The American Politics Thread!

[TeamAudra]

Anyone care to take a stab at this? Was it a typical Biden brain freeze moment? Foot in the mouth?
 

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by TeamAudra

[Someone648]

16 hours ago, TeamAudra said:

Anyone care to take a stab at this? Was it a typical Biden brain freeze moment? Foot in the mouth?
 

 

Let's be real, that's (tragically) probably the most coherent he sounded that whole day.  

 

I don't think my enthusiasm will ever reach a lower level than when I inevitably cast my vote for Joe in November.

Edited June 28, 2020 by Someone648

[sneaky]

17 hours ago, TeamAudra said:

Anyone care to take a stab at this? Was it a typical Biden brain freeze moment? Foot in the mouth?
 

What was wrong with that? He was just talking about the negative stereotypes of gays not really living and only caring about sex.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Someone648 said:

Let's be real, that's (tragically) probably the most coherent he sounded that whole day.  

 

I don't think my enthusiasm will ever reach a lower level than when I inevitably cast my vote for Joe in November.

LOL! I want to disagree with this, but I can't. 

[TeamAudra]

Here’s something I didn’t know about Joe, and I’ll bet you didn’t either. 
 

 

No, that wasn’t a brain freeze, he really did fight against integration. 
 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/joe-biden-didn-t-just-compromise-segregationists-he-fought-their-n1021626

[TeamAudra]

21 minutes ago, Drew said:

LOL! I want to disagree with this, but I can't. 

Now you know how I felt last time, and still do! I can’t vote for Trump. I guess it’s 3rd party again, or nothing. I’ll still vote in the other races, though. There’s no way in Hell I’d vote for Biden. 

[mercfan3]

On 6/27/2020 at 7:37 PM, TeamAudra said:

You’re well aware there’s a Constitutional argument against statehood for DC. If DC was predominantly conservative, you and all other Democrats would absolutely be opposed. 

No, I don’t believe in vote suppression. 
 

Re: Biden..That was what Kamala’s “moment” at the debate was about.

 

Also, part of the reason why I was surprised black voters didn’t leave Biden for Harris/Booker/Castro/Beto/Gillibrand (senators with a much better record on race). 
 

I think though, generally speaking..the Black community tends to “go with the evil you know.” Biden has some serious missteps on race, but he also has some positives. Same reason there is a loyalty to Bill (who does have some significantly greater positives)..young people and social media has brought about a cancel culture that older black voters just don’t abide by. 

This sort of press on Biden is interesting. It’s not going to work on black voters (the alternative is Trump..). What it might work in is younger voters. Who won’t vote for Trump - but might also stay home. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by mercfan3

[Guest]

John Roberts is a very interesting justice. Sided with the liberal part of court on the last three major rulings. 

[sneaky]

3 hours ago, Drew said:

John Roberts is a very interesting justice. Sided with the liberal part of court on the last three major rulings. 

I think it speaks to how far right Republicans actually are. Vast majority of the time when a politician has left a party it has been the Republican party. This even started before Trump. American Republicans would be extremists in most other countries. 

[TeamAudra]

 

 

[mercfan3]

The Bush family’s super pac money is going to go to Biden.

 

Well damn.

[Guest]

How does everyone feel about the gun-toting "Karen's" of late?

[sneaky]

1 hour ago, Drew said:

How does everyone feel about the gun-toting "Karen's" of late?

From what I've seen its a lot of upper middle class white women (and some men too). I feel like money and success makes people more fearful because they have more to be taken. Trump's rhetoric doesn't help but I think most of them would have been that way without Trump.

 

Its crazy how fast just a little bit of money and success changes some people. I live in a working class neighborhood in a largely working class city. I actually know someone from Columbia in a prestigious part of town who moved to America as a teen because of crime issues. He actually feels my neighborhood is sketchy even in light of what he experienced as a kid.

[TeamAudra]

 

[mercfan3]

The police have had a higher rate of kills than all of the gangs in the country put together throughout the riots. Maybe they are. 

[bills_guy]

On 6/27/2020 at 8:34 PM, TeamAudra said:

Anyone care to take a stab at this? Was it a typical Biden brain freeze moment? Foot in the mouth?
 

 

He was saying that the conversation surrounding gay issues and gay rights issues revolved around sex and promiscuous stereotypes about them.

 

On 6/28/2020 at 2:20 PM, TeamAudra said:

Here’s something I didn’t know about Joe, and I’ll bet you didn’t either. 
 

 

No, that wasn’t a brain freeze, he really did fight against integration. 
 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/joe-biden-didn-t-just-compromise-segregationists-he-fought-their-n1021626

I think everyone who paid any attention in the primaries knew about this.  Kamala Harris attacked him for his relationships with segregationists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's pretty mind-boggling that Trump has failed so hard as president that a candidate as terrible as Biden is even has the potential for a landslide, let alone a simple victory.  Although it was pretty obvious from the get-go that Trump would fail.

