I am just destroyed by this. I genuinely had a little faith in humanity that people wouldn’t fall for this bullshit but I guess I sorely was mistaken.
Laitmer is a conservative, racist piece of shit who is going to take over Manchin’s job of fucking things up for progressives. Fucking hell this sucks.
To top it off, Israel just successfully dropped a political nuke on a critic and will likely have everyone running scared in the future.
I agree they’ve been trying to mitigate this but as I understand it things are quite precarious regardless. It’s not always possible to mitigate a disaster you see coming even if you try your best to prepare for it.
There has been more talk of it since then - that article just was the only concrete & most reputable source I could think of at the time and I didn’t want to turn a post into a research project.
Anyway, while there is more awareness of the issue it is, more or less, the same shady greed-driven risky behavior and nonsense that happened with home mortgages except its commercial mortgages and they’ve seen it coming.
It actually kind of is The Bigger Short
Some folks have been calling this for a while. The Bigger Short
It’s not “tries to assassinate” it’s “tries to have assassinated”. Something tells me Trump couldn’t assassinate a stuff deer.
to do otherwise means we’re actually a combination of Trump supporting tankies who run socket puppet accounts for Russia, and actually want the country to continue sliding towards fascim.
Lol
So yeah, I understand your position just fine.
LOL. Fucking LOL.
One last reply and I’m done.
Yes, I doubt that you are some disgruntled DNC veteran. Yes, in this day and age I can’t be certain that you aren’t just part of some foreign or domestic social media effort to destroy morale and advocate for not voting. However, I only mentioned it offhand and have continued to treat you like an individual. You have not done the same.
I see you as misguided and angry. I see you as unaware of the consequences and ineffectiveness of the actions you advocate for. You never said anything to deny what a second Trump presidency would look like, besides the extremely simple assertion that he’s too stupid and petty. You act like it will be fine.
You ignore the damage he’s already done. Women all over the country are suffering, voting is being suppressed, minorities and LGBTQ+ folks are being denied their rights, environmental laws are getting gutted, and good federal agencies are being stripped of their power… because of the justices and judges that Trump appointed. You ignore all this and state you’re going to refuse to vote for establishment candidates in the general election. Why? Because, like a child, you are angry that your preferred candidate didn’t win the primary. So, to “send a message”, you’re willing to risk pushing our country another four years closer to a fascist theocracy…
Yeah, I’m going to hold my nose and vote with my conscience.
I see. So you are advocating to not vote for Biden. Your not explicitly telling people not to vote for Biden, your just telling them that doing so is actively making the country worse. Got it.
I never said don’t vote, NOT ONCE. I haven’t even appealed to others to follow my lead in not supporting Biden.
So how does one vote in the presidential election and not, in some way, support Biden?
My whole fucking point is that not voting for Biden brings us one step closer to a country I doubt either of us would prefer to live in. I am vocal in my opposition to the choice we’re being given and in my criticism of a great many actions and inactions of the current administration but I’m still going to vote for Biden over Trump and over any third party candidate.
What, exactly, is your point? If not withholding your vote and yelling about it then how does one “not support” Biden?
You mean vote in the Presidential primary that the DNC cancelled this year?
You are not arguing in good faith. I obviously mean every fucking Democratic primary in the country… Jesus fuck.
Or did you mean, ignore that they cancelled it, and just vote for Biden like a good little lemming?
I mean make sure it doesn’t fucking happen in the future. NOT voting is what the Democratic party expects the left to do. NOT voting is exactly what the right wants you to do. Hell, I’m half convinced that’s your goal to begin with. We live in fucked up times with misinformation and manipulation via social media is a powerful tool.
Don’t be so hysterical. Trump is bad, and I’m under no illusion what another term of his would be like, but he’s far too stupid and petty to “end democracy”, the Democrats are doing fine at doing that themselves.
