The Trump Pandemic

[pErvinalia]

Republicans didn't impeach Clinton over a blowjob, that's just our way of minimizing what all he actually did.

That you can't see your own bloody-mindedness even after that mountain of self-righteous butthurt is incredible. But hardly surprising given in your last post you claimed Republicans can only solve problems with cruelty!

Nope, you're not living in a fantasy.

I don't think you grasp how insane and anti-social the replublican party is. If you lived outside of it you'd have no trouble seeing it.

[JimC]

So, never the twain shall meet...

There's always a 'tween to the twain. There's this silly maxim in left-ish politics which says, "When they go low we go high." But that only stands if one actually does think there is a viable balance point between high and low, and it doesn't account for those who simply go lower when low turns out to be enough. Politically, you can't counter-balance the venal moral bankruptcy of one party with selfless probity and virtue from anotherr - particularly if the venal represent the interests of the wealthy and powerful: which they will of course, because they're venal. In those circumstances the political conversation becomes about values, about who's values are normal, natural, and/or represent the 'real world' we all live in - and guess which side gets the lion's share of that conversation?

Brian, I wasn't talking about finding some centrist ideal position between Republicans and Democrats for general political purposes. I was arguing for some form of temporary truce in the culture wars, in the wars between the US states and the feds, between republicans and democrats, for the sole purpose of providing the US with some sort of unified national plan of action to combat the virus. It was sparked by a variety of reports; Trump gleefully supporting protests against Democrat governors, stupid fed/state spats over PPE and the like. Simply put, somewhat to my surprise, Australia has at least temporarily suspended (or at least strongly muted) warfare between the political parties and between federal and state leadership, accepted the primacy of responding to medical/scientific advice, and getting on with the job. And it's fucking working!

But I hold little hope for such compromise in the US. I fully understand the revulsion of Seabass for MAGA-style policies, but it simply underlines the seeming impossibility of any form of united front.

[pErvinalia]

Yeah I've been surprised by the Coalition putting aside the ideological blinders for a while and doing what's right for the country. But they are already blabbing about tax cuts and deregulation after the virus. Fucking idiots appear to have learnt nothing from this.

[Sean Hayden]

Again, I urge you guys to be skeptical. This dysfunctional family can't be trusted to give you reality. Would you be surprised to learn no blockade existed, or that the feds have in fact provided a rationale for seizures where they've happened? I wouldn't. It's a difficult time, people tasked with securing goods billed as essential/life-saving aren't going to be terribly understanding if those goods don't show up. Hell, read a where's my UPS thread!

Be skeptical.

[Cunt]

I don't think you grasp how insane and anti-social the replublican party is. If you lived outside of it you'd have no trouble seeing it.

Your assessment of Mr. Crenshaw seems...off a bit.

[pErvinalia]

I'm talking about the party as a whole. I'm sure there's some less insane members. How many of them have spoken out against Trump? That would be the first criteria before I could judge a member as not being a venal anti-social toady psycho.

[JimC]

Yeah I've been surprised by the Coalition putting aside the ideological blinders for a while and doing what's right for the country. But they are already blabbing about tax cuts and deregulation after the virus. Fucking idiots appear to have learnt nothing from this.

After the virus (if there truly is an after), then the ideological struggle can begin anew...

[pErvinalia]

Depressing, though, isn't it? You'd think after the GFC and now this that they'd fucking learn something. It appears not, though.

[Cunt]

I'm talking about the party as a whole. I'm sure there's some less insane members. How many of them have spoken out against Trump? That would be the first criteria before I could judge a member as not being a venal anti-social psycho.

Fuck Trump. Or let him fuck you.

At a guess, you don't know much about Crenshaw. Honestly, I'm in the same boat.

Why not think of a 'signal issue', and see how he represents himself and his congregation/riding/constituency or whatever.

I mean, unless you have to hate him based solely on his position on Trump.

