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Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)


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21 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

 

I find it difficult to rustle up sympathy for elected officials that willingly create or support policies which discriminate against non-Caucasians/whites, women, homosexuals/bisexuals, the poor (and even the middle class, these days), non-Christians, etc. Basically: individuals who make life harder for anyone that isn't a middle class or higher heterosexual W.A.S.P. (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) male. All of a sudden, now that people are pushing back with the First Amendment and their rights as private business owners, these politicians are crying foul? Boo-frickin'-hoo.

 

Performing a root canal on an ornery Allosaurus fragilis sounds more appealing and infinitely more realistic.

 

What about the no-name conservative or liberal, if the restaurant owner knows their political persuasion and decides to deny service for it?  (I can think of one local liberal who likes attacking in letters to the editor local Republican leadership this could apply to*)

 

Note: And if I owned a restaurant, and denied service to Hillary if she walked in, would that be ok?  (of course, I'd be tempted to dump out on the curb all politicians of both persuasions at this point.)

 

*He ironically, may or may not have ironically threatened physical violence on a local GOP politician for being pro-gun.

 

Edit: Not really rustling up much sympathy myself.   

 

 

 

 

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On 6/28/2018 at 7:31 PM, Vondy said:

 

Politics is downstream of culture. 

That reminds me of how Daniel Patrick Moynihan defined the difference between liberalism and conservatism. Conservatives, he said, believe that culture sets the limits of politics. Liberals believe that politics can change culture.

 

I see evidence for both. Optimally, they act as contraries to each curb the excesses of the other: Conservatives to remind liberals that humans are not infinitely malleable, and liberals to point out injustices in the status quo and insist that they can be corrected. At worst they become negations: Conservatives become reactionary apologists for privilege and injustice, while liberals try to burn down the social order because it's social order.

 

One irony is that -- at least according to one conservative political strategist I heard on All Things Considered -- many American conservatives believe they're losing the culture war or have already lost. So now they are trying to get their way through raw political dominance. Blocking Merrick Garland, a judge everyone said had no political ideology, from the Supreme Court was emblematic: An admission that the conservative agenda does *not* emerge naturally from just following the Constitution.

 

Dean Shomshak

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Yeah, the only thing I don't necessarily agree with is the last sentence.   I don't believe the Constitution necessarily has anything but a neutral agenda.  As someone who can speak more directly than most here of conservatives' perspectives.  I think they have allowed themselves to go into fullblown panic the way wind has blown over certain issues the last decade.   And have allowed themselves to lose faith in the Constitution, or at least, lose faith that the Constitution will be followed faithfully without manipulation.  ANd there is a feeling, that conservatives aren't allowed a voice through education and most media, so that many people aren't given both sides of the story.  There is also a feeling that conservative politicians lose their interest in following their constituents who voted them in, needs and desires, once they get elected and become enamored with DC.

 

And note,  I don't know what or how much I believe about all that.   I am just trying to give the best knowledge of the situation I can give.  The Garland block pretty thoroughly disgusted me.  But, I believe the President in charge should be able to make the pick, like it or not.  A republic is supposed to suck sometimes to keep things in perspective.

 

   

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On 6/29/2018 at 7:59 PM, assault said:

 

South-east Queensland is good in summer. Brisbane is humid, but doesn't usually reach the horrible temperatures Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide get.

 

Toowoomba, where I am, is usually a couple of degrees cooler than Brisbane, and far less humid. Unfortunately it sucks in winter. (No snow though, obviously.)

I bow to your superior knowledge. I haven't been to Queensland in some years and was simply thinking that the area above the tropics would be hot in summer.

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3 hours ago, st barbara said:

I will have you know that our wildlife (generally) doesn't eat tourists ! (Bite, sting and poison them to death yes, but EAT , not usually !)

 

Absolutely. We have superior crocodiles, but our sharks are pretty much the same as you will get anywhere else.

 

For what it's worth, cassowaries won't eat you. Otherwise, they are velociraptors.

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3 hours ago, st barbara said:

I bow to your superior knowledge. I haven't been to Queensland in some years and was simply thinking that the area above the tropics would be hot in summer.

