Senate The US Politics discussion

Scaramucci says he's deleting his old tweets. His views have evolved.

 

I don't see why Americans should care about this to the point that they would be "out on the streets"-- never mind that it's already happened with 2 or 3 large marches and smaller demonstrations nearly every weekend during the Trump administration, but I assume we're talking about massive and sustained protests. The influence of the Russian state and corruption of justice by bumbling incompetents have nothing to do with people's everyday struggles and the long-term problems we all face. And realistically in this context what's the most a mass demonstration would do? Force Congress to start impeachment proceedings? And if it all goes through and the Senate votes to convict, something that's never happened and is a tall order for the GOP, what does that mean? President Pence. Hooray, nothing has changed.

The recent ousters of chief executives by mass demonstrations in other countries such as Brazil and the Republic of Korea and the current unrest in Venezuela are about far more than just those people doing illegal things. Those aforementioned countries are facing severe economic difficulties-- more severe than the U.S. is currently facing-- and have long histories of political turmoil (e.g., Park Geun-Hye is literally the daughter of a dictator). And bringing it to my earlier point, what has changed for the better in the RoK and Brazil for normal people? I'm pretty sure not much has. I think for Americans to actually care about ousting Trump in some sort of mass movement, it will need to be about more than that and we can't just get more of the same if it succeeds.

 

If you're happy with a foreign power meddling in your democratic elections, then be my guest and continue to sit on your hands...

But, it wasn't referring to recent popular uprisings, just speaking in general.

 

will he do the Fandango tho ?

 

I think that's a sharp analysis, Darth Guy. It brings up something to me that I think isn't being talked about enough, which is that it's the economy that is backstopping Trump more than anything else. It's also giving cover to Republicans. In 1974, the economy hadn't really gotten bad yet, though the indicators for what was to come were there. That's another reason things dragged on as long as they did. Speaking of which, as I continue to make my way through Elizabeth Drew's book, it's clear just how uncertain things were then. What history portrays as inevitable or obvious in hindsight was anything but at the time.

If the economy starts going measurably downhill, that's going to cut into Trump's active support more than anything else could. The thing is that such movement doesn't usually happen quickly (though a rerun of the financial crisis could put us there in terms of perception).

Edit: I do want to say (again) that I think Pence is an implicated as anyone else in the administration and that Mueller's investigation (if it's allowed to run, which of course is doubtful) will likely turn up evidence of wrongdoing on his part.

 

Tens of millions of people are systematically disenfranchised in the United States; in most states political parties are allowed to blatantly gerrymander districts in order to favor their candidates; the two-party system of center-right and farther-right has a chokehold on our politics. These are much, much bigger problems than a foreign power hacking and releasing some ****ing e-mails.

 

It's all of a piece, and you know this probably better than I do. It's all part of a systemic, methodical campaign to preserve and strengthen white supremacy and the existing order. The GOP's going along with Putin's goals is to further the above. I can't imagine you would disagree with that.

I must say though that I don't really see a problem with the two party system, which has only really failed because the inexorable magnetic force that is white supremacy has repeatedly warped it throughout our history. Before it became a Republican problem, it was a Democratic problem.

If racism wasn't the force it is, I think our politics and history would be so radically different as to be unrecognizable to just about all of us.

 

A bribe of a million dollars and a promise of being part of his agenda goes a long ways to selling souls. Or at least selling out period.

 

trouble with those damn Russians is they look just like ordinary people ! THEY'RE HERE ALREADY ! YOU'RE NEXT !! YOU'RE NEXT !!

 

Yes, I remember pointing that out and the Democrats in this thread got mad at me...

 

I don't believe Putin had anything to do with the GOP gaining control over state legislatures, governorships, the House, and the Senate. That all happened before 2016 over the course of the Obama presidency anyway. And I won't fall for framing it as an "us-vs-them" issue where our personal beliefs and goals should be aligned with the states we happen to live under. As far as I'm concerned Putin and our political elite are part of the same system and I don't particularly care that they're nominally pitted against each other in a demented "chess game."

Racism is just a tool for the elite to advance and preserve their economic interests, as it always has been. And it's not and never has been strictly partisan.

 

I strongly disagree with this. I don't think racism is "just a tool" for the advancement of economic interests. This implies that the people with power are not actually racist themselves and know better. Most of them don't and are in fact racist themselves. They've been as socially conditioned as anyone else.

One reason they're so keen on advancing their own interests is that in addition to wanting to uphold the existing status quo, they believe in it themselves and fear a multicultural society and equal sharing of power as much as any stereotypical person from a small town in whereverville.

With regard to all the things you mentioned throughout the Obama presidency, all of it was part of the backlash against a black man in the presidency, the same kind of backlash that followed the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and that followed the Civil War.

I believe either Michelle Alexander or someone else of her stature has written about this backlash effect.

 

No other country has America's unique combination of apathy, cowardice, stupidity, laziness and obesity. Americans are the very worst. And red state Americans are the worst of the worst.

This dump will never, ever get fixed.

 

Yes, many are, like how monarchs believed in divine right. That still doesn't mean it isn't a tool with which to advance their economic interests (and there are plenty of political operatives who cynically aware of it, such as Lee Atwater and the guy who came up with the Southern Strategy). Many also genuinely believe that capitalism is the best economic system-- the one in which they're able to accumulate the most wealth. It's much easier to sell bull**** when you believe it, you benefit from it and the whole of society is geared toward making people believe it.

 

I've missed you appleseed

[edit]

Capitalism is the best current economic system we have. But, with advancement in technology, it will no doubt be replaced in a few decades; with what, I do not know.

 

Trump says he has the complete power to pardon

Because Trump has to defend himself against all that fake news. I just keep telling myself Watergate took a year.

 

Of note in this vid

Not only the headline quote that it would not matter if Trump cheated to win, one lady actually says there needs to be less transparency and used the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan as an example.

 

Kid Rock, a qualified public servant with the gritty perspective of a working class man who may or may not actually run for congress, probably doesn't want you to know this about his rough and tumble trailer park past...

http://www.freep.com/story/news/loc.../11/04/kid-rock-macomb-county-house/93299716/

 

I'm going to take wild guess that Kid Rock is planning a new album, or something, and using this to get some attention.

 

I'm betting it will be a terrific album. The best. Trust me.

 

I've only ever heard one Kid Rock album. It was truly awful.

 

And it's sold millions of dollars' worth, as have his others. Go figure.

 

Are we just going to cycle through various JCCers independently stumbling upon ideas Marx had until we fulfill the dark Bordigist prophecy of an organic centralized vanguard party, resulting in Community ushering in the great social upheaval based on real conditions, and then we have to explain to future generations why our classless stateless egalitarian space utopia has only one law and it's that the prequels were bad?

 

so the congress has come to agreement on legislation that would limit the President's ability to suspend or terminate sanctions

and Trump is tweeting that Republicans aren't Protecting him.