing can cure COVID-19" point now.

[BarretWallace]

17 hours ago, Cancer said:

The Trumpist pandemic politics is damaging rural communities' health in multiple ways

 

Compound effects of the phenomenon I posted about earlier: the COVID death rate in rural counties has exceeded that in metropolitan counties since the middle of August.  And when an orchestrated campaign of idiotic defiance makes health care workers depart because they're harassed, it's hard to feel bad for those who've driven them away.

I'm guessing that "herd immunity" will include a major thinning of the herd through sheer stupidity.  I just don't understand humanity...maybe we've been too comfortable for too long and no longer have a collective understanding of sacrifice for the greater good.

[Iuz the Evil]

28 minutes ago, BarretWallace said:

I'm guessing that "herd immunity" will include a major thinning of the herd through sheer stupidity.  I just don't understand humanity...maybe we've been too comfortable for too long and no longer have a collective understanding of sacrifice for the greater good.

Individual humans can be brilliant, kind, wise and virtuous. In the years of my life I increasingly consider groups of humans to be dangerous, easily duped, prone to reacting from base emotion, and rejecting of logic. None of this is surprising to me at all, and I develop Public Policy for these things. Sigh.

 

I think it’s more likely a modest thinning of the herd, and long term medical complications for many more. But the point is well taken that US citizenry and their lack of the concept of shared sacrifice for the greater good. It’s unfortunate.

[Lord Liaden]

IMO Donald Trump's choice to make the response to coronavirus part of his self-serving propaganda campaign has changed it from a public health issue, to one of demonstrating support for him, and of accepting his unfounded conspiracy theories. The fact that he and his followers have raised the profile of those attitudes has contributed to citizens in other countries taking them up.

[DShomshak]

I'm sure it doesn't help that a large proportion of US doctors and nurses are immigrant brown people with funny names and funny accents. As social scientists such as Arlene Hochschild have found, "team loyalty" is tremendously important to Americans in small communities, and Trump has made it a choice between trust in him or trust in people who are Not Like Us. For many people, it's no contest. Especially when you add Americans' longstanding suspicion of experts and intellectuals.

 

<shrug> I too am finding it harder to muster much sympathy. Let the Darwinnowing play itself out.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cygnia]

Another article on toxic individualism

 

How America Fell into Toxic Individualism

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, DShomshak said:

I'm sure it doesn't help that a large proportion of US doctors and nurses are immigrant brown people with funny names and funny accents. As social scientists such as Arlene Hochschild have found, "team loyalty" is tremendously important to Americans in small communities, and Trump has made it a choice between trust in him or trust in people who are Not Like Us. For many people, it's no contest. Especially when you add Americans' longstanding suspicion of experts and intellectuals.

 

<shrug> I too am finding it harder to muster much sympathy. Let the Darwinnowing play itself out.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

If only they could see that for the vast majority of his followers, Trump is Not Like Them in nearly every way except skin tone. When he isn't orange, of course.

[Lord Liaden]

I've become convinced that a great many of the elites trying to squeeze everything out of society that they can for themselves, don't care if the world goes to hell as a result, because they figure they'll be dead before they have to face the consequences, and the rest of us don't matter.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

Another article on toxic individualism

 

How America Fell into Toxic Individualism

 

I believe the author's analysis is reasonably accurate, but her overview is too short-term. America has been through multiple profoundly divisive, existential crises in its history, like the civil rights movement, the Great Depression, the Civil War. In their aftermath came large-scale social reorganization, which for the most part brought progressive changes.

 

Some of the "American values" she decries the loss of are generational. I can remember when they weren't prevalent. The values of an era are always going to be challenged at some point, and have to be defended by those who believe in them. The battle may be long and hard, but in the end progressive ideas have always won out, because the only way to adapt to change is to move forward.

[unclevlad]

12 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I've become convinced that a great many of the elites trying to squeeze everything out of society that they can for themselves, don't care if the world goes to hell as a result, because they figure they'll be dead before they have to face the consequences, and the rest of us don't matter.

 

That's if they even think that far down the line.  Or perhaps it's that someone will figure out how to clean it all up;  that's what minions are for, is cleanup duty.

 

How prevalent is this attitude?  No clue;  not like any of us are members of the Billionaire Boys Club.  Media and culture push the stereotype (e.g., Gordon Gecko);  sports figures have driven this home (and massively promoted the winner-take-all mentality that is the catalyst and fuel for toxic individuality) for several decades now.  (It's gotten much worse in the last 10 years, I'd say, but it was going on before.)  There is a counter-current, led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and including Bezos, Zuckerberg, Bloomberg and others.  There's the woman who was reported recently to have donated $5 billion *this year* for food banks and other local causes hit by the pandemic.  So they're out there.

 

BUT, the machine that set them up to do this is still in place, and the pandemic makes things that much worse.  Those who have, have the cushion to make it through.  Those who don't, lose badly.

[Ragitsu]

 

[TrickstaPriest]

Pardons pardons and more pardons.

[Lord Liaden]

The takeaway is that if you break the law to the benefit of the President, you're protected.

[Sociotard]

Remember how big the stink was for Mark Rich?

[TrickstaPriest]

1 minute ago, Sociotard said:

Remember how big the stink was for Mark Rich?

 

One guy got a huge stink.

 

Now we got war criminals, corrupt allies, and possible pay-for-play.

 

What will we get for it?

[unclevlad]

27 minutes ago, TrickstaPriest said:

Pardons pardons and more pardons.

 

Is there a fresh round?  I can't find anything new.  

[TrickstaPriest]

18 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Is there a fresh round?  I can't find anything new.  

 

Nah just on my mind

[TrickstaPriest]

some fun things to remember