Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Old Man]

[Pariah]

Mitch McConnell. Rand Paul. Now Representative Thomas Massie.

 

No offense, Kentucky, but what the Hell are you guys thinking with your Congresspeople?

 

House debates $2.2T virus relief bill amid last-minute snag

 

to;dr version: Massie objects to the scope of the relief bill, so he's trying to force a voice vote in the house, which would require a large number of representatives to travel back to Washington DC to cast their votes.

[TrickstaPriest]

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

As always, I greatly appreciate hard data.  Thanks for sharing this!

[Starlord]

16 hours ago, TrickstaPriest said:

 

 

 

I still run into people on my friends' FB walls (meaning their friends and family) arguing that "the libs / welfare queens / etc" are all "stay at home lazy people" and should want to get back to work. 

 

 

Since they don't want government handouts, ask them to hand their Coronavirus Welfare/Socialism checks over to you then. 

[Starlord]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

Mitch McConnell. Rand Paul. Now Representative Thomas Massie.

 

No offense, Kentucky, but what the Hell are you guys thinking with your Congresspeople?

 

House debates $2.2T virus relief bill amid last-minute snag

 

to;dr version: Massie objects to the scope of the relief bill, so he's trying to force a voice vote in the house, which would require a large number of representatives to travel back to Washington DC to cast their votes.

 

Aware of Massie here in Ohio, I believe he's also voted against an anti-lynching bill and two human rights declarations in Hong Kong and China.  He also thought Russian spy Maria Butina shouldn't be imprisoned and has argued (similar to Trump) that the presence of 'snow' disproves climate change.

[Old Man]

Donald Trump's approval rating has sharply increased over the past two weeks, per FiveThirtyEight.com.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Hermit said:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/27/holy-crap-insane-citing-coronavirus-pandemic-epa-indefinitely-suspends-environmental

 

You blink for a second...

 

I'm getting a blank page from that link. It might be because it's blocked here in Canada. Would you mind summarizing it, please?

 

52 minutes ago, Old Man said:

Donald Trump's approval rating has sharply increased over the past two weeks, per FiveThirtyEight.com.

 

If true, I have to conclude many people think Trump is doing a great job, because they just believe him when he tells them he's doing a great job. Humanity's appetite for bullsh!t is appalling. 😢

[Hermit]

5 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I'm getting a blank page from that link. It might be because it's blocked here in Canada. Would you mind summarizing it, please?

 

 

If true, I have to conclude many people think Trump is doing a great job, because they just believe him when he tells them he's doing a great job. Humanity's appetite for bullsh!t is appalling. 😢

 

AH, apparently the article was mistaken so the site took it down. originally it seemed as if the EPA was basically letting mega corps have a free for all during the pandemic, but it turns out it's more about letting some EPA workers stay home and letting testing go ahead or some such. My apologies. Glad you caught it

[Old Man]

8 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

 

If true, I have to conclude many people think Trump is doing a great job, because they just believe him when he tells them he's doing a great job. Humanity's appetite for bullsh!t is appalling. 😢

 

Trump's sending us $1200, America is great again!  /s

[Hermit]

2 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

Trump's sending us $1200, America is great again!  /s

 

It's amazing what even a little democratic socialism will do for AMerican morale as long as you don't call it that

[TrickstaPriest]

4 hours ago, Starlord said:

Since they don't want government handouts, ask them to hand their Coronavirus Welfare/Socialism checks over to you then. 

 

The general 'mood' I've heard is "If you don't vote for trump in november than you shouldn't take 'his' check."

[Lord Liaden]

In essence, vote-buying. Got it.

[Ragitsu]

Scared people are desperate for leadership the way a drowning man is desperate for a life-preserver...even if it is covered in spikes and flaming weasels.

[Ternaugh]

29 minutes ago, Ragitsu said:

Scared people are desperate for leadership the way a drowning man is desperate for a life-preserver...even if it is covered in spikes and flaming weasels.

 

"I would have been here right after you called, but I had to shake the weasels."

[Badger]

6 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I'm getting a blank page from that link. It might be because it's blocked here in Canada. Would you mind summarizing it, please?

 

 

If true, I have to conclude many people think Trump is doing a great job, because they just believe him when he tells them he's doing a great job. Humanity's appetite for bullsh!t is appalling. 😢

 

I think it may be that the mess that is corona is such a mess they might be giving him a temporary benefit of the doubt.  (that and the Dems choosing Biden who is arguably in decline, may have scared some)

 

 

[TrickstaPriest]

5 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

In essence, vote-buying. Got it.

 

The rationale falls into the "you should be thankful not ungrateful" type thing.  You have to understand that people who speak/talk like this are acting like they are at war with 'your society', viewing it as both hostile and dysfunctional.  It's literal decades of propaganda, and you'll see both those themes constantly.  'Your' society isn't legitimate, nor functional, it's scary and a threat but can't possibly win.  It's the same rationale that has people support things like 'how dare California have all those forest fires'.  It doesn't matter which side we are talking about, but for the specific type I am talking about, the words are very much mirrored in certain wartime propaganda...