[pErvinalia]

Trump is an utter disaster and sums up what's wrong with America. Anyone who doesn't speak out against such ineptitude and pettiness and venality is a spineless coward who stands for nothing other than power. Find me a Republican who has spoken out against Trump, preferably repeatedly, and is contesting another election, and I'd conceded that they might not be a sociopath. But they probably are, belonging to the party of anti-social insanity.

[Cunt]

Trump is an utter disaster and sums up what's wrong with America. Anyone who doesn't speak out against such ineptitude and pettiness and venality is a spineless coward who stands for nothing other than power. Find me a Republican who has spoken out against Trump, preferably repeatedly, and is contesting another election, and I'd conceded that they might not be a sociopath. But they probably are, belonging to the party of anti-social insanity.

To me, it made a difference when I saw some of the repeated lies about him, what he said or did.

The more they attacked him, the more they showed about themselves. It's given me a lot more respect for the Republican party in the US.

[pErvinalia]

I'd say you should be more concerned with what the guy stands for, not what other people say about him. Liking a guy because some people try and smear him is idiotic.

[Seabass]

Republicans didn't impeach Clinton over a blowjob, that's just our way of minimizing what all he actually did.

That you can't see your own bloody-mindedness even after that mountain of self-righteous butthurt is incredible. But hardly surprising given in your last post you claimed Republicans can only solve problems with cruelty!

Nope, you're not living in a fantasy.

There is an actual, bona fide white supremacist running our immigration policy. That's not exaggeration. It's not hyperbole. It's a fact.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/201 ... ked-emails
https://www.splcenter.org/stephen-mille ... art-emails

90% of Republicans, and 43% of Americans approve of this and all the other racist, xenophobic shit from this administration.

Half my family are immigrants from a "shithole country". Over the last three years, violent racist attacks against several ethnic and religious minority groups (including my group which is Asian-American) have exploded, in some cases upwards of 300%.

How do you expect me to feel about what's happening in this country, Sean? Meh? No biggie? Both sides are the same?

Seriously??

And yes, technically Clinton's impeachment was about perjury, but let's be serious. They saw an opening to remove the atheistic commie degenerate liberal, and they took it. They took it because for them, this isn't politics. It's about "preserving their way of life". It's about preserving America's "Judeo Christian values". It's about saving the America they love from "unwanted demographic changes that we didn't ask for".

I am the "unwanted demographic changes", Sean. Nevermind that I grew up on the Dukes of Hazzard, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Vonnegut. People like me will never be "real Americans" to these people because we look foreign to them.

[Animavore]

Some U.S. citizens aren’t eligible for stimulus checks — because they’re married to immigrants

The coronavirus stimulus package was meant to put emergency spending money into the economy, issuing a $1,200 check to most Americans that they can use to pay their bills in this time of hardship, and help stimulate businesses in the process. Now, though, we’re learning about all the strings that are coming attached to that hastily passed package — including the fact that U.S. citizens aren’t eligible to receive the money if they’re married and filed taxes jointly with an immigrant who doesn’t have a social security number.

The LA Times reports that there are more than a million Americans in this position across the country. This is just one more way the Trump administration has found to attack immigrants, no matter how they arrived in this country.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/u-citiz ... 43198.html

[Sean Hayden]

Clinton left a trail of abuses on his way to the White House, and he was impeached after his latest attempt to use his power to conceal his abuses backfired. If he were a Republican you'd know that, and you'd know it's wrong to use the office how he did.

Tell me, when he bombed a medicine factory was he solving problems with love and kindness? --a really bad choice Seabass

--//--

On the social issues e.g. racism, yeah, no fucking shit. That's easy. That is a big part of the reason I vote Democrat. But my party is absolutely dysfunctional, and full of shit, and their being on the right side of history in regards to many social issues is relatively recent, not 100%, and by itself not nearly enough to consider them somehow fundamentally different, above it all, or better.

Did you see the recent poll which found that most people don't give a shit that Biden is an old white guy...well most people except well-off white Democrats.