General US Politics

[Slumber]

14 minutes ago, Shoblongoo said:

Picture of the suspects van, now being made public:



We may never know what motivated these senseless crimes. 

...I mean lets not jump to any conclusions on this guys ideology or influences...

"He loves soccer! He's a Eurotrash, commie-sympathizing liberal!"

- Fox News, probably

Edited October 26, 2018 by Slumber

[Tryhard]

the next time any conservative gets any sort of violence or threat levied against them and goes public with it, i'm going to conclude that it is obviously a conspiracy for attention. 'tis only fair.

[XRay]

4 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Picture of the suspects van, now being made public:

Looks kind of pretty from distance. Reminds me of ice cream trucks that drives around my neighborhood from time to time.

4 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

We may never know what motivated these senseless crimes. 

The way I imagined it, his obsession with Trump reminds me of reading about how some idols in Japan have to get restraining orders against some of their more obnoxious obsessed fans, except in this case, Trump's fan is being obnoxious against Trump's rivals.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Trump's response when asked if he could tone his rhetoric down after it's been made clear the MAGAbomber was a fan of his

[Tryhard]

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/10/27/heavy-police-presence-near-synagogue-in-squirrel-hill/

Police sources tell Sheehan the gunman walked into the building and yelled, “All Jews must die.” Sheehan’s sources confirmed that eight people were dead.

[Slumber]

B u t  i t ' s  l i b e r a l s  w h o  a r e  v i o l e n t  a n d  r a d i c a l.

[Moblin Major General]

35 minutes ago, Slumber said:

B u t  i t ' s  l i b e r a l s  w h o  a r e  v i o l e n t  a n d  r a d i c a l.

Please be respectful. Even Trump wants to fry this guy, and that's saying something. It may be true, but this isn't the time to do something like this.

[Slumber]

2 hours ago, Hylian Air Force said:

Please be respectful. Even Trump wants to fry this guy, and that's saying something. It may be true, but this isn't the time to do something like this.

Look, I'll stop being disrespectful when the conservative narrative stops being "The liberals are unhinged and dangerous", and/or when conservatives stop committing the vast majority of domestic terrorism. The former is almost certainly encouraging the latter.

When a dude who drives a Trump shrine mails bombs to democratic politicians(Which includes 2 former presidents, a former presidential nominee), democratic moguls, and liberal Hollywood actors AND a dude who frequents right-wing social media with anti-Semitic rhetoric shoots up a synagogue in the same week? Just as midterms are coming up and right wing media is amping up its "The democrats need to be stopped" narrative? What in the holy fuck is there to be respectful about?

And then the president continues to incite violence after the bombs and claim the answer is more guns after the shooting?

People are dying because of this nonsense. Don't give me the "Now's not the time" bullshit. I'll mock the people who are influencing this as I please.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Slumber

[Dr. Tarrasque]

52 minutes ago, Hylian Air Force said:

Please be respectful. Even Trump wants to fry this guy, and that's saying something. It may be true, but this isn't the time to do something like this.

Tell that to the rabbi who called out politicians about their response to such incidents back in July. Tell it to gun owners who are pushing for gun control legislation. Tell it to the survivors of the Parkland shooting and all the school shootings of this year who are seeing the inaction from the party in control of the government that is instead using its resources to try and label non-violent protesters as the violent mob while enabling the President's rhetoric that has provingly led to violence.

The current ruling party isn't looking to solve any of these problems, they're looking to perpetuate their self-serving bribery system, all the common people have is hope that they're voted out in the midterms but even that's not certain as these assholes are ceasing every opportunity they get to obstruct political challengers looking to come in and do something about this via voter suppression and misinformation. The investigation into Antifa was using taxpayer money and was done to try and support GOP talking points yet where's such action against white nationalists and the KKK?

All that can be done as of late (without resorting to terrorism or a revolution/war) is to sit back and see if America holds true to its values or if it's a country that will sink under the misinformation of a party desperate to remain in power. 

[Phoenix Wright]

2 hours ago, Hylian Air Force said:

Please be respectful. Even Trump wants to fry this guy, and that's saying something. It may be true, but this isn't the time to do something like this.

is it? is that really saying something? is saying a man belongs in prison for mailing bombs to political opponents of your enemies really something to be applauded in your mind?

do not lower your standards of morality because it's trump. demand better. fuck that guy, fuck trump, and fuck any politician that tries to vilify the left in light of this. this is absolutely insane. 

[Res]

4 hours ago, Hylian Air Force said:

Please be respectful. Even Trump wants to fry this guy, and that's saying something. It may be true, but this isn't the time to do something like this.

