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The Biden Administration and All Things Politics

Gameface said:
I really try to not just spam this guy's stuff, and a lot of times that's easy because I don't agree with him. But I want to make a specific point that piggybacks off what he says in this video.



The point I want to make is that the Republican party has really shot themselves in the foot by calling everything "socialism." They are pointing at broadly popular public welfare ideas and screaming like toddlers who didn't get the candy they wanted that it is socialism. They are pointing at heath care ideas that would give Americans something close to what the rest of the industrialized world has had for decades and stomping their feet, crossing their arms and calling it SOCIALISM!!! They are pointing at environmentalism and calling it SOCIALISM!!! They oppose an increase to minimum wage because... SOCIALISM!!!

They don't realize they are popularizing the concept of socialism amongst all but the oldest and most angry in our society. They are bringing up an entire generation that hears that every decent idea they see that could make the lives of average Americans better is socialism.

I mean we could have just called it welfare and handouts and made good faith arguments about why those things disincentivize hard work and innovation, but that isn't what has happened. They just call it all socialism, while lumping in many things that are in fact NOT socialism, then calling centrist capitalist Democrats extreme socialists.

Republicans have effectively changed the definition of socialism and what a socialist is to the point that many if not most young people look at the situation and consider if they are actually socialists themselves.

So thank you neocons, I'm NOT a socialist, but in order to oppose fascists I'm probably going to have to align with a coming wave of actual socialism that you have created. I mean I'm down for a better health insurance system. I don't want socialism. But I will pick socialism over fascism 10 times out of 10. So thanks.
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Great post.

Realistically, socialism as it exists in the minds of the right doesn't really exist anywhere in the world. There are very few states that operate as pure socialist states. Just like we are absolutely not a pure capitalist state, and pure capitalist state just don't exist. Every developed nation that they point to to villainize socialism is somewhere on the spectrum between pure socialism and pure capitalism. And frankly the best and most stable and most effective for their populations are about right in the middle, with substantial socialist programs that provide for basic standard of living including effective medical care that then provides a very stable foundation for their capitalist systems. It's just a fact that if you provide for your most basic needs, including education, healthcare, food security, shelter, etc then it allows your society to thrive in the capitalist realm as well. So sad that we have fallen so far from our own ideals and use these specters of evil to drive a backward approach to social support systems because, for some reason that they can never articulate, it's a terrible thing for everyone to have reasonable access to healthcare. Apparently.
 
The Thriller said:
The is yewge if true. I suspect Gozer may be trying to reach the world of the living.


View: https://twitter.com/accountablegop/status/1603134599043092480?s=46&t=mh3GBix-PZBSnp8faeSorw
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Wait, is it a demonic portal, or a sinkhole to hell? Can they have both?

www.dazeddigital.com

A portal to hell has opened up at the White House

Welcome to the Hellmouth, Donald Trump
www.dazeddigital.com www.dazeddigital.com

Groundskeepers and reporters have been commentating on the appearance of the sinkhole since last week, with local reporter Steve Herman tweeting that it appeared to be “growing larger by the day”. At its biggest, it’s been observed at over a couple of feet wide, with a second opening up close by. Naturally occurring sinkholes are often referred to, or thought of, as portals to Hell.
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The Thriller said:
The is yewge if true. I suspect Gozer may be trying to reach the world of the living.


View: https://twitter.com/accountablegop/status/1603134599043092480?s=46&t=mh3GBix-PZBSnp8faeSorw
Click to expand...

images


I see it!
 
Couple of things I read that I will now regurgitate:

If you want to talk about destroying the economy, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover caused and extended the Great Depression of the 1930s. FDR took us out of it. George Bush crashed the economy in 2007, the worst recession since the 1930s. It took Obama to take us out of that. And then Trump sent us into the second worst recession since the 1930s. Biden took us out of that. It is conservatives who destroy the economy, it is Democrats who get us to recover.

Don't forget George Bush senior, who was a one-term president because of yet another recession. In the past 80 years only 1 republican president left office with a lower unemployment rate than when he started. Facts are stubborn things.

