Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Matt the Bruins]

Gorsuch at least is eminently qualified for a judicial position on the Supreme Court, he's a well-respected judge without a whiff of personal impropriety or scandal. I may oppose him on many issues, but I really wouldn't have been able to cry foul on his nomination and appointment if it had happened later in place of Kavanaugh instead of being stolen from the previous administration by Senate Republicans.

 

Kavanaugh, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust to judge a wet T-shirt contest at a frat kegger.

[Badger]

Yeah, conservative or not, the Merrick Garland thing did bother me.  (and surprisingly a few people I know who voted for Trump)

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Matt the Bruins said:

Kavanaugh, on the other hand, I wouldn't trust to judge a wet T-shirt contest at a frat kegger.

 

IMO the main reason Trump nominated him, is because he published a legal opinion piece holding that a President has the power to pardon himself.

 

44 minutes ago, Badger said:

Yeah, conservative or not, the Merrick Garland thing did bother me.  (and surprisingly a few people I know who voted for Trump)

 

A number of Conservatives I've read have pointed out that it sets the precedent for Democrats to do the same thing to a Republican SCOTUS nominee if and when they control the Senate.

 

I often find myself reminding people (not you specifically, Badger) that not everyone who identifies as Republican or Conservative is an ideologue who sees people with differing views as "the enemy." Many of them are reasonable people who simply have a different perspective on certain issues than self-identified Liberals.

[TrickstaPriest]

11 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

A number of Conservatives I've read have pointed out that it sets the precedent for Democrats to do the same thing to a Republican SCOTUS nominee if and when they control the Senate.

 

I often find myself reminding people (not you specifically, Badger) that not everyone who identifies as Republican or Conservative is an ideologue who sees people with differing views as "the enemy." Many of them are reasonable people who simply have a different perspective on certain issues than self-identified Liberals.

 

It's the American "news" programs (especially those online) that I leave that complaint at the feet of.  They've created a toxic environment for discourse.  Memes and social media then magnify that noise across everyone else.

 

I wholly want to write a treatise on memes and how they reinforce cult-like brainwashing behavior.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

IMO the main reason Trump nominated him, is because he published a legal opinion piece holding that a President has the power to pardon himself.

 

 

A number of Conservatives I've read have pointed out that it sets the precedent for Democrats to do the same thing to a Republican SCOTUS nominee if and when they control the Senate.

 

I often find myself reminding people (not you specifically, Badger) that not everyone who identifies as Republican or Conservative is an ideologue who sees people with differing views as "the enemy." Many of them are reasonable people who simply have a different perspective on certain issues than self-identified Liberals.

 

Yeah, I do that too, except reminding  of the reverse.  (although, to some benefit, a lot of the conservatives I do know don't consider the liberal-at least the liberal masses-as evil so much as hilariously naïve, or clueless.  So there is that.)

[TrickstaPriest]

36 minutes ago, Badger said:

 

Yeah, I do that too, except reminding  of the reverse.  (although, to some benefit, a lot of the conservatives I do know don't consider the liberal-at least the liberal masses-as evil so much as hilariously naïve, or clueless.  So there is that.)

 

That's nice.  And I'm sure you'll find a lot of that on the reverse - 'the conservative voters are naive' more than evil.

 

Honestly it has to do with the strategy that it's easier to convince someone that other people are foolish than it is to convince someone that they are evil.  It's sort of a 'first step' type of thing.

 

It's during times like these, where what is accurate, and what is moral, are so important, that these differences can be very painful.

[Badger]

Yeah, naivety you can at least still consider the other side human.   When you dehumanize, it becomes easy to justify quite a bit.  

 

And yeah, both sides have a wide variance on how they feel exactly about the other.  I was really going with my own more direct experience.  Their are some that do go farther,  but in general that has been my experience (as probably how it works on the liberal side)

 

And yeah, the media on both sides is one of the bigger problems.  Fomenting chaos is key to their current survival.  Most of the news has devolved into propaganda for whoever is in charge of said network.

[TrickstaPriest]

4 hours ago, Badger said:

And yeah, the media on both sides is one of the bigger problems.  Fomenting chaos is key to their current survival.  Most of the news has devolved into propaganda for whoever is in charge of said network.