[bills_guy]

On 7/8/2020 at 3:53 PM, TeamAudra said:

 

Civilians aren't going around threatening the lives of black people and treating them immediately as threats based upon their race.  Cops are.  Gun crime is a completely separate unrelated issue.  Completely asinine to conflate the two.

Edited July 10, 2020 by bills_guy
placed reply in quote

[TeamAudra]

1 hour ago, bills_guy said:

Civilians aren't going around threatening the lives of black people and treating them immediately as threats based upon their race.  Cops are.  Gun crime is a completely separate unrelated issue.  Completely asinine to conflate the two.

Of course, those are predominantly black lives too, including children as young as 3 years old getting shot dead, but that’s not as interesting to the media and BLM, who have clear agendas. I’ll remind again, all of these cities  are run by Democrats. The mayors of these cities are also responsible for the actions of the various police departments.

[mercfan3]

22 hours ago, TeamAudra said:

Of course, those are predominantly black lives too, including children as young as 3 years old getting shot dead, but that’s not as interesting to the media and BLM, who have clear agendas. I’ll remind again, all of these cities  are run by Democrats. The mayors of these cities are also responsible for the actions of the various police departments.

 

1. Being Democrat does not mean your policies are anti-racist. Again, this was one of my major criticisms of Sanders and Warren and that entire wing of the party. But it extends beyond that too. Look at the way Cuomo and DeBlasio handle NYPD.

 

2. A majority of deaths in this country are white on white murder. What's your point? Are you seriously trying to say that the media is biased in favor of black people? Because that's laughable. Are you trying to change the topic? Because that's a great strategy that leads to continued oppression. 

 

3. Interestingly, while you were taking the strawman argument of "Defund the Police," the actual stance of BLM in their "defund the police" strategy is to use some of the resources allocated to the police to give resources to said cities.  As I said, the inner city kids I work with pretty much grow up in environments akin to a child soldier. (In liberal Massachusetts) No excuse for that in this country. 

 

4. And regardless of all of this, systemic racism in the criminal justice system is a problem. Again, throughout the time of the protests..all street gangs in America averaged 5.4 murders per day, while the police averaged 6 murders per day. (And the ratio is actually worse when you take into account number of police officers verses number of gang members) It's a problem. It's not the only problem in the criminal justice system - there is a lot of systemic racism and corruption. And it isn't fair that cops take the brunt of the blame. They're the front men holding up the rules - they didn't write them. But the violence against people of color is a significant problem. m

[TeamAudra]

“Strawman argument.” I know this is the Democrat talking point, since you all know it’s very unpopular. It probably won’t happen, because the upper middle class and wealthy liberals of Minneapolis (they don’t care what the poor think, they’d just shove whatever they want down their throats) are not on board with this craziness, but this is not just about reducing the police budget. They wouldn’t even succeed in getting the simple budget cuts you’re talking about, because they tried that last year. 

 

As for the rest of your argument, I suspect a lot of your claims wouldn’t survive a thorough fact check, but since only 5-10 people will likely read this, I’m not going to bother. 
 

Can  you tell me how much of the money raised by BLM over the last several weeks will actually go to directly support inner city black people? Will they help them rebuild their businesses and neighborhoods? Where does it go? I honestly don’t know, but I thought you might. I view them as a political organization pushing a Marxist agenda, while hiding behind a catchy slogan. A lot of well intentioned people are being fooled badly by this. 
 

——

Plan advances to allow dismantling Minneapolis Police Dept.

The Minneapolis City Council has unanimously advanced a plan that could one day do away with the city’s police department, following unrest over the killing of George Floyd

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/minneapolis-council-puts-plan-abolish-police-motion-71469336

Edited July 11, 2020 by TeamAudra

[mercfan3]

My impression of Black Lives Matter is that it is made up of a bunch of well intentioned young people. They've done a really good job at shedding light on major issues in the criminal justice system, but they are lacking in policy solutions and..because they are young..don't quite understand the past. And that's why you see propaganda like "defund the police" that really - ends up needing to be explained..and lines get blurred..etc.. If they had simply used the phrase "Demilitarize the police"..you'd see a lot more buy in and a lot less polarization..and it could have meant the same thing. 

 

At the moment, it appears BLM donations are going into fundraising and civic engagement - more than anything. That's not to say there aren't people trying to make money off of it. Shaun King is a prime example. Although, at this point, I think twitter has called him out enough where people won't donate to him. But he was one scam after another. 

 

That doesn't matter though. It's not BLM's job to allocate resources to inner cities. It's the government's. 

Edited July 12, 2020 by mercfan3

[TeamAudra]

35 minutes ago, mercfan3 said:

My impression of Black Lives Matter is that it is made up of a bunch of well intentioned young people. They've done a really good job at shedding light on major issues in the criminal justice system, but they are lacking in policy solutions and..because they are young..don't quite understand the past. And that's why you see propaganda like "defund the police" that really - ends up needing to be explained..and lines get blurred..etc.. If they had simply used the phrase "Demilitarize the police"..you'd see a lot more buy in and a lot less polarization..and it could have meant the same thing. 