…
he’s far too stupid and petty to “end democracy”
I’m sorry, do only smart and reasonable people have the ability to end democracy? The only reason he didn’t fucking steal the White House already is because he was to stupid and petty to do it right the first time and the old right wing powers thought he was making them look bad.
This time, they realized he’s barely suffered any consequences and they are going all in. He’s their shot. They’ll suck his dick and hand him a crown as long as it gets them in the door and keeps them in power. He’ll do what they want - appoint the judges, issue the executive orders, whatever - so long as he gets that crown and his pile of cash.
Even if Trump manages to peacefully transfer power after an election in 2028, the United States will no longer be a democracy. I’m honestly scared to death of what a less stupid, less petty right wing president could do with the structure the right has been using Trump to put in place. Too much damage will already have been done.
Put out the fire now, do whatever it takes to make sure the lesser of two evils wins, and fix the Democratic party from within. Hell, fix the voting system and go third party, I don’t care. Its not like I’m not sick of this shit too. I can’t fucking wait for a time when the D’s don’t have the trumppocalypse to scare voters into giving them a pass for their bullshit.
I’m not some young radical. I’ve been through many cycles, and I’ve worked on more campaigns then most of people have voted in.
And yes, I’ve worked inside the DNC apparatus and been around contemporary Democratic machine politics nearly my entire life. I have a pretty good idea of what these people are like, because I’ve known a whole lot of them.
So… you’re counterpoint is that if I don’t support them, they’ll just keep doing what they’re already doing?
Yes, that’s my point exactly.
The only way to correct that, is to retrain them on who’s needs they need to be responsive to. Absent becoming a billionaire who supports the 99%, the only way is to not support them, and be vocal about why.
Here is the painful truth that I realized back when I thought the way you do: They don’t give a flying fuck about us. We’re not numerous enough to sit out, be vocal, and hope they feel our absence. They didn’t in 2016. They didn’t in 2020. They won’t in 2024. We’re too fringe and too few. They just see us as fickle and hard to please extremists. We’d need to bring way more mainstream people with us to be heard. Hell, Gaza is actually getting some mainstream attention and Biden is still blocking UN action and sending Israel billions in weapons.
The average democrat voter is more than willing to guzzle the party’s liberal bullshit. Catering to “independents” and the disillusioned right pulls in more than enough votes to outweigh the left vocally sitting out. Have you watched any mainstream media?
We need to change the party from within. Be present and involved. Vote in primaries for leftists and support them. Run in the primaries if there aren’t leftists. The thing is that most voters want leftist policies once they understand how they’ll benefit from them.
In the meantime, there legitimately may not be an election in 2028 if this fucking psychopath wanna be mob boss gets another shot at a coup. It won’t fucking matter after that - making political change will take civil war.
…and if they instead decide that the left cannot be depended on and start courting voters more to the right?
I honestly felt how you feel. I just don’t think it’s historically worked that way.
Push local reps to the left and Primary the centrists. I’m all for it… but going home because your guy isn’t on the ballot is playing a dangerous game right now.
If the country can handle a Republican win, then go back to staying home in protest. But I think, especially at this point in time, that a Trump win would spell the end of American democracy.
Seriously though, I used to think they were doing good work. Now I am more or less assuming that, in states where they actually need to do this sort of thing, the courts will just shrug and say “Ehhh…nah. Christian chaplains 👍, others 👎. K, bye.”
https://news.gallup.com/poll/508169/historically-low-faith-institutions-continues.aspx
Honestly, this is what I consider to be the clear danger of generative “AI”. We’ve basically gone several steps backward toward a world where we can’t prove something happened because recording technology doesn’t exist because it can be faked well enough and easily enough to cast doubt on any recording.
Sure, experts can analyze it and deem it legit or not legit but for the average person its becoming harder and harder to tell. Word spreads fast, and it’s been demonstrated that lies spread faster than their corrections by orders of magnitude. All it takes is for something to “go viral” or someone with authority to lazily confirm or deny that something is real/fake and the public at large loses touch with reality.