You haven’t posted in this topic in weeks. The country has bomb threats and 11 Jewish people murdered and numerous other acts of violence committed after a president has made dozens of speeches that refuse to outright condemn the violence - he even not-so-subtly victim-blamed in the speech after the bomber was arrested (as well as turning the attention back on himself!) - and that’s the time you decide to march in to tell left-leaning posters here to ‘be respectful’. Exactly what respect has been earned? Your comment epitomizes the very problem with Republicans right now.

And I’m generalizing and saying ‘Republicans’ because I’ve been reading a lot of comments over the past few days on news articles and the like and I have not seen a single, outright condemnation of the violence from a Republican. I have seen hundreds of comments implying that it’s all a conspiracy or that it is somehow deserved and so yes, this is a party-wide problem right now.

It’s mind boggling how millions of people are reacting to this. 

1 hour ago, Phoenix Wright said:

this is absolutely insane. 

It really is. I’ve actually been shaking with disbelief at how people can absorb all of this information and still think they have a moral high ground. 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Res

[Dr. Tarrasque]

I love that this tweet was captured before it got deleted. She's been complaining about being called a "Token black" because she's pushing conservative propaganda when the "norm is for blacks to be Democrats". No, you stupid fuck, you're either a "Token Black" because you're taking money to spread conservative propaganda and they want to use you to say "we have blacks on our side!"  or you're a useful idiot if you sincerely believe that police brutality is a myth and undermine all the racial profiling that's been going on this year.

It doesn't matter where you look, conservative commentators in the US will sooner attack the other side and will even resort to conspiracy theories before attacking the failings of their own side. They use talking points to try to appeal to the common people while ignoring the very damaging actions the politicians on their side are doing to keep screwing the entire population. Credit to Shapiro for at least that much but it's not enough when he, Kirk and Owens go back to pushing propaganda.

When Republicans start doing more of this, that's when they should be calling for civility. Until then, they're smarter in silence.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[Time the Crestfallen]

1 hour ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

No, you stupid fuck, you're either a "Token Black" because you're taking money to spread conservative propaganda and they want to use you to say "we have blacks on our side!"  or you're a useful idiot if you sincerely believe that police brutality is a myth and undermine all the racial profiling that's been going on this year.

A mix of both in my opinion. They legitimately believe the opinions they spread, or at least they believe most of them. Although, they're generally not going to criticise actions on their own side or concede that the left in general is right about some things because that would potentially compromise their grift/Koch brothers funding. I mean last I checked, Jordan Peterson (for example) makes more than $1m per year off of patreon alone, you think he's gonna do anything that might compromise that gravy train?

Edited October 28, 2018 by Time the Crestfallen

[Pixelman]

1 hour ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

I love that this tweet was captured before it got deleted. She's been complaining about being called a "Token black" because she's pushing conservative propaganda when the "norm is for blacks to be Republicans". No, you stupid fuck, you're either a "Token Black" because you're taking money to spread conservative propaganda and they want to use you to say "we have blacks on our side!"  or you're a useful idiot if you sincerely believe that police brutality is a myth and undermine all the racial profiling that's been going on this year.

It doesn't matter where you look, conservative commentators in the US will sooner attack the other side and will even resort to conspiracy theories before attacking the failings of their own side. They use talking points to try to appeal to the common people while ignoring the very damaging actions the politicians on their side are doing to keep screwing the entire population. Credit to Shapiro for at least that much but it's not enough when he, Kirk and Owens go back to pushing propaganda.

When Republicans start doing more of this, that's when they should be calling for civility. Until them, they're smarter in silence.

Ugh, I really fucking hate Candace Owens. She's such a puppet.

No one should give her the time of day. Seriously.

[Rukina]

I'm happy that law enforcement was able to track the bomber down so quickly.  These Trump fanatics are getting bold.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

One of the victims in the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting was a Holocaust survivor. 

Unsurprisingly, Fox News continues to scramble to attack the left, defend Trump and complain about politicization  of the bombs.

[Moblin Major General]

41 minutes ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

One of the victims in the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting was a Holocaust survivor. 

Sad. The same rhetoric that killed their family should never have killed them. Now we have more reason to hate the shooter.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

2 hours ago, Hylian Air Force said:

Sad. The same rhetoric that killed their family should never have killed them. Now we have more reason to hate the shooter.

Unless the guy ends up getting acquitted and doesn't serve lifetime in jail or face the death penalty, that's rather pointless.