 

True, but it's absolutely the place to be in winter.

 

FWIW, the wind hasn't been blowing much in Toowoomba. We had fog this morning for the first time this year. Pretty nice for people who aren't hothouse flowers.

 

I recommend Toowoomba as a place for people from the US to escape to. There's even an underutilized GM here...

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I have a friend who spent a few weeks in Australia in the summer as part of a college honors program. While she liked quite a few spots fine, she tells me Queensland is the first place to really steal her heart outside of the Smokey mountains themselves.

 

Knowing her, I know that that is high praise.

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On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 5:50 AM, assault said:

 

True, but it's absolutely the place to be in winter.

 

FWIW, the wind hasn't been blowing much in Toowoomba. We had fog this morning for the first time this year. Pretty nice for people who aren't hothouse flowers.

 

I recommend Toowoomba as a place for people from the US to escape to. There's even an underutilized GM here...

 

I'll be in Sydney and Melbourn the week or so before Christmas, before going to NZ to spend the holidays with my sister. I've flown over Toowoomba on the way to Cairns in the past. Love Melbourne as a city, Sydney, not so much, but the Blue Mountain area is stunning. What is Toowoomba like in that regard?

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1 hour ago, Hermit said:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/30/minimum-wage-maximum-wage-income-inequality

 

This will not happen in America in my remaining life time

 

but I wish it would.

 

 

 

Everyone (but the Koch brother types) lauds the middle class and America's exceptionalism in that area... but no one understands that it was created by significant government controls on the elite and wealthy. It has been a century of the 1% fighting back against this and buying up influence in our lawmakers (not the government in general, but the Congress in particular being co-opted) that has put us in this currently oligarchical position.

 

My new sig needs to be "Hang the rich."

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12 hours ago, Cygnia said:

If the US forum folk need to see if they've been purged from the voter rolls or not... 

 

https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/

 

Looks like they're more interested in collecting info than verifying your voter registration. I'd suggest the alternative of just checking with your state's website by searching Google for "am I registered to vote" or "am I registered to vote in [state]".

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6 hours ago, Badger said:

I vote for something or other 3 of every 4 years.  The pain of living in VA is odd year for state votes, so we get the joy pf perpetual campaigning

 

Campaigning never stops, no matter what state you're in. The Twitterer in Chief officially started his re-election bid days after being sworn in, and has never stopped his campaign rallies. I've been receiving messages for a couple of other folks probably running in 2020 (for both major parties), though they aren't folks I'd support. I've been receiving constant fundraising messages for NV District 4, even though I'm in District 1. I've been getting a constant stream of messages from our state AG on how Republican he is, in preparation for him to run for Governor. And every once in a while, I'll get a strange envelope of campaign materials from some tea party candidate who really just doesn't get how campaigns work.

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48 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

Campaigning never stops, no matter what state you're in. The Twitterer in Chief officially started his re-election bid days after being sworn in, and has never stopped his campaign rallies.

 

Personally, I think he just loves assemblies of people cheering him and shouting his name. It's a symptom of Narcissistic Personality Disorder to crave constant adulation.

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Sorry, double post. Many dictators and would be dictators have loved people having big rallies and having them chanting their name. I expect Trump to go in for gaudy neomilitary uniforms next. I am sure he will  if he is reelected rather than impeached, try to change your constitution to make himself "President For Life"or Grand High Exalted Poobar or something.

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16 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

 

Campaigning never stops, no matter what state you're in. The Twitterer in Chief officially started his re-election bid days after being sworn in, and has never stopped his campaign rallies. I've been receiving messages for a couple of other folks probably running in 2020 (for both major parties), though they aren't folks I'd support. I've been receiving constant fundraising messages for NV District 4, even though I'm in District 1. I've been getting a constant stream of messages from our state AG on how Republican he is, in preparation for him to run for Governor. And every once in a while, I'll get a strange envelope of campaign materials from some tea party candidate who really just doesn't get how campaigns work.

 

Yeah, I remember them talking about Obama 2012 campaign about 3 months into his Presidency (at least the pundits).  The 21st century political campaign has become a political version of 21st century Christmas season.

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