It seems like the Dems get us out of financial trouble but the fruits of their labor are often seen not in their administration but in the next. For example Obama managed us out of the Bush financial disaster but Trump took the credit because people actually saw the results as he stepped in. The wheels of government move slowly and things that are voted on one year often the public doesn't see results for awhile. The American people are impatient and want things to happen immediately. Biden has kept telling the American people to be patient.....that they will see the results of his legislation in the following year(s).

Unfortunately, presidents have very, very little control over the economy. They, like the rest of us, just have to ride it out and take the credit when it's good and the blame when it wasn't. If the president had any control over inflation and/or the economy, there would never be a one term president because he could make it good before election time.
 
fishonjazz said:
Couple of things I read that I will now regurgitate:

If you want to talk about destroying the economy, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover caused and extended the Great Depression of the 1930s. FDR took us out of it. George Bush crashed the economy in 2007, the worst recession since the 1930s. It took Obama to take us out of that. And then Trump sent us into the second worst recession since the 1930s. Biden took us out of that. It is conservatives who destroy the economy, it is Democrats who get us to recover.

Don't forget George Bush senior, who was a one-term president because of yet another recession. In the past 80 years only 1 republican president left office with a lower unemployment rate than when he started. Facts are stubborn things.

It seems like the Dems get us out of financial trouble but the fruits of their labor are often seen not in their administration but in the next. For example Obama managed us out of the Bush financial disaster but Trump took the credit because people actually saw the results as he stepped in. The wheels of government move slowly and things that are voted on one year often the public doesn't see results for awhile. The American people are impatient and want things to happen immediately. Biden has kept telling the American people to be patient.....that they will see the results of his legislation in the following year(s).

Unfortunately, presidents have very, very little control over the economy. They, like the rest of us, just have to ride it out and take the credit when it's good and the blame when it wasn't. If the president had any control over inflation and/or the economy, there would never be a one term president because he could make it good before election time.
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I think a big part of this is because an unfettered capitalist society drives heavy wealth inequities and unregulated business tends to do things to drive up profits that are detrimental to the economy as a whole while driving up their own individual wealth, such as stagnant wages and eating smaller companies which drives down employment as they consolidate and eliminate positions.

But if you really want to know more about the bane of our economy Google the effects of private equity on business bankruptcies and destroying jobs in the name of flipping companies for fast profits at the expense of literally everyone else. Exactly where Romney got his money.
 
LogGrad98 said:
What is the fundamental problem? That we have decades of free and fair elections with virtually zero voter fraud in our history so that needs to be fixed or something?
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I have concerns about state level issues where the people overseeing elections decide to throw out or otherwise invalidate votes but that most likely can't be fixed at the federal level.

The mid-term election results were very reassuring to me in that most election deniers drastically underperformed even compared to other conservative candidates who were not outspoken election deniers.

I think at least 70% of Americans want elections to decide elections, something I wasn't so sure about before the midterms.
 
LogGrad98 said:
What is the fundamental problem? That we have decades of free and fair elections with virtually zero voter fraud in our history so that needs to be fixed or something?
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Raskin is a Democrat. So I think the fundamental problem he’s referring to is we have a significant part of an entire political party, its voters, and its propaganda apparatus that doesn’t believe elections are free and fair when they lose. For them, elections don’t decide who is in power. That’s already been decided since Democrats are considered illegitimate and the majority of the population that resides in our major economic and cultural centers is considered alien. Elections are just hoops we jump through before Republicans and their strongmen take over to “whip” this weak Jewish errr globalist trans loving vaccine taking nation into shape. Make ourselves into a truly strong homogeneous Christian nation, like Russia! MAGA!
 
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The Thriller said:
Raskin is a Democrat. So I think the fundamental problem he’s referring to is we have a significant part of an entire political party, its voters, and its propaganda apparatus that doesn’t believe elections are free and fair when they lose. For them, elections don’t decide who is in power. That’s already been decided since Democrats are considered illegitimate and the majority of the population that resides in our major economic and cultural centers is considered alien. Elections are just hoops we jump through before Republicans and their strongmen take over to “whip” this weak Jewish errr globalist trans loving vaccine taking nation into shape. Make ourselves into a truly strong homogeneous Christian nation, like Russia! MAGA!
Click to expand...

