The Trump Presidency | Biden Inaugurated
- Thread starter Raoul
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Caring about it and having the power to change it are a bit different. Congress will need to be altered a bit before we can see real change in America. Obstacles will need to be addressed before that can happen though due to massive gerrymandering of congressional districts, voter suppression, etc.
The Marshall Plan is a key point in history for me, because when studying it, you see countries emerge from WWII and enact the modern social democratic welfare state with the assistance of the United States.
While these countries continued to strengthen themselves, the US seemed on course to do the same, continuing the legacy of the FDR administration, desegregating, building the interstates, starting the Great Society, etc.
Failure in the Vietnam War and the ultra conservative backlash of the Reagan admin towards the stagnant 1970s completely derailed us from that course. Only now are we starting to get back on it.
It will require a generational shift to get us back on track, but the generation that got us off of it is slowly starting to melt away as age takes its toll. I think this current administration is their last gasp against the inevitable social change that is coming in the next couple of younger generations.
China & India still playing second tier football. Albeit one of them with Billionaire backing. Different yardsticks for me.
I don't want to sound like the guy that's trying to make the descriptors so unique that my point is made. In essence, America aspires to be the 'Greatest Country on Earth'. It's not even part of the conversation for a top 20.
I have zero expectation of perfection btw. It's not a case of "Look how good x, y or z is". They're fcuked up on way more levels than most developed world nations though.
China is a developing country. They don't get a pass for levels of arseholery, but they can't be judged on the same standards.
So, what you're saying is, that the US are the Newcastle United? A large following, a lot of hype, but ultimately incredibly flawed, run by an ugly, fat businessman whose practices have been widely criticised, poorly run despite the occasional glimmer of greatness, but always hugely entertaining, never rejecting an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot.
While this is true, this administration is going to set back US back considerably. Just the example of climate change is jarring enough.
I'd have just thought 'meh Twitter nutter' but quite a lot of politically knowledgeable people reckon the guy is worth listening to. Things have just become so crazy recently that it's hard to sort the mental from the credible. Louise Mensch can still go feck herself though.
I personally think China is not a developing country anymore.
I really hope so. Your optimism is admirable.
There is still a lot of abject poverty in their rural areas and the major cities are covered in smoke because of, err, industrial developments. It's certainly has a wealthy and powerful government now, but there's still a long way to go for its people.
I understand why you think that, but it is.
They're going through developed world puberty at an odd time. Fcuk loads of money, a close world view in terms of how to spend it. It's a weird, funny country.
Irrespective of that, while it's worst issues are worse than Americas, the sheer number of things America has to fix is a bigger issue in my opinion.
Also, I don't believe that China will ever have western values. You'll never have a critical mass of people in that country agreeing that "Everyone is equal". They're always going to be an Outlier. As will India. Fundamentally different.
Ultimately, if 'China is worse' is the best case in support of the US, the outlook isn't good.
As suggested above by another, maybe the tide will turn in America. The youth may grow a pair and effect some change. I hope so.
Well.. we've not been in the 2nd Division for quite a while though.
Not if they keep shooting themselves in the foot. The Paris withdrawal can't take place until after the 2018 and 2020 elections. Might be a moot point.
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I think its gone to a point where they just dont give a feck anymore
Thanks both of you.
Farcical...
To be fair, I don't have any social media accounts of any sort so it's less of an issue for me.
I'd also only take precautions with the phone so they didn't search my wallet for Acid.
I'm perhaps not the best person to ask.
They'll just intentionally try to ignore the agreement though. But then that'll be undercut by the number of states and cities currently planning to follow the guidelines.
Exactly. Federalism at its finest.
3 major (for us at least) cities in Soutb Carolina have even stated their intent to stick to the Paris Agreement.
Oliver Stone is out of his fecking mind.
I think its gone to a point where they just dont give a feck anymore
They know full well they can get away with it.
Oliver Stone is out of his fecking mind.
Putin probably wined and dined him, gave him complete unfettered access to himself, Snowden etc, and now Stone thinks he's a great guy.
Stones comments are not that bonkers to be fair. They were trying to pin him down on something inflammatory. The best they got was;
"I don't know. You tell me. He seems to be a guy that cares about Russia"
Stone is a bit off the wall at times but I don't strongly oppose anything here. He's a film maker, not a head of state or person in any position of office.
Or maybe they wanted to get a sense of Stone's own views on Putin to get a sense of why he asked the questions he did. Yucking it up with an autocrat rather than challenging him on his well known human rights violations ranging from murdering journalists, assaasinating opponents, and clamping down on LGBT rights.
As Stone said himself, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Stone is a filmmaker and not a politician. Stone is trying to make a documentary and can only do so by staying in his good books.
Cult of personality.
Knew this would happen sooner or later. Wouldn't be surprised if Drumpf coordinated this with Rodman.
If he's colluded with Dennis Rodman to open up a dialogue with Kim Jong Un then I don't know if I'd laugh or cry.
The racists are gonna be confused as feck about this one
He can't be serious, I mean come on, they can't right?
I'm sure Trump would like to but it would just result in Congress assigning an independent consul at which point Trump wouldn't be able to stop it.
Would they though? The Republicans would double down surely and that's it all gone?
No, there would likely be intense outrage among at least half the Republicans so there would be enough votes to get an independent counsel. Trump is probably dumb enough to think that simply firing Mueller would make the investigation go away when all it would do is galvanize Republicans against him since this would more or less be a dictator move.
As an econ guy, I have to just add weight (so to speak) to the stagflation of the 70s. Politics ties into economics, and economics ties into politics, but I'm not a materialist (in the marxist sense) to think that they're one and the same (and especially that economics is the leader of the game). Vietnam and conservatism happened because they happened, and have their share of the events of the late 70s and 80s.
But in and of itself, the stagflation of the 70s was a catalyst for major change in macroeconomic theory. Friedman's monetary theory and neoclassical economics in general came to the fore as an answer to the issues of the day. And what's "worse" from the perspective of the left is that in the late 1980s and 1990s the model worked to drive low unemployment rates and solid economic growth, which just solidified its status as "the playbook".
I'd also point to the fact that indeed, while the US generally maintains a smaller welfare state than nearly any other developed nation, most of them did face issues in the same time period and most also took liberalizing measures to some extent. So I wouldn't say the US was on a similar path and then took a deviation all on its own.
I'll leave it at that, otherwise this topic and its adjacencies are ones we could talk about for days. And I feel worthless when thinking about history, economic theory and such these days, then looking at the man sleeping at 1600 Penn Ave.
It's usually the badly photoshopped floating heads and outdatedly fronted gibberish superimposed over random stock footage that does it for me... but what do I know?
I joined a David Icke forum for "research" on a writing project once, and all I took away from it was how bad conspiracy loons are at graphic design. Though tbf his effort has admirably avoided the textbook cliches of 'glowing red evil eyes', 'unnecessarily oversaturated Matrix greenness', and 'Pyramids'... Conspiracy loons fecking love their pyramids.
The genral unhinged aesthetic gives me pause. But the lack of pyramids is encouraging.
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