I think the fact that a Holocaust survivor was shot down in the US should speak to the entire country, given how the US loves to tout its values and how it's supposed to be the land of "Freedom, Liberty and Justice". It should speak specially to the right whose president has been fostering all this hatred and continues to sell that his base. It definitely speaks to the GOP as they've been terrified to find that Nazis and White Supremacists are running as Republicans. They're reaping what they've sowed when they gave the nomination to Trump and enabled these Nazis to feel welcomed into their party and the outcome that they deserve is the collapse of their party followed by the Impeachment of Trump and Pence. The "Stupid Party", as conservatives themselves have called them, has got to go.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Dr. Tarrasque

[Etrurian emperor]

8 minutes ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

They're reaping what they've sowed when they gave the nomination to Trump and enabled these Nazis to feel welcomed into their party and the outcome that they deserve is the collapse of their party followed by the Impeachment of Trump and Pence. The "Stupid Party", as conservatives themselves have called them, has got to go.

The problem with that is that it likely won't go that way. The moral decline of the Republican party isn't as widely known as it should, in the sense that a lot of Republicans don't even consider there to be any decline at all. Trumps approval ratings under Republicans are startlingly high. 

And impeachment is probably a dream because it rests on the active participation of Republicans that have sold their soul to Trump. 

[Pixelman]

As expected, Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil's presidential election  55.2% to 44.8%

What a time to believe alive

[Time the Crestfallen]

1 hour ago, Pixelman said:

As expected, Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil's presidential election  55.2% to 44.8%

What a time to believe alive

It's stuff like this that makes me want to have another attempt at suicide.

Anyway, I know he's a complete tyre-fire in terms of policy but I'm not all that well informed on Brazilian politics, so how much difficulty is he gonna have implementing all of his shit? I'd like to think it won't be easy, but it's kind of hard to be optimistic about this situation.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Time the Crestfallen

[Pixelman]

1 hour ago, Time the Crestfallen said:

It's stuff like this that makes me want to have another attempt at suicide.

Anyway, I know he's a complete tyre-fire in terms of policy but I'm not all that well informed on Brazilian politics, so how much difficulty is he gonna have implementing all of his shit? I'd like to think it won't be easy, but it's kind of hard to be optimistic about this situation.

For what it's worth I'm not Brazilian nor do I live in Brazil

Considering what he has said about the Brazilian Congress in the past, I don't think it'll exist much longer under his presidency, which makes me believe that what he proposes to do will be, uh... extremely easy to implement.

[Etrurian emperor]

21 hours ago, Pixelman said:

As expected, Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil's presidential election  55.2% to 44.8%

What a time to believe alive

Its extremely weird. At least with Trump voters you could argue that they thought trump too much of a cartoon character to do actual harm, Farage is pseudo charming and Erdogan for all his many, many flaws is at least vaguely competent. 

But Bolsonaro? He actually said he wants to launch a coup, he actually said he'd prefer people(namely his son!) being dead instead of being gay and he's actually said he's a fan of torture and the old dictatorship. Those aren't media statements or jokes taken out of contexts but actual quotes he actually said. With this in mind there isn't a single argument that points to him not acting out of sheer malice and lust for power yet for some reason his voters don't seem to have taken the hint. 

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Why is it that surprising? Politics of division, hatred and fear can and have worked in a democracy and we saw it bring light to the Trump presidency. If people are frustrated enough about the status quo, they can be manipulated into voting poorly as anger and fear are effective motivators and if there's enough of it, what they say can fall on death ears. You have people admitting they voted for Trump and expected him to become more presidential and responsible after he was elected.

In the US, our most successful 3rd party candidate was George Wallace, read about him and let that fact sink in. We need to stop acting like it's impossible for people who embody the worst in us to rise to power and screw up our nation. It's not impossible, we have an example of it in the White House right now and if that anonymous op-ed has truth in it, we have confirmation that we'd be at war and worse off right now if not for the fact that incompetence and laziness are features in Trump's presidency.

[XRay]

On 10/28/2018 at 4:57 PM, Pixelman said:

As expected, Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazil's presidential election  55.2% to 44.8%

What a time to believe alive

Ugh... I just saw that on the headlines too.

Macron's election gave us all hope a year ago, and I wish that hope continues to shine during the mid terms, but I do not think it is enough. If Republicans remain in control of the House, I think that will just snowball further and propel right wing populists into more positions of power for the rest of the world.

I am kind of skeptical of the Blue Wave and I personally do not see it; even in California, it is very difficult to get non-voters, especially minorities, to vote. Even with the trade war and all the shit that is going on, non-voters just do not give a fuck even when it is affecting them. Sometimes, it makes me wonder why I should give a fuck about them when they do not even take the time to stand up for themselves.