This plus the insane misinformation campaigns and those that cry “fake news” whenever the news contains information they don’t like… I feel like truth and reality are becoming unfashionable.
This isn’t just math. The language can be interpreted multiple ways.
I’d also argue that affiliated doesn’t mean student.
City officials said 29% of the 112 people arrested at a protest at Columbia on Tuesday were not affiliated with the school. At the City College protest, 60% of the 170 arrested were not affiliated with the school, according to the city’s press release.
“Not students” isn’t as informative as “not affiliated with the school”.
In that light, the numbers reported are much different between the two colleges and the headline should reflect that.
Yet we’re discussion an instance where a kid brings a gun to school and is killed
Last I understand it, there is no additional context. No shootout, nobody held at gunpoint, etc. Just “a report of an individual with a weapon” or “a report of a person with a gun”. No injuries reported other than a dead student. Other articles I’ve read never explicitly state the student had a gun. Not saying they didn’t - it’s just not clear to me.
It sounded like you are assuming the cops were automatically right and that the student was a clear and present danger. The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it was a minority kid with an airsoft or squirt gun.
While I admit that police work can be stressful, it’s often because they refuse to let it be otherwise. “Defund the police” was a movement to ensure police were only called when needed and that other types of emergency responders who are trained to handle domestic situations or unstable individuals… but the unions wanted the money.
Overtime isn’t exactly because they are short staffed… it’s often because it pays well. I’ve heard of officers fighting to get more overtime or being denied it as a form of punishment.
The whole system is fucked and it has gotten to the point where being a cop means you haven’t been ostracized and kicked out for trying to fix it or left in disgust. It means you are part of the problem. That’s why ACAB.
If the child shot or even aimed(emphasis mine) at police, the police shoot back. That’s how it works in this country.
You agreed and expanded, saying this is how it should work in every country and treated it as an issue of police safety, bringing up their families.
cops have families and deserve safety like any other worker.
We can agree on this. Everyone worker has a right to be reasonably safe. There are definitely workers whose jobs regularly expose them to situations that can be dangerous.
Cops are unique in that their safety is threatened by other people.
I dispute the uniqueness claim. I would agree that their profession places them in situations where people may be dangerous more often than the average profession, for sure. They are not, however, unique in this. What’s unique to them is that they are issued a firearm, granted qualified immunity, treated as heroes by default, and dropped into a union often willing to sacrifice public safety as a “bargaining” tactic.
The current mentality resulting from police “warrior” training and support like you espouse is 1) Anyone and everyone could be a threat 2) An officer’s first duty is to themself and their own safety.
I think it is pretty obvious that obsessing over officer safety and exaggerating the danger they are in has led to the police violence that we see today. If an officer believes a civilian is dangerous and has a gun they follow the logic and kill them. They get pats on the back from their buddies and are defended vehemently by their supervisors and peers who often cover for any holes/inconsistencies in the story of why lethal force was necessary.
A cop doesn’t need to be an abusive, racist, hateful, violent psychopath to kill an innocent kid. They just need to be hyped up and afraid for their life. All it takes is for the kid to reach into their pocket for a cell phone.
Here is the question though. Does this rule apply to just them? Does it apply to others with respect to them?
If not, how do you deal with the police abusing the power this gives them?
If yes, how do you avoid constant bloodbaths of people shooting each other because they all had guns?
While I agree with your sentiment, I do feel like it is a step in the right direction and will help a great many people in poverty.
Going straight from one economic system to another is likely to be an extremely violent process. I’m hoping that this would act as a stepping stone towards socialism rather than a life preserver for capitalism.
You can abuse your position as a holdout and potentially fuck everything up in either chamber. Bills require passage in both chambers… but I’m sure you knew that.
I just hope there are enough gains in the house to make his ass irrelevant.