The Politics Thread

[ReddFoxx]

This entire mess is going to help turnout women voters in suburbs. The number of women who have been assaulted or harassed is incredibly high, so women are being triggered. My mom revealed to me years ago that she had been assaulted twice and she just mentioned again a couple of days ago. Further back my great-grandmother and a great aunt both had children as a result of being raped, but of course never received justice because of the era. For Kavanaugh to still even have a chance at being confirmed is infuriating and makes a lot of people even more anxious to vote.

[DramatistDreamer]

Honestly, I don't know what these means, other than Swetnick will be telling her story to the public.

 

[Khan]

I don't know what it means either, but I'm glad she'll have her chance.  The FBI and the WH counsel's office's disregarding her for the purposes of their investigation will come back to haunt them.

[DRW50]

 

Maher would be such a detriment to any chance of change if he actually had any influence beyond anyone who time travels to the year 1996. He is obsessed with showcasing himself as above it all and that means inviting far right activists and extremists on to give their talking points, while he smirks and adds some pithy one-liners. To think he actually had the ego to say that if Hillary had gone on his show she would've won. That he actually thinks he has any influence beyond being an easy tool any time Republicans need somebody to depress and demoralize turnout. The truth is more people know him for being a sidekick to Vera's husband on "Alice" than they do for anything else.

 

I just wish it wasn't with NBC. They have gone to bat for Trump in the past. 

[Juliajms]

 

[JaneAusten]

Part of last week on my part was a total feeling of despair. I cried after the testimonies but that was not out of despair, at that point it was out of anger as to how Kavanaugh was allowed to show white male rage and be justified for it.  And I'm a democrat through and through and I am not pointing a finger, but how did things get this bad that all the norms and decency has been thrown out. Trump is just emblematic of this, he's not the cause.

 

It started heavily under Gingrich and has just gotten worse over the years. The Supreme Court has been tainted for years, but first and foremost starting with the fact that THEY decided a presidential election not the voters. And as it turns out Gore won Florida so their decision ultimately went against the will of the voters. 

 

There has always been deal making behind the scenes and maybe this level of corruption has always been there. But it's just so blatant now, no one even cares anymore. The ends justify the means.

 

I'm running for local trustee in my community next spring. I have been leaning in that direction, but last week solidified it for me. I see local elections with an 19% voter turnout, that's apathy that I would like to influence indirectly by hopefully getting people in the community more engaged through a number of community sponsored events.  But then we have a local caucus where the caucus basically picks the winners, and we can't even get a true representation of members of this so called "unbiased" caucus.

 

On another issue following up on @Juliajms post above

Crimes against humanity are going on all over the world. I won't even comment on what no one is reporting on regarding the Palestinians. Lets look at Myanmar and the fall of the great hope for democracy Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/world/asia/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-rohingya.html

Edited October 1, 2018 by JaneAusten

[Juliajms]

@JaneAustenAl Jazeera does a lot of reporting on the situation in Palestine. I wouldn't exactly call it objective, but if you read the Times of Israel (also not objective) as well you can usually get some sense of the truth.

[Khan]

 

Bill Maher was on "Alice"?

 

But seriously.  I, too, thought it was ridiculous that he would say that Hillary lost because she wouldn't appear on his show.  (Has Trump ever appeared on "Real Time," or "Politically Incorrect" for that matter?)  If anything, appearing on RT would have cost her even more votes, because BM is just so vile.

 

The only thing that lost Hillary the election was the right's successful campaign to paint her as some combination Imelda Marcos, Margaret Thatcher and your garden-variety human trafficker on "Law & Order: SVU."

 

 

What IS the truth there?  Because, from my perspective, it seems like the Israeli/Palestine situation is more of a "both sides" thing than something like what happened in Charlottesville ever will be.  But, I'm not as bright on int'l politics as I'd like to be, so maybe I've got the whole thing wrong?

Edited October 1, 2018 by Khan

[Juliajms]

It's pretty hard to get to the truth. There is a hell of a lot of lying going on in the press by both sides, that much I'm sure of. There is a lot of cherry picking done in the reporting that goes on, I'm sure of that too.  I think you really have to do a lot of reading and make up your own mind about the situation, if you really care enough to do that. To me it seems like one of the world's truly unsolvable issues.

[JaneAusten]

Yes Al Jazeera does report on the Palestinian/Israeli crisis. No US media outlet or press outlet do in a way that does not show bias. It's always slanted toward the Israeli POV. With that, it's become very hard for me to empathize with Israel at this point. Netanyahu is an authoritarian bully, but what's happened in Israel in more recent years is the same extreme right influence and messages of Nationalism we are seeing. And now there is state sanctioned segregation though the passage of that Nation-State law which basically violates Israel's own Declaration of Independence.

 

I'm not insensitive to Israel's history and the existence of anti Semitism around the world and specifically the hatred for Jews in the Arab world, but I expected more from Israel than this.

[DRW50]

This is the type of thing going on every day that we almost never hear about, and is just going to have such disastrous long-term consequences.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

It says "Page Not Found" when I clicked the link.  I think I might know what the article is about.

 

 

I haven't read this yet but I'm posting it here first as a marker and for anyone else who might want to read.

 

[DRW50]

Sorry about that. Here's another version.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html

 

I read that if Democrats win the House, there's a good chance most of Trump's NAFTA stuff won't go through anyway. 

 

(and of course if the Democrats do let it go through you will get a lot of "they're selling out to their corporate beholders") 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Thanks, it works.

 

Just this morning, I did read about the Trump administration's push to loosen restrictions on mercury.  Man, these Trumpists really don't give two sh*ts about our health, do they?  They really want to make the air unfit for human consumption.

[Khan]

 

In their minds, it's killing off all the right people.

 

It's moments like these when I am glad for the strong sense of faith that both my parents instilled in me as a child.  I couldn't possibly live in this country, with the way things are now, without knowing there IS a God or relying upon Him to see me and my loved ones through.

Edited October 1, 2018 by Khan