***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[leavemeglazzies]

Anyone else happy that our PRESIDENT ELECT won't wear a mask. He is a HANDSOME guy so anything that would distract from his natural beauty is not welcome.

He's already wearing a mask though:

 

[rexanglorum]

does the response to this pandemic impact anyone´s views on the role of the State at large?

I´ve always viewed it in a management role--like, this is pretty much The Thing It Is For--and it´s failing bigly.

private enterprise/citizens are doing more than national-level organizations to assist on the ground. all bad.

I´m no libertarian, otherwise you´d have some Jeff Bezos calling the shots on Planet Earth, but still...

from where does the State´s authority arise if not from the obligation to ensure the protection of its subjects?

You’re still right to apply the theory of the social contract, the big caveat to the social contract is that different groups enjoy vastly different degrees of protect from the state. With that caveat in mind, the underwhelming response by the American State is entirely unsurprising. Capital and owners of capital get top priority then the professional-managerial class gets protection by being able to do remote work or raid their 401k thus forgoing an income and thus being able to self quarantine. Lower on the hierarchy are frontline workers who have little no wealth and must keep working and must interact with the public and risk death. At the very bottom are the homeless and prisoners.

The leviathan is protecting the people whom it believes matters and sacrifices and torments the masses. This crisis has only amplified this tendency.

Now what has surprised me is just how callous the American state has been. Two weeks ago, we all talking about how big the temporary UBI and rent freeze would be. Then, a few days later, it turns out that a million souls will be sacrificed to make “line go up.” I suspect that capital regained its confidence and told its servants in government to deliberately withhold any serious financial relief in order to compel the working class to return to work even in the midst of a pandemic. That was unexpected and revealed, to me, just how powerful capital’s interests are in shaping policy even during something extraordinary.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[dwalk31]

Barr to speed releases at federal prisons hard hit by virus

Barr to speed releases at federal prisons hard hit by virus

Attorney general exercises new authority to move inmates to home confinement due to emergency.

www.politico.com

 

[IATT]

Barr to speed releases at federal prisons hard hit by virus

Barr to speed releases at federal prisons hard hit by virus

Attorney general exercises new authority to move inmates to home confinement due to emergency.

www.politico.com

 

[IATT]

 

[AEA18]

 

[RIP sleazyy]

 

[Belgium]

Horowitz is the DOJ Inspector General. He's also chairman of the Council of Inspectors General.
Horowitz and ~70 other signatories rebuked the Barr DOJ's OLC opinion that allowed ICIG Atkinson's independent determination to be overruled. The Inspectors General warned that the memo is not supported by law and crippled the independence of the Inspector General system, as well as the whistleblower system as a whole.

 

[KHUFU]

If Kushner continues his appearances at the press conferences, I am expecting him to pull back his skin, then revealing that he is indeed the Red Skull.

 

[Belgium]

Deutsche Bank is currently facing a federal criminal investigation.

 

[Sharpshoeter13]

If Kushner continues his appearances at the press conferences, I am expecting him to pull back his skin, then revealing that he is indeed the Red Skull.

or Ebony Maw

 

[Present]

There is hypocrisy when someone is trying to dismiss America's buffoonery, while ****ting on another country.

People like me, dacomeup , don't do that. We are not outchea preaching American exceptionalism. We are trying to say the way you presented the topic is more complex than that.

Someone can have issues with the dirt America has done, and have issue with the dirt the Cuban government does. There is a ton of good faith criticism to make for toward the Cuban government and other governments all over the world.

Farrakkan had a point about America's dirt.

Trump also had a point about America being "not so innocent" when he was trying to deflect from his Putin praise.

They were still both whataboutisms.

So says you and you are entitled to that opinion.

I disagree.

I'm not living in a world where hypocrisy is given a pass.

The people telling me to hate on Cuba are the same ones who been hating on me.

You rock on your side.

Imma be over here with Minister Farrakhan and Muhammad Ali and the rest of the "Whatabouts".

 

[IATT]

 

[Present]

 

[Belgium]

 

[dacomeup]

The people telling me to hate on Cuba are the same ones who been hating on me.

There's no way you ready Rusty's post.

There are actual people whose families fled from Cuba who you can listen to. No need to listen to what White Americans tell you about Cuba. Like I said, you're oversimplifying a much more complex issue right now.

You're also conflating Muhammad Ali's anti-war stance in relation to the Vietnam war with this.

 

[Belgium]

 

[RustyShackleford]

So says you and you are entitled to that opinion.

I disagree.

I'm not living in a world where hypocrisy is given a pass.

The people telling me to hate on Cuba are the same ones who been hating on me.

You rock on your side.

Imma be over here with Minister Farrakhan and Muhammad Ali and the rest of the "Whatabouts".

If this is your response, you didn't read my post.

Because you keep trying to strawman my argument. No one is giving hypocrisy a pass.

 

[Present]

There's no way you ready Rusty's post.

There are actual people whose families fled from Cuba who you can listen to. No need to listen to what White Americans tell you about Cuba. Like I said, you're oversimplifying a much more complex issue right now.

You're also conflating Muhammad Ali's anti-war stance in relation to the Vietnam war with this.

If this is your response, you didn't read my post.

Because you keep trying to strawman my argument.

My original post = Cuba sends Doctors to fight Coronavirus. Remember kids, Cuba = bad.

Who is strawmanning who here?

My standpoint is no nation is good or bad. PEOPLE are, and people are just people.

All the crap talk about Cuba and look at Cuba's response to a global pandemic vs the United States (allegedly the most powerful nation on Earth).

Hell - even China donating masks to the US.

My comment was never about the Cuban Revolution or anything else but somehow we way over here now. Maybe I touched a nerve. Who knows.

Anyway, a nation / country is MUCH more than its Government.

Again - my experiences are not to be diminished in favor of yours or anyone else's.

When the people who fled Cuba want to talk to me about the people who fled plantations right here in the US then we ready to have a conversation.

The issue is not complex or conflated at all - unless you want it to be for some reason.

 

[deleted]

or Ebony Maw

Ivory Maw

 

[plansb]

Who the **** does Jared kushner think he is? I guess since I wasn’t born with a platinum spoon and benefited from nepotism my whole existence I can’t understand.