The Politics Thread

[amybrickwallace]

He wants to run for president in 2024. What's going to be his slogan? "Because killing Florida's constituents just wasn't enough?"

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[DramatistDreamer]

With the state of the world today, I'm not even sure if I can look that far ahead.

All I can say is that voting rights protections are critical. Trump blasted the gates open for the most addled-brain individuals to believe they have a shot at the presidency. And Florida loves to tip elections in their favor. The best way to counteract that possibility is to make it as easy as possible to get as many sensible eligible voters to the polls to vote.

[amybrickwallace]

Yes. Now more than ever, your vote matters. Don't let anyone say otherwise.

[amybrickwallace]

Good!! Let's hope this keeps up.

[DramatistDreamer]

One final footnote in the fallout from the Cuomo scandal, Andrea Stewart-Cousins is set to become Lt. Governor, the first time a Black woman will be in the state's executive office.

 

In other news, provincial cities are falling so fast to the Taliban, it's almost as if the U.S. and other Western powers were never there.

 

[JaneAusten]

It makes you wonder how committed they are. The Afghan forces far outweigh the Taliban.

[amybrickwallace]

I was thinking the same thing. What a mess.

[DramatistDreamer]

In nearly two decades of U.S./Western involvement and the Soviet/Russian decade-long occupation, what passes for an Afghan government has become dependent on foreign governments just to barely function. After they leave, the country appears no better than it was before. The leaders are likely to wait for the next foreign country to come along. China perhaps? JMO but I doubt that PRC is at all interested in nation building anywhere outside of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet.

[Vee]

 

[dragonflies]

 

[JaneAusten]

Yeah I know everything you're saying is true. What it means is that the US OCCUPATION(that's what it was), really didn't change anything. I do feel for the women in particular there who had some level of autonomy yes with the occupation that will probably go back to earlier times. Who knows maybe not.  And I am with you on PRC. They won't touch it,

Edited August 12, 2021 by JaneAusten

[amybrickwallace]

That's the part that really touches me. I first heard about the plight of the Afghan women in 1997, of by all people, Mavis Leno (Jay's wife). She's been on CNN and elsewhere over the years to help these women. It would be a shame and also infuriating if all those efforts ultimately came to naught.

[Vee]

This is what I've been saying - like the Georiga runoffs, a growing drumbeat of discontent. Don't count '22 out yet. 

 

[amybrickwallace]

Those tweets remind me of a "Letter to the Editor" published just last week.

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[DramatistDreamer]

On one hand, it seems clear that the nation building that the Bush administration tried to convince everyone they were doing, clearly never happened. On the other hand, some Afghani women felt a measure of autonomy and security that they hadn't felt in generations. I likened it to Pakistan, where women once had freedoms until religious zealots came in and forced implementation of Wahhabism and much more severe forms of religious beliefs. Even with the U.S. occupation, it didn't even bring Afghan women back to the sense of freedom that they enjoyed in the 1960s, but it was better than what it had probably been in the the 90s after the Taliban kicked out the Soviets.

Once the Taliban and Al Qaeda each took over various regions, neither women in Pakistan, nor Afghanistan have been able to enjoy the full measure of the freedoms they would have enjoyed in the 1950s and 60s, U.S. or Soviet occupation or not.

Iran is similar, but they are mainly Shia, not Sunni, the particulars are somewhat different.

Edited August 12, 2021 by DramatistDreamer