 

edit: (You can tell I particularly hate the way certain radio and television programs have created a populace that not only gets information from them, but are essentially dependent on them for their entire worldview... and how that relationship has been horribly abused for decades...)

[Lord Liaden]

I agree with all you wrote. I comprehend the mindset and rationalization. But the gist is still, "if you take this money you have to vote for the person (we believe to be) giving it to you." It's the most direct and obvious brand of pork-barrel politics, bread and circuses with a coat of paint.

[Badger]

well, as far as that part of it.  I don't think too many think that, or really even put it together really.  At least, I don't know of any cases I know of.  

 

 

I do know of people who are probably going to vote for Trump, because they have no faith Biden can hold anything together at this point.   (actually, I know of more people who are mad at the Dems, rightly or wrongly because they believe they were too busy with impeachment to bother being concerned when the coronavirus started out in China. or something*)

 

 

*For me, true or not is irrelevant, as it isn't a good excuse.

[Ragitsu]

 

I thought it was odd that Trump was fixated on calling Coronavirus "Chinese Virus". By the way, I was unaware that Jews were blamed for the Black Plague. How heartwarming is it to realize that damn near every epidemic/pandemic comes with a healthy serving of bigotry?

[Lawnmower Boy]

3 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

 

I thought it was odd that Trump was fixated on calling Coronavirus "Chinese Virus". By the way, I was unaware that Jews were blamed for the Black Plague. How heartwarming is it to realize that damn near every epidemic/pandemic comes with a healthy serving of bigotry?

I blame the Leutonians.

[DShomshak]

4 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

 

I thought it was odd that Trump was fixated on calling Coronavirus "Chinese Virus". By the way, I was unaware that Jews were blamed for the Black Plague. How heartwarming is it to realize that damn near every epidemic/pandemic comes with a healthy serving of bigotry?

 

 

Oh, yes. A historian of epidemics, interviewed on On the Media, predicted that the next stage would be the search for a scapegoat. Jews for the Black Death, gays for AIDS.

 

It's deeply rooted in the human tendency to personalize everything. Bad things can't just happen: They must be the result of someone's malice. Jews, witches, evil spirits, Communists, Catholics, bankers... or even Jewish Communist bankers.

 

Imagining that the upcoming relief check is from Donald Trump, personally, and so one should be grateful to him, personally, is just the flip side of this.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Dr. MID-Nite]

11 hours ago, Badger said:

well, as far as that part of it.  I don't think too many think that, or really even put it together really.  At least, I don't know of any cases I know of.  

 

 

I do know of people who are probably going to vote for Trump, because they have no faith Biden can hold anything together at this point.   (actually, I know of more people who are mad at the Dems, rightly or wrongly because they believe they were too busy with impeachment to bother being concerned when the coronavirus started out in China. or something*)

 

 

*For me, true or not is irrelevant, as it isn't a good excuse.

 

Biden shouldn't have been the democratic front runner to begin with. I don't know WTF they were thinking, but they may well have just gift wrapped another 4 years for Trump. 

[Lord Liaden]

5 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

I thought it was odd that Trump was fixated on calling Coronavirus "Chinese Virus". By the way, I was unaware that Jews were blamed for the Black Plague. How heartwarming is it to realize that damn near every epidemic/pandemic comes with a healthy serving of bigotry?

 

It's not odd at all, for Trump. It's his reflexive response whenever he's screwed up, to try to shift the blame to someone else, and focus public anger on that target rather than himself. Transparently predictable. Mind you, I can't say for certain whether Trump ever admits to himself that he did screw up. But just the potential for blame is enough to put him in scapegoating mode.

[Ragitsu]

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

It's not odd at all, for Trump. It's his reflexive response whenever he's screwed up, to try to shift the blame to someone else, and focus public anger on that target rather than himself. Transparently predictable. Mind you, I can't say for certain whether Trump ever admits to himself that he did screw up. But just the potential for blame is enough to put him in scapegoating mode.

 

Yes, but his attitude on the optics of this situation is schizophrenic (bipolar?) at best. Half the time, he quietly gives China props for handling their outbreak plus the assistance they're passing along to us; the other half is spent parroting weak jingoistic sentiments that still resonate with his diehard followers.

[Ragitsu]

6 hours ago, DShomshak said:

 

 

Oh, yes. A historian of epidemics, interviewed on On the Media, predicted that the next stage would be the search for a scapegoat. Jews for the Black Death, gays for AIDS.

 

It's deeply rooted in the human tendency to personalize everything. Bad things can't just happen: They must be the result of someone's malice. Jews, witches, evil spirits, Communists, Catholics, bankers... or even Jewish Communist bankers.

 

Imagining that the upcoming relief check is from Donald Trump, personally, and so one should be grateful to him, personally, is just the flip side of this.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

I personally spoke with an individual that halfheartedly mentioned there might be someone to blame for this pandemic. They were of the mind that it may have been a deliberate attack by those that hate the United States. All I said in response was (and I am heavily paraphrasing here) that trying to lay blame at this point is an academic exercise which will lead to impotent frustration and that we should be focused on minimizing exposure to the virus, because heads can roll later once we are past the crisis.