 

A big point I try to establish is the difference between situational facts and more demonstrable ones.  It's hard to say "X happened", but it's easier to demonstrate "X happens".  Particularly when you cut out rhetoric.  I use that as a cornerstone in any kind of conversation on certain political subjects.

[Badger]

I'll have to try to remember that.

[Old Man]

[Cygnia]

COVID-19 Patients Given Unproven Drug In Texas Nursing Home, Garnering Criticism

Quote

Armstrong remarked he was alarmed by the test results last week [bunch of patients and staff infected] and immediately began making calls to track down a source for the medicine, which is in short supply.

That's when his political connections proved useful.

Armstrong, who is a prominent GOP activist, called Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. He says Patrick reached out to Texas State Sen. Bryan Hughes, also a Republican, who knew someone on the board of the New Jersey-based company Amneal Pharmaceuticals. The company, which makes and distributes the drug, has donated more than a million tablets nationwide, including to the states of Texas and Louisiana.

Two days later, Armstrong had received more than enough medication to begin giving it to patients.

 

[Pattern Ghost]

Meanwhile, my eldest niece, who takes it for her lupus had to order it from the internet because some jackasses in another state bought out her local supply for testing.

 

 

[Lawnmower Boy]

1 hour ago, Pattern Ghost said:

Meanwhile, my eldest niece, who takes it for her lupus had to order it from the internet because some jackasses in another state bought out her local supply for testing.

 

 

Look, if you didn't want to lose your niece to some stupid political wedge issue, you should have made her not have lupus. 

[Pariah]

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

We're the wealthiest nation on Earth, but our doctors and nurses can't get masks and our citizens have to rely on GoFundMe to pay their medical bills.

 

 I can't help but feel that our priorities have become seriously mixed up somewhere along the way.

[Ternaugh]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

We're the wealthiest nation on Earth, but our doctors and nurses can't get masks and our citizens have to rely on GoFundMe to pay their medical bills.

 

 I can't help but feel that our priorities have become seriously mixed up somewhere along the way.

 

The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles
We keep holding our ground
Indifferent circles
We keep spinning round and round

[Armitage]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:55 PM, Ragitsu said:

 

Problem is, in the United States (of America 😇), the Overton Window has shifted far to the right; what is deemed "insanely far left" here by some is actually reasonable day-to-day policy in other countries. Universal healthcare is a prime example of what I have in mind: "communism", apparently.

 

 

There's an expression I've seen, that the modern definition of "Liberal" is "someone slightly to the right of Ronald Reagan."

Of course, that means the real Reagan, not the mythical Saint Reagan that many modern Conservatives revere.

[Badger]

It's more complicated than that.  I think it depends on the issue.  (some have veered hard right, others not so much).  It's not the linear level that it gets broken down as.

[death tribble]

I feel that if I posted a picture of Trump and used the same heading as Old Man, 'Everything that is Wrong with America in one Image' I would probably be banned or at the very least warned.

[Cygnia]

 

https://t.co/mAMjINFbdp?amp=1

[Old Man]

[Old Man]

8 hours ago, Armitage said:

 

 

There's an expression I've seen, that the modern definition of "Liberal" is "someone slightly to the right of Ronald Reagan."

Of course, that means the real Reagan, not the mythical Saint Reagan that many modern Conservatives revere.

 

Exactly.  My own politics line up pretty closely with Republican Teddy Roosevelt, who today would be left of Bernie.

[Badger]

Ehh, left yes, Bernie left might be a bit of a stretch (though a lot closer than many Republicans would like to be sure).  (though, getting a good line with politics a 100 years, I find is a bit hard, as so many things have happened in the world since then.  I find the farther you go back, the less apples to apples you get.)

 

Note: Isnt to say we cant compare certain issues.  Just that a lot of issues important today, were barely thought of back then, and vice versa.  

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Old Man said:

 

I'll be replacing the fridge with the useless @$$ freezer.

[Old Man]

There are two main problems with the stimulus:

 

1. If you actually need it (i.e. are unemployed), it's probably not enough to cover more than a month of expenses.

2. It's painfully obvious that the GOP-controlled Senate only passed it to keep the economy moving, not to actually help people make it through the pandemic.

[Iuz the Evil]

I'll be using it to offset my IRS debt. So it's welcome for that.