This noise buys into a bigger problem with our democracies, how unrepresentative they are. I get some of the noise from Trump supports about nobody representing them, they're right. They're Trumps forgotten people, effectively you've had two centre right parties representing the interests of the middle class for the last 60 years. That was fine while the rising tide lifted all boats but it a hasn't for the last 25 years and people are pissed. They're right to be pissed, Trump is not the answer but he's the best supported establishment answer. (Firmly believe Bernie should have run and would have won against him four years ago but the democratic establishment wouldn't have it.)

I live in an Australian Labor Party heartland and in areas like mine, outer western suburb electorates Labor is losing ground, why? A lot of the people who live here are immigrants, labor has not been strong enough on this, a lot of the people who live here are self employed trade types, a lot of people who live here are experiencing huge cost of living pressures and mortgage pressure they are erroneously of the belief that conservative governments deliver lower interest rates and cost of living. These electorates generally have low union membership density and have significant religious minorities. (think my electorate was the only Victorian electorate to vote against the recent gay marriage plebiscite.)

These are fertile grounds for politicians who come in and say "your problems are caused by unregulated immigration," The Labor party can't manage public debt! Through COVID the previous conservative government borrow and spent money (rightly) at levels unseen's since the second world war, but they will run from this legacy and its cost to the economy now. The government has done nothing about energy prices (15 years of politicising energy policy has lead to drastic under investment in the sector which now is rearing its ugly head in high prices.) Cost of living is through the roof! Meanwhile during their ten years in power they did nothing to address this, broke up no functional monopolies, did nothing around wage growth.

What none of them will cop to is that both sides of politics have massively inflated the housing market, that young working people have been allowed to over borrow, all to increase the nest eggs of our largest demographic and voting block (baby boomers) who are rapidly approaching retirement and we have no idea how to pay for it. The problem now is while this generation have all become millionaires through property ownership, the run away cost of living is outstripping their capacity to divest and afford to live.

Welcome to hell.
 
Rubashov said:
This noise buys into a bigger problem with our democracies, how unrepresentative they are. I get some of the noise from Trump supports about nobody representing them, they're right. They're Trumps forgotten people, effectively you've had two centre right parties representing the interests of the middle class for the last 60 years. That was fine while the rising tide lifted all boats but it a hasn't for the last 25 years and people are pissed. They're right to be pissed, Trump is not the answer but he's the best supported establishment answer. (Firmly believe Bernie should have run and would have won against him four years ago but the democratic establishment wouldn't have it.)

I live in an Australian Labor Party heartland and in areas like mine, outer western suburb electorates Labor is losing ground, why? A lot of the people who live here are immigrants, labor has not been strong enough on this, a lot of the people who live here are self employed trade types, a lot of people who live here are experiencing huge cost of living pressures and mortgage pressure they are erroneously of the belief that conservative governments deliver lower interest rates and cost of living. These electorates generally have low union membership density and have significant religious minorities. (think my electorate was the only Victorian electorate to vote against the recent gay marriage plebiscite.)

These are fertile grounds for politicians who come in and say "your problems are caused by unregulated immigration," The Labor party can't manage public debt! Through COVID the previous conservative government borrow and spent money (rightly) at levels unseen's since the second world war, but they will run from this legacy and its cost to the economy now. The government has done nothing about energy prices (15 years of politicising energy policy has lead to drastic under investment in the sector which now is rearing its ugly head in high prices.) Cost of living is through the roof! Meanwhile during their ten years in power they did nothing to address this, broke up no functional monopolies, did nothing around wage growth.

What none of them will cop to is that both sides of politics have massively inflated the housing market, that young working people have been allowed to over borrow, all to increase the nest eggs of our largest demographic and voting block (baby boomers) who are rapidly approaching retirement and we have no idea how to pay for it. The problem now is while this generation have all become millionaires through property ownership, the run away cost of living is outstripping their capacity to divest and afford to live.

Welcome to hell.
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What would a party supporting Trump’s people look like? The majority of Trump supporters are middle to upper class. They’re business owners, rural white farmers, land developers, tech CEOs, and people who work in finance. They consist of affluent people bored with their lives and folks wanting more tax cuts. If anything, they’ve been over represented over the years.