 

At the moment, it appears BLM donations are going into fundraising and civic engagement - more than anything. That's not to say there aren't people trying to make money off of it. Shaun King is a prime example. Although, at this point, I think twitter has called him out enough where people won't donate to him. But he was one scam after another. 

 

That doesn't matter though. It's not BLM's job to allocate resources to inner cities. It's the government's. 

I just want them to acknowledge the innocent black lives who get caught in the cross fire, like the 3 year old I already mentioned, plus the 7 and 8 year olds who also got killed in the last week of violence. I guess there’s no money in that, so it leaves the impression that some black lives matter more than others. I think a large chunk of the money gets funneled to Democrat candidates, tbh. 
 

I’m proud of you for acknowledging the scams. Yay! 
 

Like I said before, there are groups that do this on the right too. They don’t exist to form policy. It’s all about raising money, and gaining influence among their bases. 

Edited July 12, 2020 by TeamAudra

[mercfan3]

If there is money going to Democratic candidates - it's not the top Democratic candidates. Maybe some of the social justice Dems - but BLM has protested Clinton, Obama, Biden, Harris, Booker, Castro, Warren, Sanders etc...This is where, IMO, BLM can get a little ahead of themselves - or quite frankly - just be wrong. Cuomo and DeBlasio absolutely deserve the protesting. Harris didn't. Regardless, if they do end up contributing to a candidate, they aren't a superpac - so we'll know. That current social media theory - as - for the time - been debunked. https://www.statesman.com/news/20200616/fact-check-do-donations-to-black-lives-matter-go-to-lsquodemocrat-super-pacrsquo

 

I don't that having a political group specializing in the systemic oppression of Black people in the criminal justice system  gives the impression that some Black Lives matter more than others. Why does BLM? have to be a catch all for every inch of oppression that Black people face in this country? IMO, they have been pretty clear on what they are protesting. You wouldn't expect a pro-life organization to protest on behalf of gun rights, would you? Why does BLM have to deal with all of the issues? 

 

And despite your impression - I am well aware of issues on the left. I'm just pragmatic. We have two choices in this country - and so long as the electoral college stands, that isn't changing. I have my issues with the Democratic party. I have my issues with people who self identify as liberal or progressive. I'll call out what I think is important to call out. (Like, for instance, the populism edge that is attempting a takeover)..but I'll defend what should be defended too. (And in particular, that tends to be the criticisms of the Obama/Clinton side of the party. And quite frankly, just as much BS criticisms come from leftists as they do Republicans or conservatives.) 

Edited July 12, 2020 by mercfan3

[TeamAudra]

43 minutes ago, mercfan3 said:

If there is money going to Democratic candidates - it's not the top Democratic candidates. Maybe some of the social justice Dems - but BLM has protested Clinton, Obama, Biden, Harris, Booker, Castro, Warren, Sanders etc...This is where, IMO, BLM can get a little ahead of themselves - or quite frankly - just be wrong. Cuomo and DeBlasio absolutely deserve the protesting. Harris didn't. Regardless, if they do end up contributing to a candidate, they aren't a superpac - so we'll know. That current social media theory - as - for the time - been debunked. https://www.statesman.com/news/20200616/fact-check-do-donations-to-black-lives-matter-go-to-lsquodemocrat-super-pacrsquo

 

I don't that having a political group specializing in the systemic oppression of Black people in the criminal justice system  gives the impression that some Black Lives matter more than others. Why does BLM? have to be a catch all for every inch of oppression that Black people face in this country? IMO, they have been pretty clear on what they are protesting. You wouldn't expect a pro-life organization to protest on behalf of gun rights, would you? Why does BLM have to deal with all of the issues? 

 

And despite your impression - I am well aware of issues on the left. I'm just pragmatic. We have two choices in this country - and so long as the electoral college stands, that isn't changing. I have my issues with the Democratic party. I have my issues with people who self identify as liberal or progressive. I'll call out what I think is important to call out. (Like, for instance, the populism edge that is attempting a takeover)..but I'll defend what should be defended too. (And in particular, that tends to be the criticisms of the Obama/Clinton side of the party. And quite frankly, just as much BS criticisms come from leftists as they do Republicans or conservatives.) 

Have you ever visited BLM’s website? They want to be involved in more than just criminal justice issues. I’m interpreting what I read on their site to mean the 3 year old getting shot is supposed to matter. Check out the “What Matters” and “about” sections. If they’re going to put all of that on their website, they should put their money where their mouth is. 
 

https://blacklivesmatter.com

[mercfan3]

Okay, I hadn't visited it in a while, they do seem to be expanding. (IMO..another strategic mistake - but again, I don't think it's from a bad place.) Although crime is not listed as an issue they are planning to expand too.  

 

What exactly do you mean by "putting their money where their mouth is." They are still, clearly, a political action group. Thus, their money should be spent on campaigns and legislations that support their cause...