This myth that Trump tapped into the “working class” suffering from “economic anxiety” was refuted long ago.
2016 election:
7030C26F-C135-4422-868F-E61448F3FB7E.png
2020 election:
ED449721-DB80-4883-AEB9-81F7645B3FEB.png
 
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Globally, the states suffering from high levels of RW nationalism (See the UK, Hungary, Brazil, and the US.) aren’t poor. They’re affluent countries driven by affluent leaders who are preying on cultural resentment and affluent bored people looking for a point to their lives.

Cultural resentment is the driving force in politics in the 21st century. The lack of want and the abundance of peace has created a mess for western democracies as people argue ceaselessly over cultural issues and find personal jihads against school libraries and vaccines.
 
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LogGrad98 said:
What is the fundamental problem? That we have decades of free and fair elections with virtually zero voter fraud in our history so that needs to be fixed or something?
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I’d just prefer electing presidents by popular vote, like other elected officials.

Policy Research

NCSL’s experts are here to answer your questions and give you unbiased, comprehensive information as soon as you need it on issues facing state legislatures. We answer more than 20,000 requests for information a year.
www.ncsl.org
 
Red said:
I’d just prefer electing presidents by popular vote, like other elected officials.

Policy Research

NCSL’s experts are here to answer your questions and give you unbiased, comprehensive information as soon as you need it on issues facing state legislatures. We answer more than 20,000 requests for information a year.
www.ncsl.org
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But if we did that it would force candidates and parties to actually compete in the marketplace of ideas and actually try to be attractive to most Americans. Oh the horror.
 
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What a stunning surprise….

www.huffpost.com

Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages At Tulsi Gabbard For Not Going Easy On George Santos

The far-right Congress member was not happy about the Fox News guest host's takedown of her incoming House colleague.
www.huffpost.com www.huffpost.com

www.amny.com

Editorial | It’s not a lie if George Santos believes it | amNewYork

Pathological liar George Costanza of "Seinfeld" fame once said, "It's not a lie if you believe it." And it would seem that Congress Member-elect George Santos
www.amny.com www.amny.com

What is not true about this statement from the above article: “In many ways, George Santos perfectly encapsulates the problem with the Republican Party today: the brazen lying to voters, the lack of personal responsibility, and the wholesale disrespect of government and its institutions.” I’m not inherently anti-Republican. But, from where I stand, that quote describes that party.
 
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Red said:
What a stunning surprise….

www.huffpost.com

Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages At Tulsi Gabbard For Not Going Easy On George Santos

The far-right Congress member was not happy about the Fox News guest host's takedown of her incoming House colleague.
www.huffpost.com www.huffpost.com

www.amny.com

Editorial | It’s not a lie if George Santos believes it | amNewYork

Pathological liar George Costanza of "Seinfeld" fame once said, "It's not a lie if you believe it." And it would seem that Congress Member-elect George Santos
www.amny.com www.amny.com

What is not true about this statement from the above article: “In many ways, George Santos perfectly encapsulates the problem with the Republican Party today: the brazen lying to voters, the lack of personal responsibility, and the wholesale disrespect of government and its institutions.” I’m not inherently anti-Republican. But, from where I stand, that quote describes that party.
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Good post. I’d just like to add that he feeds into the mentality of GOP voters that even the worst Republican is still better than ANY Democrat. How can anyone of any character still support Santos? I guess all that matters is power. McCarthy needs him to become speaker and he needs McCarthy to not make this a big deal. And Repub voters want to win, no matter the costs. Even if it means electing another narcissist who’ll say anything to get elected.

After all, they excused Trump for far worse. Right?
 
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I thought this was interesting; after 1 year of State Covid policies and lockdowns most people who moved, moved to more conservative leaning states.

I understand why people left Louisiana, not a great state to live. California and Illinois lost almost 1% of their population. New York lost 3.5%. Virginia surprised me that it was a net negative. The top ten didn’t surprise me other than Alabama (other than Mobile, I thought the state was nice). I haven’t lived in Utah for 9 years, but I though they would have been in the top 10.

Was is Covid or political policy, remote work, or retirement? Mixture of both?
We have noticed it here in Florida (1.5% gain). Can’t build schools fast enough (over populated), home prices and rent are still up compared to many states. Still building a lot of new developments around Tampa.

23C588D7-8F83-4280-AA4A-7AAC25671495.jpeg
 
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